My Takeaways and Notes from the Conference
Last year was my first year at this awesome conference. I had a blast, learned a ton and met some really incredible educators that shaped my philosophy and challenged my perspective. I was really pumped to have the opportunity to make it back again in 2016.
This year I decided to do a little Vlog (Video Blog) action to give you an idea of what the conference is like and hopefully entice some of you to try to make it next time if you’ve never been to this conference – it’s truly a game changer!
Check out my trip below if your interested:
KEYNOTE SPEECHES
There were 5 keynote speeches throughout the 3 day conference. If you aren’t following any of these Keynote Speakers on Twitter then get on it, they are some of the leaders in our field and have some awesome insights. You can check out my notes and take aways below:
Keynote 1 – Sarah Gietschier-Hartman
“Getting out of your uncomfortable zone”
Sarah (@GHSaysRockChalk) challenged the common push to try and get outside of your comfort zone and reminded us that the comfort zone is OK if it’s rewarding and fulfilling and is what’s best for your students. Sara talked about how she lived in the “uncomfortable zone” for the beginning of her career and made her way out through finding like minded friends on Twitter and reading blog articles like Joey Feith’s “Collect and Defend”.
“ I decided to stop conforming what was going on around me and start doing what was best for my students” – Sarah G-H
Through Twitter and the online PhysEd Community she found her “Comfort Zone” which is a place were you can be creative, take risks and find your sweet spot.
- What happens when you choose to take on a positive amount of stress that provides a safe environment to work in
-
- You’ll be more productive
- You’ll be better at dealing with curveballs and problems that come your way
- You’ll find it easier to push your boundaries in the future
- You’ll find it easier to brainstorm and harness creativity – the more you use your creativity – the more you have and the easier it will be to come up with new ideas
Sarah’s 10 Tips for the Trip to Find your Comfort Zone (One Page Slide Here)
- Define the purpose of your trip
- Why are you teaching?
- What’s the point?
- Plan your Route
- Create a journey that will meet your specific needs
- Find a tour guide or Physed Mentor – traveling solo can be scary
- You can use tools like Twitter, Facebook or the SHAPE America Forums
- Pack Light – you might want some souvenirs
- Know your travel style
- Everyone is different, know what fits your personality and teaching strengths
- Plan your stops – make a list of attractions that you might want to see
- Things like conferences, meet ups, other schools to visit
- Be flexible and ready for unexpected adventures
- Talk to the locals
- Talk to other PE teachers and get to know your community and others who are different than you that can give you a new perspective
- Visit rest areas
- Take some time to reflect on what you’ve been learning
- Document your trip
- Take pictures and video, make notes and write blogs – use social media
- Tinyurl.com/ten travel tips
My Takeaway:
- I am constantly trying to push myself out of my comfort zone, so I liked hearing a different perspective from Sarah. It was good for me to think about learning to be satisfied with operating within my comfort zone if I’m still learning, growing and doing what’s right by my students. I like the way she defined the comfort zone as somewhere that we’re comfortable taking risks and remembering that small amounts of stress are actually helpful and should be used as a tool to help us accomplish our goals.
- It reminded me of this Ted Talk: How to Make Stress Your Friend
Keynote 2 – Dr. Greg Dale
The Art of Teaching: Strategies for developing more confident, consistent and teachable students
In his speech, Dr. Dale gave us some great things to think about when we reflect on our teaching practice. He gave a practical talk with lots of strategies and tips for upping your teaching game.
-
- Questions to ponder
- Do you create fear or develop confidence?
- Do you make the teaching environment drudgery or challenging and fun
- Would your students say I… “Have to” or “Get to” or “Want to”
- Credibility is Key
- Kids have to believe in you enough to convince them to follow you
- Your Legacy
- What kind of legacy do you want to leave?
- Which teacher had the greatest impact on your life?
- What were some of their characteristics?
- How do you want to be remembered?
