MAHPERD "Voices From The field"
In this podcast, you will hear from educators and professionals in the field sharing their insights and experiences in the HPE (Health Physical Education) and allied fields. I hope you find this podcast informative, and inspiring. Learn about best practices and tools that you can implement in your teaching practice. We want to know not only what you do, but also the action steps you took to get you where you are. The Status Quo is not in our vocabulary folks, my guests are leaders in the field who are taking action to make an impact in their respective fields. If you have any questions or would like to be a guest on the show email mahperdpodcast@gmail.com
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got" Henry Ford
MAHPERD "Voices From The field"
Breathing Life into PE Class : A Teacher's Journey
How can physical education teachers incorporate yoga in ways that benefit all students? Award-winning P.E. teacher Kristen Santos takes us on her unexpected journey from cancer diagnosis to becoming a leading advocate for yoga in physical education.
When Kristen's oncologist first recommended yoga during her breast cancer treatment in 2016, she was skeptical. "I thought it was for old, middle-aged women," she admits candidly. That reluctance transformed into passion as she discovered how breathing techniques and mindful movement helped her navigate life's challenges. "Yoga doesn't solve your problems," she reflects, "but it helps you deal with them."
Drawing from 27 years of teaching experience, Kristen shares practical strategies for making yoga accessible in middle school PE classes. Her innovative approach includes creating yoga-based games, developing trauma-informed language practices, and connecting yoga to athletes like LeBron James who credit it for their athletic longevity. The conversation explores her published curriculum books that provide complete lesson plans for K-8 teachers, including assessments, visual aids, and activities that align with physical education standards.
What sets Kristen's method apart is her focus on teaching students specific breathing techniques they can use to self-regulate during conflicts. Rather than simply telling students to "calm down," she provides concrete tools that stimulate the vagus nerve and genuinely help students manage emotions. Her "Yoga Code of Conduct" establishes clear expectations while teaching transferable skills students can use throughout their lives.
Whether you're a PE teacher looking to diversify your curriculum, an educator interested in supporting students' emotional regulation, or someone curious about making mindfulness more accessible, this episode offers valuable insights and practical resources.
Connect with Kristen:
- Insta @yogainphysed
- Website www.yogainphysed.com
- Email yogainphysed@gmail.com
- Find the book on Amazon
Hello and welcome to Voices from the Field, a MAHPERD podcast where we talk with educators in the field to hear about their perspectives and experiences. My name is Jake Bersin, advocacy Chair for MAHPERD, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Kristen Santos. Kristen Santos has been teaching physical education in Massachusetts since 1998. Her career started in Framingham until she moved to Hopkinton, where she has been teaching at Hopkinton Middle School for the last 21 years. In 2024, she was named MAHPERD Middle School PE Teacher of the Year. Kristen is also a yoga instructor and she is a yoga teacher trainer for the Child Light Education Company. She is passionate about joining her two professional worlds teaching yoga and teaching PE. She has written and published two books. One of them is the Yoga Curriculum for Physical Education K-5 and the Yoga Curriculum for Physical Education 6-8. She travels the country presenting at conferences to share her work and she also provides professional development to schools. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her husband and their two children. Welcome, kristen.
Speaker 2:Hi, jake, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thanks for coming on the show. It's so great to be in the space with you. Before we start the podcast officially, I'd like to ask all the guests this question what's making you smile these days?
Speaker 2:I love that question. On Thursdays for the month of May I'm offering a restorative yoga class to my teacher friends at Hopkinton Middle School. So we did it today after school and I don't know if you've ever done restorative yoga, but it feels so good. It's just I call it the lazy man's yoga.
Speaker 1:That sounds interesting. Yeah, I haven't done it. No, but tell us a little about it.
Speaker 2:It's all about just rejuvenating and feeling good while you're doing it and afterwards, and I always sleep really well whenever I practice it.
Speaker 1:Well, that sounds great. That sounds like something we could use a little bit more of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. Everybody's in a good mood on Fridays because they got a good night's sleep. Thursday, after the yoga Sleep is so important.
