It’s My First Time Teaching P.E…Help!

Thrown into a P.E lessons/class… as a reliever or maybe as part of your contract….?

A daunting situation that most teachers have experienced at some point in their career.

P.E is one of those subjects that is generally taught by specialist teachers, teachers who have made the conscious decision early in their career or even during obtaining their degree that they want to be a physical education teacher. A practical subject like P.E. is something that not everyone feels comfortable teaching and if you are generally not sport inclined, it can be very daunting.

Personally, I would imagine it would feel how I feel when I’m thrown into senior or middle school mathematics lessons. I am not even sure where to begin and typically the students may be more versed in the content than myself!

Whilst there are so many variables as to how to tackle this issue if you are in the situation of teaching P.E for a lesson for a year - this article we will discuss a few basic starting points to get you headed in the right direction!  

Seek Guidance

If it’s a long-term contract or position then guidance for you may look like seeking professional development. Something more substantial and with ongoing support to ensure you develop the required skills to be effective in your subject area. Depending on where you teach I would first look by accessing ACHPER (The Australian Council of Health & Recreation). This is the Australians P.E teachers governing body and an organisation I attribute most, if not all of my success in my career thus far. I can not talk highly enough about the people in this organisation or the unbelievable quality of their professional development, workshops and resources.

If this is not possible for you, find out who your local governing body is or a major professional organisation is and contact them.

Alternatively, if this is a more short-term P.E contract I would do the following.

1. Contact the previous P.E teacher for some support, P.E teachers in nearby schools or what I have also done in the past, is contacting other staff members within my school who have taught P.E previously. Leaning on real people, with real experiences rather than just printed resources will prevent a lot of potential issues down the track and these experienced professionals can give you real time advice and support for your questions as they understand your context and student cohort.
2. Look at previous lesson plans, term overviews and assessments. This will give you an idea of what has been expected in the past and covered for specific year levels.
3. Read the curriculum so you can get a rough idea of expectations for the year. Particular the ‘Achievement Standards’.

 Look At What You Have To Work With

Go into the sports shed and write down all various pieces of equipment you have. Getting an idea of what you have available, will allow you too see what you have to work with prior to planning activities and lessons. You also want to be sure you have a sufficient amount of equipment for activities and try to plan things in your lessons that have enough equipment for a whole class/ class sets. Using class sets of equipment is the best way to start a lesson or block of learning as you wont have the additional concern of creating student groups, organising different activities for those who don’t have equipment or deal with behaviour issues for students who aren’t engaged in activities or who are waiting for their turn to participate.

Make sure you stay away from equipment that takes a long time to set up (just for now) and equipment that has the potential to be unsafe (Metal bats, hard softballs/baseballs). This is done so you can limit the risk of potential issues, injuries or things going wrong when you’re easing your way into teaching in this subject area.

Teach What You Are Confident In First!

I will always encourage teachers new to the subject area or teachers who have a new class of students, potentially in a year level they have never taught before- to teach something they are confident in. This serves two important purposes.

It gives you the confidence to go into a foreign environment with a little less anxiety and uncertainty, making you feel more comfortable and able to deliver quality lessons. Most importantly, it provides a good first impression for your students and builds confidence not only in yourself but also in their relationship and trust that they have in you as their HPE teacher.

First impressions can be really important. If you knock the lesson out the park and its great, you will be excited and confident to go back. If its a disaster, then you may feel even worse going into your second lesson! Of course we cant control everything and the trick is to just be as prepared as possible.

Now that doesn’t mean that you need to ‘fake It till you make’ it and pretend you’re an expert at everything, displaying a fake confidence or bravado. I think it’s really important to be transparent with your students and most students understand that HPE teachers aren’t experts at every sport. This transparency can come at a later date as the first few lessons will set the tone and establish a positive rapport between you and your students, creating that mutual respect and trust in your skill set.