- Seasons of a teacher
- Swamped – just trying to survive
- Smooth Sailing – figuring it out
- Full Speed Ahead – charging forward and making big changes
- Adrift – stuck in a rut, doing the same old thing
- Dead in the Water – retired on your feet
- 3 Key Aspects of Developing Credibility with your Students
- Caring
- Trust, mutual respect, builds relationships
- How do you show kids that you care
- Confidence builder
- Name some characteristics of your favorite kids?
- Now what about your least favorite?
- Help them answer yes to these questions:
- Can I do it?
- Will it work?
- Is it worth it?
- When appropriate provide them with choices
- Caring
- Questions to ponder
- You want them to seek success as opposed to avoid failure
- Consistency
- Some days are bad… let’s face it…
- Be consistent in your mood if spreads to your students
- Handle discipline in a firm and equitable manner (consequences and rules)
- Avoid double-standards and doghouses
- Consistency
Final Thoughts
- Be yourself unless you’re a jerk
- Would you enjoy being taught by you?
- Treat kids the same way you want teachers to treat your own kids
- Take a risk, extend respect before they will extend it to you
My Takeaway:
I love how many questions that Dr. Dale provides for us to reflect on. Asking myself some of the questions above really helps me to form a better mindset and teaching philosophy. I think my main takeaway is to remember how much of the classroom environment I control, we are the creators and influencers of the mood and culture of our classrooms and students. Sometimes I blame a bad lesson on my students bad behavior or lack of effort, but instead I should be examining what I could have done to change the outcome. Also, if you don’t have Dr. Dale’s book 101 Teambuilding Activities – check it out.
I also love the quote mentioned in the speech below:
Keynote 3 – Dr. Martha James-Hassan
Why Kids Love Basketball and What Physical Educators Can Learn from that Love
I really resonated with this speech. Dr. James-Hassan (@DrJamesHassan) examined the factors that make basketball such a requested activity in many of our programs and used those factors to create a filter framework that we can use to examine our activities and lessons to try and improve them and determine if they are what’s best for students.
“Maybe our primary outcomes should be less focused on specific skills and more on self-efficacy and a knowledge of the importance of living active”
– Dr. Martha James-Hassan
What really matters
- Is is more important to learn lacrosse, or to learn to have confidence in yourself?
- What’s in your control?
- How does your community view you and physical education (this is in your sphere of influence)
- We need to look at all those things outside of sphere of influence and LET THEM GO, we can’t control lots of things and we need to put our focus on our students
- What is in your sphere of influence?
- Learning better teaching practices, teaching your colleges
- “it’s in that space of vulnerability where we find growth…” – Brene Brown
- We need to be brave enough to talk to our colleagues about their practice when they need to change an activity or a mindset and question their philosophy
- Play
- We need to have the knowledge to explain to people how important play is for kids so that we don’t look like jokes to our colleagues and community members
8 Filtering Questions to ask about Basketball (and any other activity)
- Does this activity have a clear goal?
- Why do students love basketball more than lacrosse, hockey etc when those sports have similar goals (make the ball/puck go into the net) ?
- Basketball is an easier sport to play by yourself, it doesn’t take a lot of organization and money to get started, it’s a low cost entry – maybe this is one reason why it’s so popular even in older age groups
- Is the activity culturally relevant?
- Does it reflect the background of your community and the culture that you’re teaching in. Are you adding value to your students by teaching them something they can use
- Is creativity a key factor for this activity?
- We need to breed creativity in our students, what if you had a globetrotter routine, create a dance, make up a skateboard trick
- Does this activity offer a continuum of Entry and Growth
- Does this activity offer lots of opportunity for differentiation for all students
- Our activities should be designed in a way that allows for self-differentiation for students of all ability levels
- Is this activity rigorous and autonomous?
- Why is ultimate frisbee autonomous?
- Who refs in ultimate frisbee? The players take the responsibility
- Can this transfer to basketball and other sports?