Speaker 1:It's so underrated, but we definitely need our sleep.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, kristen, tell us more about who you are and how you started your education journey.
Speaker 2:Well, I grew up in Syracuse, new York, and I went to St Lawrence, northern New York, and I knew I always wanted to be a teacher and at that time when I was in college I thought maybe you know a math teacher.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I played basketball all through college and I spent a lot of time at the gym. And I remember one of the professors asked me you know, would you ever want to teach PE? And I said, oh, you mean like a gym teacher? And he said no, we don't call it gym teacher. I said, oh, you mean like a gym teacher? And he said no, we don't call it gym teacher. And I took my first class intro to phys ed my sophomore year and I was hooked. No offense to any math teacher out there, but I think it was the right profession for me. I think I make a much better PE teacher than a math teacher. So then after college I moved to Boston, got my first teaching job in Framingham and I have family that lives in Hopkinton so I was always kind of drawn to Hopkinton. So a few years in there was an opening in Hopkinton and I've been at Hopkinton Middle School ever since past 21 years and I've been very lucky. Every year is different, every day is different and I can't believe I'm 27 years in already.
Speaker 1:Time flies. So 21 years, 27 years in total, and so you've been at a middle school level majority of your career, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, so that's a little bit of background about how you got started. So what inspired you to pursue a career in the field? Was it that the the uh, a mentor or a teacher that that motivated you? Or so it was dr fey. I put st lawrence, um, and everything he said just made sense. Um, and what brought me to yoga? It's kind of a strange story. Um, I've never done yoga all my life. I'm all through never, ever. I.
Speaker 2:You know, I thought it was for old, middle-aged women. You know, I thought it was boring, I thought it was slow and in 2016, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and my oncologist asked me have you ever tried yoga? And I was just so surprised by that question and actually I was kind of annoyed, like, why is she talking about this when I'm going through cancer? And I did eventually do it after I went through all of my stuff as a way of healing physically and emotionally, just simple things, you know, videos online, and I kind of became self-taught.
Speaker 2:Then I stumbled across Child Light Education Company and they offer teacher trainings. So I took my first course and I was hooked and I got my children's certification. I didn't even know there was children's yoga and it was so great. I just kept saying to myself oh, we have to get this into the PE curriculum and anytime I find something good for myself, I want to bring it to my students and to my own children at home. So it's kind of by chance that I stumbled upon child light education and really got hooked on the yoga.
Speaker 1:So you had a diagnosis and the doctor recommended you do yoga, which is interesting because most doctors recommend medication, they recommend therapy, which is interesting because most doctors recommend medication, they recommend therapy. So yoga is an interesting alternative. And so tell us a little bit about what. When you did the yoga, it obviously made you feel better, but what are some other parts of the yoga that really like drove you to keep, keep going?
Speaker 2:I mean just I think it was her polite way of saying you're a hot mess, you need to learn how to breathe. And I just I couldn't, couldn't wrap my head around getting a cancer diagnosis and I just wasn't handling it. And one thing that I've learned over the years is yoga doesn't solve your problems, but it will help you to deal with them, and I find that anytime I practice it, or even if it's just breathing on the highway on the way to school, yoga doesn't solve your problems, but it will help you to deal with them. Got it and I find that anytime I practice it, or even if it's just breathing on the highway on the way to school, it calms the body, it balances the central nervous system, and when people think of yoga, I think they think of the poses, but there's really more to it. It's the mindfulness, it's the breathing, and it's been around for 5,000 years.
Speaker 2:So if it's been around that long, there's got to be something to it but of course it's evolved over the years and it's become westernized and Americanized, but I think we all come to yoga at some point and in our lives, and breast cancer is what brought me to yoga, so for that I'm grateful.
