A Great Profession to Get Into

Choosing to be a physical education teacher can and should be a very rewarding experience, especially considering how times have changed and it is much easier to connect with like-minded professionals around the globe through blogging, Twitter etc. Making these important connections with other PE practitioners can serve to immediately improve upon one's teaching practice as there are so many opportunities to share and to learn from one another. 

I was recently able to connect with Kelly Ann Parry, a doctorate student in physical education from Wollongong University in New South Wales, Australia. She shares her vision of PE and backs her teaching up with sound pedagogical research. Her passion is obvious and her 4th year university students are lucky to have her as their course instructor.

As her students are working on understanding different types of instructional models related to the teaching of Athletics, Kelly asked me if I would be willing to Skype with her and her 4th year students to discuss my own approach to teaching Athletics to elementary students. I was obviously happy to do so as I value any opportunity for healthy discussion related to physical education in general, but in this case I am actually engaged in an Athletics unit at the moment, so the timing was perfect. 

Speaking with her students on Skype was an excellent experience and I was reminded about my own days long ago when I was doing my teacher training. Was it ever different then! Kelly's students came up with some great questions that helped carry the discussion forward. Some of the topics discussed were student management, assessment, behavior management, differentiation, safety concerns, ensuring an approach that helps students with disabilities achieve success, and international education in general. Well done to Kelly and her students. I was happy to be a part of the discussion. Kelly Ann Parry can be found on Twitter at @kellyannparry. 

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