- It’s an important skill for kids to develop, problem solving and decision making on the spot
- Pokemon Go – They made the game just hard enough to be in that sweet spot that’s engaging and the right amount of challenge. It’s like gambling – you just keep going, because it might just be that next time that you catch the one you’ve been looking for
- Why is ultimate frisbee autonomous?
- Is the activity portable and economical?
- Basketball is easily portable and you can use any type of ball to play
- If our goal is lifelong fitness and activity – it’s imperative for us to offer activities that are going to be accessible for all of our students – if we teach our students expensive sports, we will be excluding many of them from participating in the future
- Make sure your kids can “afford” to be physically active
- Does this activity provide, frequent, multimodal, appropriate feedback
- How many times do they get feedback when shooting a basketball?
- Every single time – it either goes in, or it doesn’t
- You can have discussions with your students about how to analyze their feedback as well
- If you can’t reach the goal… use your knees
- We want kids to think – “I’m awesome.” not, “I’m awesome, because I beat those other kids”
- We’re talking about WHAT we choose to teach, but’s it’s also so important for us to think about HOW we choose to teach it,because that will affect the learning of our students
- Giving Feedback
- Are you communicating “It’s OK to mess up, if you keep on trying”
- it’s ok to mess up, if you keep on trying
- Are you communicating “It’s OK to mess up, if you keep on trying”
- How many times do they get feedback when shooting a basketball?
- Are Ethos, Pathos and Logos associated with this activity?
- Ethos – credibility, authority, reliability…
- Pathos – Are you passionate about it, can you sell it to kids, if not you need to find a way to embrace your student’s passion so you can persuade them to participate
- Logos – logical, reasonable – are you teaching things that are culturally relevant
Take a look at your activities through these filters – of course they won’t meet all 8, but the goal is that you can meet 4 out of the 8 filters in each of your activities.
“Learning that is deep, learning that is durable, must be a challenge”
– Make it Stick
My Takeaway:
I love frameworks, so I loved having this 8 question filter as a tool to examine and reflect on activities and lessons that I’m presenting to my students. I also really liked one point that was made about push for more teachers to give more specific feedback. Dr. James-Hassan reminded us that although specific feedback is important and more effective in most situations, it might not always be the case. When you’re teaching younger students (K-1st grade) they need encouragement and motivation more than specific feedback because they can’t understand lots of specific feedback, they aren’t at that level of skill and cognitive development yet. Instead they need more practice and time to explore the skill which comes through encouragement and motivation. Sometimes too much specific feedback can make younger students feel overwhelmed and want to give up on the skill or activity. I’ve definitely seen this ring true in my experience with my younger students, so it was great to hear it validated from someone else.
Keynote 4 – Jo Bailey
Making #PhysEd Stick
Jo Bailey (@LovePhyEd) spoke to us about how we can take some insights from Sales and Marketing research and apply those same concepts to Physical Education so that we can help kids create stories that reflect in a positive way on our profession and will spread like wild fire. I thought this was a great topic for Jo to speak on because if you’ve ever met her – you know her positive personality rubs off on those around her and I’m sure the same is true for her students. She referenced lots of practical examples throughout the speech, check it out.
- If you polled a group of average people in America and asked them is it important to be physically active, what would they say?
- What are we learning, Why are we learning it, How will I know I learned it?
