Why I'm Considering This School Year The Opportunity Of A Lifetime.

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This year, I'm going back to teaching!

I know I've mentioned this a million times already, but I honestly can't wait to be back in the gym.

This new chapter in my teaching journey will be wildly different than any other I've experienced throughout my career. I'm in such a unique position with no lack of opportunities or possibilities in sight.

Here's what I mean:

🏡 Teaching where I live.

I'm now a part of the faculty at Kings County Academy (KCA), a public K-8 school in Kentville, Nova Scotia.

Fun fact: I live in Kentville!

Although I technically lived in the same city as my previous school, Montreal (pop. 1.78M) is such a huge city that I never felt the same kind of connection to it as I do with K-Town (pop. 6,600).

I'm getting to know my little town inside and out, and I can't wait to bring that hometown feel to the elementary physical education program I hope to build at KCA.

🚲 A foot in both worlds.

My position at KCA is part-time (50%). This is what I was hoping to land as I still have meaningful work I want to do through both ThePhysicalEducator.com and #PhysEdU.

That said, I also have another gig in my life: I've recently taken on a role within Kentville's Parks and Recreation Department as the town's Active Transportation Facilitator.

Over the past two years, I've been involved with the Parks & Rec team in a variety of ways. Through those experiences, I've come to see Parks and Recreation as a parallel universe to the one I know as a physical educator.

In a nutshell, my role as a PE teacher is to empower my students to live a life that is full of adventure. On the flip side of that coin, Parks and Recreation helps create the contexts in which those adventures take place.

As I go into this school year with a foot in both worlds, I'm excited to see what kinds of bridges I can build between these two parallel universes to create opportunities for lasting, meaningful experiences for my students.

❤️ Bringing PE home.

Lastly, I'm about to become really familiar with my son's PE teacher.

That's because I am him.

My eldest is about to begin Primary (a.k.a. kindergarten) at KCA, which means that physical education will become a part of his weekly school schedule.

In the past, I've always tried to remember that every kid that walks into my gym is someone's child. This year, that's about to get a lot easier for me to do.

And it's not just my son: most of our new friends here in Kentville are people that we've connected with through our kids, which means I'll be teaching a lot of their kids as well.

I'm feeling a healthy amount of responsibility (a.k.a kinda nervous) about being in this position, but I'm also grateful for it. I've dedicated my entire professional life to developing a sound pedagogical skillset, and I'm glad that I'll have an opportunity to use it with kids that matter the most to me (i.e. my own kids, my friend's kids, and kids in my community).

This school year feels like an opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm pumped to get it started. I'll keep you posted on how things go, what I learn, and how I'm feeling along the way!

🥳 You're awesome!

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