Building A Positive PE Culture: The Three-Year Plan

With a new school year just around the corner, this is a great time to consider the culture we are building in our PE programs.

I’ve always said that it takes three years to build a culture within a PE program:

• One year to build relationships.
• One year to sell your vision.
• One year to bring your vision to life.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these steps individually:

❤️ Year One: Building Relationships

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

When I first arrived at my previous school (St. George’s), I was so focused on proving my worth as a PE teacher that I failed to get to know my new community (and let that community get to know me).

StG’s is a private school, so I didn’t have to jump through all the public school hoops to land a permanent, full-time position. They could hire me on the spot if they thought I was worthy of being part of their faculty.

And that happened: after my first year, my 70% contract became a permanent, full-time one.

However, in my rush to prove myself, I failed to build meaningful connections with my students, their families, and the school community. This mistake ended up biting me in the butt because I didn’t build the sense of trust, compassion, and understanding that are essential to success within a school.

I didn't allow history to repeat itself when I arrived at Kings County Academy (KCA, my current school). Last school year was probably one of the weakest in my career regarding best practices, assessment, and intentional curriculum. However, it was – BY FAR – the most successful in establishing myself as a positive member of our school community. I was able to build deeper relationships with students and families than ever before because I chose to prioritize connections over curriculum.

The result is that I am going into year two at KCA with a deeper understanding of how to best serve the school, what physical literacy looks like in Kentville, and how to activate parents as champions of our PE program.

👀 Year Two: Sell The Vision

Going into my second year, I’m preparing to sell my vision for the PE program at KCA. My goal is to create a place-based program intentionally designed to support physical, health, and leisure literacy and empower students to fill their days with local adventures.

I want to make sure that my students understand the “why” behind every unit and lesson and know how the skills and concepts that we focus on in class can be applied outside of PE.

I want to work with families to invite them to participate in their children’s learning and support their ability to craft a life rich in meaningful, memorable adventures for their children.

I want to connect with my fellow faculty members and work with them to create cross-curricular learning experiences. This has the potential to enrich our students’ lives, allow us to see each other’s pedagogy, and better understand one another as educators.

🥳 Year Three: Bringing The Vision to Life.

In year three, my goal will be to bring the vision to life by consistently applying best practices that align with the kind of PE program I dream of building.

This does not mean that the journey has ended. Instead, the third year marks the beginning, as the conditions for success have now been created.

Teaching is not an exact science, and – as I’m sure you’re aware – things rarely go exactly as planned. That said, believing in this three-year plan (which I’ve gone through twice before) gives me hope that change is possible and that even the toughest situations can be improved.

I look forward to sharing my journey as I enter year two at KCA. I hope you'll stick with me as I do so, and learn from what I learn!

🥳 You're awesome!

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