- Most students know why
- Most students know how
- Perhaps most of our students don’t know the what
- We see kids in Elementary – they’re jumping, skipping, hopping and smiling
- Why is it so hard to skip without smiling
- Jo did an experiment with her daughter to try and skip without smiling
- #Findyourfun – how can we help kids find their fun
- The key is emotion – when we add emotion to things that’s when we can motivate students to do things or not do them
- Many kids have great memories of PE, some have mediocre ones and some had soul destroying experiences – how can we move more kids to the positive end of the spectrum
- We can learn a lot from Sales and Marketing research
- 2 books to check out on this topic
- Made to Stick – Chip and Dan Heath
- Note from Ben: Love this book – Also, by the same authors – Switch is a great read with applications for education
- Contagious – Why things catch fire
- Made to Stick – Chip and Dan Heath
- 2 books to check out on this topic
Things that can help things catch fire and spread quickly
- Create Social Currency
- We can motivate kids to get to class and be ready early by creating social currency
- Reward students for first 5 minutes of class (play with equipment in the mystery box)
- DYGY60 – Did you get your 60 minutes today
- Jo created shirts with the logo – they turned in a worksheet proving they did the activity and got a shirt to be “in the club”
- Kevin Tiller – using star wars to motivate his kids do their best in his class so they can be “Jedi Masters”
- Triggers
- Triggers are things we see or hear that make us think or take action in some way
- Andy Horne – Eat Real Food Baby, he created a trigger using “Ice,Ice,Baby”
- Jim Deline – His school did a Superbowl Pushup Competition – parents post pics on the school facebook every time a team scores – 4 points for each pic posted
- What things can we create to trigger us to make healthy choices and help our students form healthy habits
- Emotions
- November Project – movement started by 2 friends to make exercise fun through comradery and encouragement while exercising together – the positive emotions associated with the experience make you want to go back and do it again
- Ryan Armstrong – created levels of ninja belts for students to earn as they move up in skills to the next level
- Andy Hair – Tough Mudders and Spartan races are huge – he ran a school mini mudder and had 500 spectators show up for the fun
- It’s ok to have a challenging experience as long as you end with a smile
- Public
- Use the fear of missing out to your advantage
- Having mileage club where kids wear necklaces with tags related to their mileage
- Scott Williams – had teachers at his school dance using different moves and created videos showing different abilities and showing students it’s ok to be different
- Sticker Rewards – “I gave blood” ,”I voted” – it’s public and social currency
- PhysEdSummit – Physedagogy Team using badges for social currency and making things public
- Practical Value
- What’s in it for me?
- How can I use the info I’ve been given to help myself and put them into practice
- Tips on cues help kids improve vastly (when you use the right tips – 80/20 rule)
- Show them the slide on their brain activity after activity – then do a quick memory game and do some activity and repeat it – they will get better and make the connection that
- Relax – Let students experience how it helps to reduce stress
- Stories
- Stories are powerful and can sometimes motivate us more than just knowledge
- Dick and Rick Hoyt: Father and son team triathlons team (STORY HERE)
- Michael Jordan – cut from his team and went on to become the ultimate champ
- What’s your story – how will you get your kids to move with stories from your experiences
My Takeaway:
I really love thinking through the factors that cause some things to take off and go viral and cause people to actually change some of their behaviors. I definitely agree with Jo that we can learn a ton of insights from looking at marketing and sales best practices and trying to apply these concepts to our teaching. I want to make sure that I’m providing kids with practical value during my lessons and also thinking about the activities that I plan through the lens of asking myself “what story will my students be telling when they walk out the door today”. Also, I’ve already read “Made to Stick “, but I put “Contagious” on my ever increasing book list.
Keynote 5 – Naomi Hartle
A Journey Towards the Tipping Point
Naomi (@MissHartl) examined how we can create a tipping point in the Phys Ed world and begin to break old stereotypes and spread the message of quality Physical Education all over the world. She shared her personal journey and gave us some insights that just might help PE teachers work together to create some momentum that might even become unstoppable.
- What is a tipping point?
- Phrase coined from the book “The Tipping Point” by Malcom Gladwell
- Gladwell defines a tipping point as the time, when something that was once scary, becomes something that we look at and say “I have to get in on that” and then the “momentum for change becomes unstoppable”
For an example of the tipping point taking effect, check out the short video below:
- Some PhysEd Goals
- No longer standing for the stereotypes of our profession
- When Phys Ed teachers are portrayed appropriately in a movie
- When nontraditional becomes the traditional
- When does “new PE” just become “normal PE”
- Why are best practices always described as “non-traditional PE”
- Why can’t “Traditional PE” or “Normal PE” be the same as “Quality PE?”
