Conquering Your First Year as a New PE Teacher

Welcome!

We are excited about your interest in taking this e-course from PE Central. Below you will find a brief course description, the instructor's biography, and course FAQ's. We estimate that this course will take 5 hours to complete. Once you have completed it, you may request the 5 hours towards your teacher licensure recertification. This course is NOT available for graduate credit.

We know you will find this course valuable and enjoyable. If you have any questions please email us at [email protected]

Best of Luck!
Mark Manross, Executive Director, PE Central

Target Audience:

This course has been designed for new physical education teachers. This means physical education teachers coming straight from an undergraduate program and those transitioning into the role of a physical education teacher will benefit greatly from this course. Teachers who started their position in the middle of a school year and long-term substitutes covering physical education classes will also benefit from this course.

Course Purpose:

The purpose of this course is to help new physical education teachers understand what their first year of teaching may look like so that they not only survive but thrive. Students will also examine current practices, lesson plans, and class setups that will help them successfully navigate their first year of teaching.

Course Description:

Being a first-year teacher can be a scary prospect. One can learn all the theories available about teaching, practice teaching on classmates, and put theory into action in the safety of a student teaching environment. But nothing can prepare a new physical educator for the moment when they actually stand in front of students, manage student behavior, work with administrators of all stripes, and interact with parents in multiple situations. Your first year will be overwhelming and exhausting at times. Plus, there is paperwork, grading, equipment, and many other little intricacies to consider that a first-year teacher can only learn to manage through experience.

This course is designed to help new physical educators navigate the world of a new school and experience a smoother and more successful first year. This is accomplished by presenting detailed survival tips on many topics of concern expressed by new physical educators entering the teaching arena and first-year teachers finishing their inaugural year.

This course provides first-year physical educators with a comprehensive amount of information that they won’t find just anywhere. This includes invaluable insights and tips on how to behave in a professional teaching environment, how to effectively manage the classroom, how to prevent and manage discipline problems, and how to interact with school staff and the community. In addition, this course offers lesson planning ideas for your first day and week of teaching and challenges students to create their own gym class setup as part of a cumulative project. Students will walk away with a plan and a feeling of ultimate preparedness for their first year as a physical education teacher.

Course Goals:

On completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand various factors that affect the first year for a physical educator
• Identify what it means to be a professional twenty-first-century educator
• Identify practical skills needed to manage a classroom
• Identify ways to prevent, manage, and solve classroom problems
• Understand and explain how to effectively collaborate with others in the school and community
• Design lesson plans for the first day and week of teaching
• Design and describe a highly effective gym class setup

Standards:

This course addresses the following standards:

Source: SHAPE America National Standards for K-12 Physical Education (2016).

Standard 1 - The physically literate individual demonstrates competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns.

Standard 2 - The physically literate individual applies knowledge of concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics related to movement and performance.

Standard 3 - The physically literate individual demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness.

Standard 4 - The physically literate individual exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others.

Standard 5 - The physically literate individual recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction.

Being a first-year physical education teacher means that you are touching base with all aspects of physical education standards. This is because the course discusses material that directly affects every aspect of teaching and learning, which naturally involves all the national standards.

Need to get your Professional Development Credits approved by administration? Download the course description to provide them here.