Teach to Serve

Welcome to my very first post! I have been meaning to post this for a very long time but you know… and then first year of teaching happened. Anyways, I still want to document this and help other new PE teachers out there. 

In this post, I am going to share the top 10 items that I could not live without during my first year as a PE teacher: ​

1. TEACHER PLANNER

Even though this one could be a no-brainer, you have no idea how much I rely on this. This is where I write down EVERYTHING. Anything from recording important dates, lesson plans, and a TON of to-do sticky notes. Literally ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that keeps me organized and on track. I bring this planner with me everywhere I go. I use it every class when I am teaching. It is so helpful to have one central spot for me to record my previous lessons. It keeps me organized especially when I am teaching the same course with different classes. It allows me to pick up a class right from where I left off. I bring it home with me every night to plan and prepare lessons. Really, I don’t think I can live without it! 

2. ERASABLE MARKERS

I am not going to lie, I found these awesome markers at our school’s supply room. I am so glad I claim them in the beginning of the year. They are absolutely amazing! I use them to mark all the important days in my planner (ie. chapel assemblies, PD day, holidays). I also use them to mark what classes I am having each period and the “school day” during the week, since my school runs in a “4-day schedule”. Not only the colours are beautiful, I just cannot get over the fact that they are erasable. As you know with pandemic going on, changes are certainly not unheard of. In the past year, my school started off as in-person learning and then got switched to online, then back to in-person again, and then back to online… That’s right, my plans had to be changed many many times! These definitely gave me room to keep revising my plans. 

3. CUSTOMIZED TIMETABLE

You might find this redundant because your VP most likely gives you a copy of your timetable with all of your classes on it. However, I find it way easier to recreate one. The thing is, we all think and organize information differently. For me, I love colour-coding what I see (I think you are going to realize that after finish reading this post…) because that just helps me to visualize and understand better. There is no one right way to do this. Find something that works for you! 

4. FITBIT WATCH VERSA 2

This is definitely something that I didn’t realize I needed until I started the first day of school. I remember the first day was incredibly stressful, not being familiar with the new schedule. Not having a watch that I can wear at all time, of course, didn’t help. I started researching the different types of smartwatch on the market and decided to purchase a Fitbit Versa 2. (Maybe I can write more about this experience and a review…) It was the perfect tool I needed. I love the feature where I can set multiple alarms 10 minutes before the end of each period, it really helps me with running my classes. Mind you, being a PE teacher, it is not as easy to just look up on a wall and look for a clock. This is extremely helpful when we were having classes outdoor and I didn’t want to constantly take out my phone (besides, that can look very unprofessional!) or drop my phone on the field. Another thing I love is the fact that I get to have quick access on a stopwatch/timer. This comes in so handy in all my PE classes when we are playing a game or doing a workout! Finally, because this is a smart watch, it has the function where my phone notification is connected to the watch. This becomes very handy when my coworker needs to send me a quick text (ex: if their class is running late and need a few more minutes until I take over their class) and I get notified without checking my phone. This can seamlessly happen even when I am teaching another class or when my hands are full, carrying a bunch of equipment. 

5. PLASTIC FILE FOLDER CASE

Once again, I found these goodies in the supply room. These are perfect for me as a rotary teacher, since I am always out and about. I was able to bring my attendance sheets and other important paper with me wherever I went. One of the important pages is the customized timetable that I shared with you earlier. I printed a copy and place it at the back of this case. Since this is transparent, I can always turn to the back and see my schedule (which was a life saver in the beginning of the school when I was still getting used to the new schedule). The fact that it is a plastic case, I also use it as a clipboard and write on it. 

6. ATTENDANCE TEMPLATE

This is not only an attendance sheet, this also keeps track of the daily participation mark and a record of assignments or projects for each student. I actually borrowed this idea from my colleague and then I adapted it in my own way. In this template, you see that I wrote a very brief unit outline at the bottom. That way I can easily recall what I planned for the unit without flipping back to my unit plan in my master binder. I also added the mark breakdown of the unit so that I can provide accurate reminders to my students if they have any questions about the assessments of the unit.

In the beginning of the school year, I used a completely different attendance sheet that I created in the summer. It didn’t turn out to be practical at all. My advice for you is to experiment different templates to find the one that works best for you. Find something that works best that serves the purpose of your school. Every PE department has their own system. I find this very helpful for how we run our PE units at our school. But this might not work for you. Just ask your colleague (which is what I did)! See if they already established something that they find useful and I am sure they would be more than happy to share it with you. 
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7. MEGAPHONE SPEAKER

I know, I know… it looks so obnoxious but trust me, it is so worth it. The school that I work at is by a busy highway and I just cannot be more thankful for having one of these. I didn’t have this in the beginning of the school year and soon enough I learned that it was almost impossible to be teaching outdoor every class without one. (Usually, I would not be outdoor as much for all classes… but given the COVID-19 circumstance, our PE classes took place outdoor for as much as we could. We were outside even during the winter!) I remember I was slowly loosing my voice by the end of September. Thankfully, the administrator at my school was very understanding and purchased one of these for me after I brought up my concerns. 

8. HOME SPOT SIGNS

Another idea that I borrowed from one of my favourite PE teachers whom I stumbled upon online.  (Check out Ben’s blog here for his original blog post.) This was great when I needed a system to reinforce physical distancing in a PE setting. In the beginning of the school year, I simply printed out the letters and numbers on coloured paper and laminated them. I would bring these with me every class and lay them out for my students. Personally, I find this system works great for the first graders and second graders since they do better with routines and structure. As you know, it can be hard to learn names if you are a rotary teacher and especially in PE, kids are always moving around. This system really helped me to learn the names quickly. 

9. BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

Depending on the school, you might already have a stereo system installed in the space. However, I find having a portable bluetooth speaker is so convenient. Like I mentioned earlier, because of COVID-19 precautions, we were outside a lot this school year. It was nice to be able to carry this bluetooth speaker with me. And you know, music just makes exercises so much better! 

10. GOOGLE GRADEBOOK SHEET

This is probably one of the templates that I am the most proud of (Disclaimer: I am no expert in excel so this might not be impressive to you, but it is to me!). This Google gradebook is another tool that I adapted from my colleague and with some (or maybe a lot) help from my husband, I created this ultimate mark sheet for me to calculate marks for report cards. I just love how easy it can be and how it does all the math for me! As you can see, I inputted the weighting for each component. All there is left to is to input your students’ names and their marks for each category. And BAM! You are done. You can even see the class average as well as median for each column. Once again, this exact template might not work for you, adapt in your own way to fit the needs of your school. 

THANK YOU! 

If you are still reading, I just wanted to thank you for being here! This means a lot to me. If you are a new PE teacher, I hope you found this post helpful. Comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts or questions. If you have been a PE teacher for a while, I would love to hear your very own PE teacher starter pack! 🙂 

Teach to serve and say active!