- Effective health and physical education
- Healthy and physical literacy journey
- We are stakeholders and supporters in our kids journeys
- No longer standing for the stereotypes of our profession
- Naomi told us her PhysEd story
- She found her community and PLN on Twitter through online influencers
- The Tipping Point
- Law of few
- There’s a small percentage of people who are responsible for socail epidemics
- Mavens – they provide the message
- Connectors – spread the message
- Salesman – have the skills to persuade us to believe the message
- There’s a small percentage of people who are responsible for socail epidemics
- Law of Context
- Bringing change requires a community of openness with new beliefs that can be practiced and nutured
- Connection
- Collaboration
- Sharing
- Leadership
- Bringing change requires a community of openness with new beliefs that can be practiced and nutured
- Stickiness
- Hardest part of communication is making sure the message doesn’t go in one ear and out the other
- How can we make PhysEd stick everywhere
- “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step”
- Law of few
- What will it take?
- The people
- The environment
- The message
- Why isn’t our message spreading?
- Maybe we aren’t all working together at the same time, towards the same goal…
Naomi closed her speech by dancing on stage to illustrate how something small can make a big difference… 1 turned to 10, then to 20 and as you can see below, ended in a mass dance party on stage:
The #PEInstitute16 is hitting that “Tipping Point” after @MissHartl keynote #physedpic.twitter.com/NsWrYAVeIh
— Ben Landers (@thepespecialist) July 27, 2016
My Takeaway:
I took a few things away from Naomi’s keynote. First, it’s always good to remember that even through sharing something on Twitter or Facebook you can have a huge impact on someone else’s life. I’ve heard plenty of stories of teachers being motivated to work harder, be creative and make bold moves to change their program into something their proud of after connecting with other like minded teachers online. Second, sometimes if might feel like you’re dancing all by yourself… but never forget that there are lots of people all around you that probably want to get up and dance too… they’re just scared to start – they just need a little push… and eventually you just might start something awesome until “the momentum for change becomes unstoppable” 🙂
Breakouts/Resources/Notes
Below you’ll find a list of some of my notes from the breakout sessions, socials and other teachers that I connected with, I hope it’s helpful!
- Alex O’Brien (@alexobrien) was hard at work making some great videos during the institute – check them out below:
- PE Institute Day 1 Reflection
- PE Institute Day 3 Reflection
- PE Institute – Can’t Stop the Feeling (Below)
- Standards Based Reporting Breakout
- Contact Adam MetCalf (@MrMetcalfPE) and Dave Gusitsch (@WstprtWellness) for some great tips and strategies for standards based reporting
- Great video on “Defining Mastery”
- Check-In’s – Instant Activity
- Instead of doing physical activity – Chip Candy gave some great “Check-In’s” that he has used with his students to let them tell someone in class what they’re going through or share some struggle or positive emotion that they have. (Project Adventure Activity)
- For each activity you ask students to evaluate where they are emotionally, then after giving them a few seconds to think about it, either have a few share with the class or have them pair up and share with each other while doing a walk and talk.
- Examples:
- Throw out some small animal figurines, ask the kids to think about which animal they are today.
- Quick thumbs up, sideways or down on how your day is going
- Rate 1-5
- Throw out a bunch of paint color samples (get them from Lowes for free) and ask kids what color they are feeling like today
- Throw out a bucket of random equipment and ask kids to think about which piece of equipment they feel like today
- GOALS: In 5 minutes or less get an general idea of where your class is and note which students are having a bad day or good day to inform your teaching for the rest of the lesson.
- Demo Slam Notes: an idea sharing bonanza put on by the SPARK & the PhysEdagogy Team (@PHYSEDagogy)
- Justin Timberlake Dance
- Bring Sally Up, Bring Sally Down
- Uptown Funk Dance
- Using Klikaklu App to create scavenger hunts within your school building
- Pokemon Go App
- Instead of saying “When I say Go”, say “When I say Stop Smoking” to integrate health concepts
- Idea from Nick Spencer (@PE4Life_Spencer)
- Game: Head, Shoulders, Knees, Ears… AQUA!
