Thoughts by Guy Walker (PYP PE Workshop Leader)

I was fortunate enough to meet Guy Walker a few years back when I attended a PYP PE workshop (led my Mark Baxter) at Upper Canada College in Toronto, Ontario. It was easy to see, from the start, that Guy and I shared many of the same views about the practice of teaching PE and worked together for most of the workshop. We stayed in touch for a while after the workshop, but, due to being busy and having families, our communication faded. However, we have once again been reunited through our shared passion for teaching PYP PE. I am glad to be in touch with Guy again and am equally pleased that he accepted my invitation to be a guest blogger on PYPPEwithAndy. Thanks Guy!!

A bit about Guy Walker......

PE teacher at Children's World Academy (CWA) in Montreal, QC. An IB World School for nearly 12 years. He is originally from Western Canada, where he studied Education at the Univ of Alberta in Edmonton- a double major in PE and Biology.

He has been at CWA for 6 years and believes so strongly in the IB and its' mission and philosophies. His daughter attended the school 4 years ago and is now going on to high school in the fall. The school taught her to be both and inquirer and very reflective about her studies. 

While at CWA and learning about the PYP and how PE fits in, he decided to take his interest to the next level and apply for the IB Academy.  The training was in New Orleans. Guy has led workshops and been on school authorization teams. This past April he had the opportunity to lead the Role of PE workshop in Minneapolis with Mark Baxter (Upper Canada College), Guy will also be leading PYP PE workshops in Colorado in the summer, as well as in LA in the fall.

He is excited at the prospect of being part of the change within the PYP and incorporating specialists- especially PE- into the POI and as a major part of the collaborative planning at schools. He sees a real need for stand-alone planners for specialists and classroom teachers making authentic connections to these planners and supporting them whenever possible.

His goals for the future include taking on the role of PYP coordinator at CWA and continued involvement in leading workshops and site visits- the exchange of dialogue with other PYP teachers has been and will continue to be valuable Guy.

Thoughts By Guy

On the weekend of April 20th, I was fortunate enough to lead a Role of PE workshop in Minneapolis with another PE specialist- Mark Baxter from Upper Canada College in Toronto, Ontario.

Leading up to the workshop, we surveyed the participants and asked them their goals for the workshop and what they hoped to get out of the weekend and where they stand at their own school(s) with collaborative planning as well as their comfort level with the PYP.

Lucky for me, the responses were the same as I had a few years previous when I first started at an IB school. Some were not sure where and how they were to fit in at their schools and did not know how to address inquiry in the gymnasium, courts and fields where their teaching takes place.

For the duration of the workshop we addressed the concerns they had through TGFU (Teaching Games for Understanding) practical sessions in our extra-large conference room. We also took on the task of going through the POI's of different schools and making links to classroom planners. A lot of interesting ideas were generated on how to make the authentic links to planners. 

In addition, we got into creating planners for stand-alone units in PE. Net games, invasion games, adventure challenge and fielding games units were created and are shared to this day between the participants.

All in all it was a great weekend and I am sure I speak on behalf of Mark when I say it was just as valuable for us as workshop leaders as it was for the participants.