Dance is a polarizing subject in the world of physical education: some teachers love to teach it, other teachers can’t even imagine themselves teaching it. Regardless of your personal comfort level with the activity, I believe dance should be a part of every student’s physical education experience. Despite it not being a part of every family’s traditions, dance is a part of our collective human experience. As a key component of many cultures, dance has been used throughout our history to share stories, celebrate as communities, and express ourselves as individuals. That said, I get it: dancing ..read more

The following post and resource were originally published on #PhysEdU: ThePhysicalEducator.com’s professional growth community for physical educators. Click here to learn more about how #PhysEdU can help you grow into the teacher you deserve to be! “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” – Seneca Without a doubt, teaching can be an anxiety-inducing profession. Not to mention how frustrating it can be at times, especially when we find ourselves feeling stuck because of said anxiety. Whether it be confronting that difficult parent, having that conversation with your challenging col ..read more

When I made the jump from teaching to full-time instructional coaching and content creation, I knew that I needed to get crystal clear in regard to the philosophy that would guide my work. Through that reflection, the idea of a Full-Stack Physical Educator was born. A Full-Stack Physical Educator is a teacher who feels empowered in their teaching, continuously cultivates their motivation, and has the grit to prioritize their health. Part of the development of this purpose was based on my own success and shortcomings as a physical educator. Throughout my career, I constantly invested in my ped ..read more

It’s time to take this show on the road! A couple of weeks ago, I had the honour of being the keynote speaker at the 2022 TAPHE Conference here in Nova Scotia. It was my first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic and – I’m not going to lie – I was nervous!  I take speaking at an event very seriously. Physical and health educators have gone through so much over the past couple of years, which has taken a toll on the amount of time, energy, and attention that they can commit to professional growth. If teachers are willing to share some those precious resources with me by att ..read more

Subscribe To The #PhysEd Show These are the show notes for my latest episode of The #PhysEd Show Podcast. Take a listen to the episode by using the player below or subscribe to the show in your favourite podcast app! Using success criteria in your teaching is a high-leverage practice that has a significant effect on student learning. By building success criteria in partnership with your students, you can help increase student ownership, motivation, and engagement. That said, how can we bring this practice into a physical education setting? What are the steps to follow and how can ..read more

Many of you know me from my teaching, resources, speaking, and social media presence. I’ve been practicing and sharing in public since 2010 and a lot of my work may be very familiar to you. What you probably don’t know me for is the instructional coaching that I do as a P.E. pedagogy coach.  Coaching teachers is where I turned my focus after stepping away from teaching in 2020. That journey started off with me having to come to terms with the fact that I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. After wiggling my way through it for the first couple of attempts, I decided to hunker down and focu ..read more

There’s no doubt that personal and social responsibility is a pillar of successful learning in physical education and the TPSR model is proven to help support the development of personally and socially responsible behaviours in a variety of settings (e.g. summer camps, after-school programs, and physical education). However, students’ commitment to TPSR-based programs seems to be affected by different factors. These include the personal characteristics of the program leaders, the features of the program itself, and the teaching strategies that are implemented in the program. The TARE (Tool for ..read more

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a few clear indicators that spring is finally on its way. Listen, I’m not trying to hate on winter. Winter is a great month that offers opportunities for being active that I simply cannot enjoy at other times of the year (well, at least not without having to travel significantly). I’ll miss taking my kids tobogganing, going snowshoeing with my family, or hitting up the local ski slopes. That being said, there is something that is just straight-up magical about spring! Despite its frequent rain showers and its mixed bag of temperatures for the first few mon ..read more

Hey everyone! Before we dive in here, I wanted to share something with you: As you’re about to find out, this blog post is pretty extensive. I originally put this content together for a workshop that I am offering. That being said, I’ve decided to share it all here with you so that you can access all of the information and ideas that I’ve packed within it. If you find value in this post, I would like to ask a favour: please consider donating to my friend Mac’s GoFundMe. As you’re about to learn, Mac played a pivotal role in helping me make growth mindset thinking a core part of my teaching. He ..read more

Tell me if you can relate to this: You’re about to teach physical education. You’ve got your whole class set up, you’ve got a great lesson plan, and you’re ready to rock and roll. Your students begin to arrive to the gymnasium when – all of a sudden – you notice that Timmy’s arm is in a cast. He comes up to you with a doctor’s note and a story that involves some sort of trampoline. He looks you in the eye and asks “what am I supposed to do today?” Your mind starts racing as you try to juggle activity modifications and your lesson’s outcomes in your head. Not to mention the fact that you’re als ..read more