Ben Landers
Ben Landers is a K-12 certified Physical Education teacher and has been teaching K-5th PE since 2007. He has completed National Board Certification in PE and also has a Masters in Education from Southern Wesleyan University and a Masters in Educational Leadership from University of South Carolina. Ben also serves as a Clinical Model Teacher for the University of South Carolina, helping to mentor future Physical Education teachers as part of their graduation requirement.
Ben started this website ThePEspecialist.com in 2014 in an effort to provide an amazing resource for teachers. He has a passion for kids and teaching quality physical education lessons that will empower students to be the best they can be. Being a PE teacher is such a great opportunity to have a positive impact on the kids that you teach, but his hope is to also impact more students through providing resources and ideas to teachers.
The reason he started this website is to share knowledge, inspire teachers, add value to the Phys Ed community and help solve some of the problems that teachers are struggling with in schools today.
This site is dedicated to helping you become a better teacher.
The site was created to help teachers save time, learn to become more effective at their craft and promote quality Physical Education in schools everywhere. It makes Ben smile to think that he might be a small part of kids all over the world falling in love with sports, exercise and fitness.
In 2016, he launched the PE Specialist Membership to provide a top notch curriculum and support resource that supports teachers in planning incredible curriculum for their students.
Ben has presented his ideas at multiple conferences in the U.S. (like this one) and online (like this one), he’s self published multiple E-books and Curriculum Guides (like this and this and these) and has been featured on a few podcasts too (Education on Fire, Shape America, The Physed Voxcast, The PE Geek and The PE Umbrella). He enjoys podcasts so much that he even started his own podcast called The PhysEd Q & A Show.
When he’s not at the public library creating PE resources, Ben likes to stay active and loves to get outside whenever possible. Aside from teaching he also has a photography and video business. When he is not teaching or shooting with a camera he enjoys going on adventures, camping, hiking, surfing and lots of other “outdoorsy stuff”.
Ben is also a big believer in the power of mentorship and serves as a Mentor, a board member and provides financial support to a local non-profit organization (Ezekiel Ministries) that empowers and equips at risk youth in the Columbia, SC area.
Teaching is great, hobbies are nice – BUT his absolute FAVORITE thing to do is spend time with his family because they are SO MUCH FUN to hang out with. He definitely married up to his beautiful wife Lauren and they have a two awesome kiddos, who are SUPER cool.
A snapshot of my PE Classroom (video edited by my School District)
A quick note from Ben:
I hope that you find this site extremely helpful and full of inspiring ideas. Although I am a “PE Specialist”, so are YOU. I am also just a very normal guy working hard to try and figure out the best way to help kids achieve their best everyday. If you have any advice, feedback or ideas – I would love to hear them. I really appreciate you spending time here and hope that you find all the content valuable. Let’s work together to bring some serious respect back to the Physical Education profession and win the hearts of students everywhere!
Have Fun and Teach On!
Ben