PHYS ED HACKS
If you missed my Phys Ed Hacks presentation you can watch the replay below.
Thanks for watching my presentation. I hope that you enjoyed it and find this page of notes from the presentation helpful. Good luck in implementing some of these strategies to help take your teaching to the next level for your students.
If you want to stay connected make sure to subscribe to the blog to get updates on new content and blogs as I put them out.
Management Hacks:
- Stopping Signal – 1,2,3 … Stop, Drop and Listen… Use Music as a signal
- Home Base Spots – Use letters and numbers on your wall to designate spots like a spreadsheet
- See a blog about my 5 favorite management hacks HERE for downloads of the next 4 Hacks (Shoe Form, Conflict Corner, Daily Self Assessment, Good Sportsmanship Code)
- No Tennis Shoes, Time Out or Injury Form – automates problems and provides parent communication
- Conflict Corner – Save yourself time and teach your kids to resolve their own conflicts
- Daily Self Assessment – Quick and easy way to self assess at the end of each lesson
- Good Sportsmanship Code – Great reminder for your kids about what’s important
- Self Timed Time Outs and Penalties – Have students time themselves when they break a rule or go to time out with a stopwatch or by counting “Mississippi’s”
- Student Roll/Attendance Management – For once a week PE use a different clipboard for each day and tape a full week schedule on each clipboard for easy access. Use codes to keep up with management.
Teaching Hacks
- Know your kids names
- Buy a yearbook and review it before school starts
- Take iPad pictures of your students with name tags on the first day and memorize them
- Play name games during the first couple of weeks
- Quick Tips
- Start directions with the phrase “When I say Go”
- Separate management/organization
- Play music when students should be moving
- Give teams 30 seconds to “Strategize” before any gameplay/activity
- Allow students to choose their own teams when appropriate
- Not by picking teams, but by quickly pairing up
- Bathroom & Water only when the music is on
- Discipline with an “Oh No” attitude
- Increase the Buy-In
- Have students repeat these phrases back to you regularly
- It’s just a game
- I will not give up
- I will do my best
- Nice Job Self
- Awwww Man… (at the end of class)
- Have students repeat these phrases back to you regularly
- Paraphrase rules for younger students (K-1st) and repeat daily at the beginning of class
- When the teacher is talking you are doing what??? (Listening)
- If you have something to say you should do what??? (Raise your hand)
Equipment Hacks
“Any problem can be solved with a little ingenuity” – MacGyver
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You can Purchase Dry Erase Slips HERE
Technology Hacks
“Remember that technology is a tool, not a toy”
– Nathan Horne
- SHOW ME APP – easily communicate instructions visually to teachers or substitutes
- Examples of Show Me’s that I have used
- Pano Your Setup – Using your phone to take a panoramic picture to include in your lessons for the following year so you can remember how you set it up
- Canned Response in Gmail
- Saves your time and allows you to use email templates quickly for responding to parent volunteers or teachers with the same information
- Tutorial on how to set it up HERE
- Plickers – an easy and quick way to assess your students with an iPad
- You can check out my post including a video of how to introduce Plickers to your students HERE.
- You can purchase pre-laminated Plickers Cards HERE – if you try and laminate your own they will sometimes not scan well because of the reflection of the light
- You can also use this Pocket Organizer to organize the cards for easy access by your students, you can see how I do it in the pictures below – students are all assigned a “Home Base Spot” which is labelled on their card, super easy.
After quickly scanning the students cards – you can tell how well you are communicating the content knowledge that you were hoping – it’s an awesome way to assess student learning (which reflects the effectiveness of your teaching). See an example of a report from an inservice session I did with our district PE Teachers in the iPad screenshot below (we had some teachers intentionally answer wrong so I could show them what the report looked like with wrong answers):
- Bluetooth Streaming – Turn that old stereo into an iPad/iPod streaming device with a bluetooth receiver. Click Here for an example. Also, for instructions on setup you can read my blog about the subject HERE.
