January 27

I have had several new positions in the last few years and I admit, my PLN has suffered for it, especially when I moved from teaching middle years content to teaching K-3 Physical Education while working as a VP in a large elementary school.  My PLN developed out of necessity and in a very piecemeal fashion, which was both challenging and exciting.

I was transferred to a new school on the very last day of the school year.  A VP went out on sick leave and they knew they would need a replacement in the fall.  So I found out on June 30th that I would be teaching K-3 PE/Health and Grade 8 math. I had taught the math program a number of times and felt comfortable but I was sure sweating the K-3!  I spent the summer poured over the curriculum guides.  I mentioned this to a friend I play ultimate frisbee with, he’s not a teacher but after I told him he said, “My friend Stacey taught PE last year, in the United Arab Emirates.”  He passed along my email to her, and she sent me a kind message that ended: “Get this resource, it cost a fortune but was a godsend!”.  

So I looked up the resource and it was a billion dollars!  Or at least it might as well have been, it was definitely out of my price range.  But my mom had recently retired from a neighboring school division so I had her call in a favour or two and I was able to borrow the resource for a few weeks that summer.  It laid out how to create a PE program including lessons for creating gym procedures starting on day 1.  It also outlined how to structure a PE class and how to design a thematic unit.  IT WAS GOLD! And I was so excited for this new challenge.

I kept in touch with Stacey and she shared some ideas that were working in her classes and I sent her some developmental game activities that I received from an inservice.  I was loving my teaching assignment.  I loved working with the little kids who were so excited to run in the gym and use all kinds of equipment they had never seen before.  I wore it as a badge of honor that we didn’t play dodgeball in my PE classes.  I knew that I was developing a high-quality PE program where kids were becoming fit, active and “literate” in physical education.

As the year progressed I reached out to a few other resources: our PE consultant for advice on evaluation and assessment, my school librarian and I created a number of units using backward design which we shared with a few other PE teachers, our community health nurse came to do classroom presentations and I promptly copied her presentation materials for future use (with her permission of course).  So my PLN developed organically based on what I needed for my classroom at the time,but  it was definitely a one way street aside from sharing a unit or two.   It was however, a good starting point.  But then I went and got pregnant and went on maternity leave!  

In September I will return to a different school than the one I just left, to a new teaching assignment that will probably not include PE.  Such is the nature of elementary school administrative positions: my PLN may change with each year which can be frustrating at times, but as my experience has shown me it can be extremely rewarding.