Speaker 1:Oh, what a story. So that breath is so important. We're going to talk a little bit more about the details of yoga later on in the interview. So you teach middle school. How is teaching physical education in middle school similar or different than teaching other great bands? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Well, it's similar in the sense where you're working with children, you're working with middle schoolers. Some of them want to be there and some of them don't want to be there, just like a math class. Some kids like math, some kids don't Right, and we as PE teachers we have to be creative to get everybody involved, just like a math teacher would. I think one of the biggest differences is we're not an MCAS subject. So unfortunately we don't get as much love and attention as the MCAS subjects do. But we know that it's important and we know that it matters. And once you develop that confidence and sense of self, it can really improve your outlook and kids pick up on it. And it's all about the buy-in, especially in middle school. You know you have to be a salesman, you have to be educated, you have to be knowledgeable, but you also you also have to be able to relate to them.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And you know you were saying earlier that elementary is your favorite age group. Middle school is definitely mine. It's the sweet spot it's. They're fragile, they're vulnerable, they drive you crazy sometimes, but in my opinion, I feel like it's where I can make the biggest impact.
Speaker 1:I give you a lot of credit teaching middle school.
Speaker 1:I did it for I did it for a couple of years. So, yeah, no, I get it. But yeah, you're so right, as you mentioned, you know our content is obviously important, but it's not an MCAS subject. You know our content is obviously important, but it's not an MCAS subject, so other folks might not see it as important as maybe math or science or some of the other what they call core subjects. But we're we. We do what we got to do to make it a positive experience right For our students and, like you said, they, they buy in, we offer variety, we build relationships with them. It sounds like you're doing all that and more, so that's awesome. So let's talk a bit about. You've published a couple of books, two of them so can you describe them to our listeners, what they're about, what they could find if they picked it up, where they can pick it up, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:So I'll give you a little bit of a backdrop. First, in 2020, when the world shut down, child's Light Education Company offered a 200-hour yoga training. So that's where I got my 200-hour certification and it saved me that summer. It was six weeks, it was intensive, it was intense and it was Zoom. So I did it in my house and I was stuck home with my husband and my kids. So it was perfect timing.
Speaker 2:And when I went back to school that September, everything had changed. The world had changed. Kids were different, everything was different. We had X's on the gym floor, we couldn't play catch with a ball. So I started doing a lot of yoga with my students and I could really see the benefits. So I thought, okay, now's the time. Now's the time I'm going to write a curriculum, because I had been doing it before. But I just been piecing things together and I kept looking online and just I just wish somebody had a book or something I could follow and there wasn't anyone. So I took all my experiences from teaching yoga classes at the gym and working with my kids' athletic teams and things that I did in class, and I collaborated with another elementary PE teacher and I put together the K-5 curriculum and my sister did the artwork. She's an art teacher out in Denver.
Speaker 2:And what we did was we came up with six poses per grade level. One breath, K through five. So by the end of it you have six breaths and 36 poses. Each grade level has four lesson plans. Each lesson plan has a game or activity and then a written mat sequence. So my favorite example is a first grade lesson. The kids play red light, green light, and you freeze and you go into chair pose, or you freeze and you go into tree pose, and then I wrote a mat sequence using those poses and some of the poses that they learned in kindergarten, because it's comprehensive. So all the PE teacher has to do is get up there and read the mat sequence and then hold up the cards of chair pose, tree pose. So if you're not comfortable demonstrating, you don't have to, it's all there for you. Or have the kids read it and hold up the poses, make it really interactive.
Speaker 2:It's also attached to shape standards and outcomes. Unfortunately it came out before the new shape standards came out in 2024, but it still has value. At some point I'll go back and make some edits. But there are also helpful hints. There are pre and post assessments, formative assessments, summative assessments, and that book went over so well that people asked for a middle school one, and I'm a middle school teacher, so that was a. Really. That was actually much easier to do.