- Put Videos and Pictures on a USB Drive
- Great to backup in case your WiFi goes down
- Never has to load or buffer – always ready to go
- Plug and play in newer TV’s and DVD Players
- This is the DVD player and USB Stick I use
- QR Codes
- Gotta refer this one to Joey Feith and Jarrod Robinson, check out their blogs and resources on the topic – lots of cool possibilities!
- Great Resource for tons of PE Technology Hacks – Check out ThePEGeek.com, Jarrod Robinson is definitely the Tech Guru in the PhysEd Community. I got to meet him recently and must say he’s an awesome guy and is doing some incredible stuff for the PE community.
I hope you enjoyed the presentation, if you have any feedback hit me up on the contact page.
Abigail Saeger says
Just looking for a specific tip- how do you do name tags to get to know all of the students’ names within the first few weeks? I’m starting at a new school and have 100’s of names to learn. Thanks!
Marcus says
Hey Abigail,
Our teachers put name tags on the Kindergarten students and on the first day we take roll call and snap a picture with our iPads.
That way we can review the students name by swiping through the pictures.
It’s a game changer for learning students names. You could also do this with new students in different grade levels as well.
mehdi says
nice article.thanks
Marcus says
Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
Justin Black says
Dear PE Specialist,
Was there an app you use to measure student participation. I thought I heard you mention it one time, but I don’t remember.
Thank you
Justin
Ben Landers says
Hey Justin – I’m not sure what you’re talking about – I don’t use an app, but maybe your thinking of Class Dojo?
Check out this overview of the app, I know it can be used for that – https://youtu.be/M_fff2cBYSw
Thuan nguyen says
Thanks
Cynthia says
Hi Ben!
Been following you on social media for some time now and this website, thanks for sharing all of your hacks and lesson plans! I recently just graduated from college and got my first elementary PE job. The problem is this school district has never had a real PE coach to run their program, it’s always been a middle school or high school coach! With school approaching, I went and saw my gym and closet for the first time and I was shocked, disappointed, sad..all of these emotions!! Those poor kids have nothing in the equipment closet. I am going to have to get to work on making my own stuff and i’m totally okay with that!
I recently was browsing your website and I saw a comment on something about how you got a grant/loan for mini ipads for your gym? Would you mind telling me what website you got on!
Thanks for all your help!
Blessings!
Cynthia
Ben Landers says
Awesome! Congrats on the job! I got them through Donors Choose, it’s a great organization.
Also check out the “How to get Equipment Cheap” video on our . FAQ Page: https://www.thepespecialist.com/faq/
Leigh Ann says
Love all your “hacks”
Wondering about your “fair games” you talked about in your sub lesson instructions…..
Please share!
Thanks
Ben Landers says
Hey Leigh Ann – glad you like them. The “Fair Games” is an activity I do for the culmination of my throwing unit and also schedule it the same time as the state fair – basically create a bunch of carnival style throwing games and have my kids buy tickets with exercise to play them – winner of the game gets to take the tickets. Full lesson plan, game signs and video walkthrough are actually available in the Member Forums 🙂
Jenny Westphal says
Great stuff Ben. I already do very similar things that you do as well. My conflict corner is called the “Peace Area.” I do use squads and kids know their color and number which are posted on the wall. One thing I added to squads is what I call a “station leader.” Row 5 is a leader on Mondays, row 4 on Tuesday, etc until row 1 on Friday. They wear a red jersey and do the following:
First in Line,
share equipment if needed,
help solve a judgment call in a game
This really helps things go and flow smoothly.
I just ordered the station slips for posting signs in the gym and LOVE THEM!
Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing such great info!
Ben Landers says
Great idea. Thanks for sharing!
Sue Komar says
Love this site! So much useful info. I have always used squads but would like to try the home base spots this year. I’m wondering though how they work in terms of the students knowing where their home base spot is on the floor? Is your floor labelled with rows and columns? If so, how? We have a tile floor like graph paper which would work well but we are stumped on how it translates from a spreadsheet to real life positions (without really marking up the floor).
Ben Landers says
Thanks Sue! I just put the numbers and letters on the wall (numbers on the front wall and letters on the side wall). Kids line themselves up with their number and letter – I don’ t have anything on the floor.