- Birthday Chant
- Make sure to Check out Physedagogy.com for tons of free professional development
- Open PhysEd – Online curriculum sponsored by U.S. Games
- Aaron Hart (@nyaaronhart) and Jim DeLine (@jimsgymtx) shared some great activities from the Open Physed curriculum, go check it out – it’s free, you can sign up here
- Tech in PE Breakout – Naomi Hartyl
- Blippar App (similar to QR Codes – links posters to videos/online content)
- Plickers – easy way to assess student knowledge (How to use in PE)
- Interval Timer App – great for interval training or station work
- Fit Radio – free music streaming app
- Reflecting your device to a computer
- Air Server, Mirroring 360 or Reflector 2
- Creating QR Codes
- QRstuff.com
- Cooperative Activities Breakout – Jo Bailey
- Bippity Boppity Boo (name game)
- Groups of 5-6. 1 magic wand. Person with the want quickly points at someone and either says “ME” or “YOU” and the person they pointed at must respond by saying the correct name before the person with the wand can say “Bippity, Boppity Boo”.
- If the person with the wand says it first they trade places, if the person in the circle says the name first, they remain where they are and the person with the wand must go try to beat someone else.
- Extension Task: Add more commands – “ME”, “YOU”, “LEFT”, “RIGHT”
- Video Example
- RAOK – Random Acts of Kindness Peer Observation
- Instead of doing peer assessments for skills. Have your students peer assessing by tallying acts of kindness and positive and negative comments during gameplay.
- 52 Card Pickup
- Dump out 52 action cards with zany and crazy activities that can be completed quickly. The goal is for the whole class to pickup all 52 cards as quickly as possible.
- When the game begins, you pickup a card and complete the activity – once completed, hold onto the card and pickup another one. If you don’t want to complete the one you pickup, you can just place it back on the ground and pickup another one.
- My Version of this Game
- Bippity Boppity Boo (name game)
- Fitness Games Breakout – Dr. Curt Hinson (PlayFitEducation.com)
- Crazy Sprint Cards – fun game where you have kids run back and forth over/under an imaginary wall
- Book: Games Kids Should Play at Recess
- 2 main things we should be teaching kids – Self Responsibility and Intrinsic Motivation
- 5 C’s for developing Instrinsic Motivation
- Control
- Challenge
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Constant Feedback
- Dr. Hinson recomends doing more group activities with K-2, once students learn to read in 2-5th you can allow more choice and give them more opportunities to make their own decisions
- Giving students more choice helps build self responsibility
- Example: “Do this activity by yourself, with a group of 2 or a group of 3…”
- 5 C’s for developing Instrinsic Motivation
- Book: Fitness For Children (out of print, but you can buy used)
- P.E. Games Breakouts – J.D. Hughes
- If you don’t know about J.D. check out my Amazon Store for all of his books and the links below for some of my favorite games by him.
- Playout The Game: (Playoutthegame.com)
- These fitness playing cards are great for flipping your workout into a playout
- Cards Here (AMAZON)
- Also, these guys just came out with a new App, it’s free. Check it out!
That’s all Folks!
Big thanks to Artie Kamiya (@ArtieKamiya) for putting on another great conference!
Hope you can make it next year, you won’t regret it.
Have Fun and Teach On!
susan pray says
Loved the video and resources you shared, Ben. Day one (again) tomorrow for us in Southern LA. Thanks for your ideas!
Terri Anderson says
Ben, I went a couple of years ago and couldn’t’ make it this year but I am so grateful for all you posted so we could glean some great ideas and information from all of these amazing colleagues. Thank you and I love your sight! I will be there next year!
Kerry Lubin says
Ben: This was phenomenal!! Great job, it brought back great memories of the PE Institute. Thank you for putting this together!
Artie Kamiya says
Ben: Outstanding post! You made folks feel as if they were there! Please keep up the terrific work!!
Ben Landers says
Thanks Artie! It was a great conference, I appreciate all the work you put into it.