Speaker 2:And the second time around, my sister and I, you know, we tweaked it and we worked really well together. So the second one came out and it's the same format four lessons. Each lesson has a game or an activity and then a written math sequence. And I think when people think of yoga in a PE class, they picture, you know, the lights off and it being calm and everybody being quiet, which, no, no, no, that's that hardly ever happens in a PE class. In fact, the academic teachers don't want that. They want the kids to come in and run around and, you know, do all their screaming and yelling, get out their energy, so to speak. Right, and then, you know, play the games, teach them, you know they get to practice the skills and then settle them down with a mat sequence so they're calm before they leave the gym.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. You really thought of everything. How did you come up with the idea of having the, the game and the assessment and all of that? Was it kind of when you taught it? Was it trial and error?
Speaker 2:Trial by fire is what I call it. Again, I've been teaching for 27 years, since 2016,. 2017 is when I came back with my yoga attitude. I would try little things here and there To get the kids to be quiet. Last period on a Friday wasn't going to happen. Then, when they come in first period on a Monday, they're a little bit sleepy. There's that balance of you have to meet them where they're at and when an activity is going well, let it go a little bit longer and then, when something's not going that well, change it, have that bag of tricks. So I have a really big bag of yoga tricks. So I started sorting through all them and wanted to put something together where every teacher, every PE teacher in the district, could have this book. So you know what they did in third grade, you know what they're going to do in fifth grade and by eighth grade, you know that they already know all those poses.
Speaker 1:That's really valuable to have something like that, where everyone is aware and cognizant of what's happening with the curriculum and so there's no surprises. And it also kind of builds upon each other right the six through eight is building upon the K through five, so that's really cool that you do that.
Speaker 2:I think what's unique about it is my sister's a teacher too, and she's an art teacher, so she's very much into the visuals, so she's the one who actually came up with the ideas of spinners and dice that you could cut out, and so it's hands-on for the kids.
Speaker 2:Um, and the breaths, too, making breath cards. Um, I teach a unified PE class and I use the breath cards with them and we've made dice and it's just been. There's just so many ways you can use it, and that every. Even though this book's been out for a couple of years, I'm still using it and finding different ways to do it, and I love it because it's for teachers, by teachers.
Speaker 1:Right, those are the best type of books, right? Tell us a little bit about the Unified PE. Some of our listeners might not be familiar with that.
Speaker 2:Oh, so that's a class that we have in our curriculum in our middle school. So we have eighth graders working with kids with intensive needs. It's a whole trimester long and we do a lot of activities. It's all about inclusion and just the past couple of weeks the kids we know, with the good weather and then the bad weather again have been a little bit off. So we've started focusing on breathing just to help us self-regulate. And it's really great because they roll the die and they see the bumblebee, and my students will know to inhale through the nose and then exhale with a zzzz, and what they're really doing is exhaling longer than their inhale, which stimulates the vagus nerve, which is designed to calm and relax the body.
Speaker 1:Exhale longer than inhale and that stimulates the vagus nerve and that response is relaxation of the body.
Speaker 2:So when you just tell somebody to breathe you're not helping them.
Speaker 1:So just calm down, yeah, to breathe. You're not helping them, all right, so just calm down. Yeah, yeah, calm down Focus. How many times have we said that?
Speaker 2:So when my students are arguing about something in a game and they come over to me, I'll fire it up. I say, ok, pick a breath, snake breath or buzzing breath. And they do it. And they stand there and go. And I say, okay, pick a breath, snake breath or buzzing breath. And they do it. And they stand there and go. And then I say, are you calm? And if they're not, I make them do it again. And so I'm teaching them that you can't talk, you can't solve your problems unless you are regulated, unless you are calm. Right, I don't care who stepped out of bounds, I don't care who double dribbled or whatever the call is. You know, calm yourself down, and then we can talk about it.
Speaker 1:Right, you're giving them specific details. That's really cool, so important. So, in addition, obviously, to teaching skills and content, we want to make sure that PE, and in your case, you, do a lot of yoga or teach a lot of yoga. How do we, how do you, ensure that yoga slash, pe, is a brave, safe space for everyone, for all bodies? What are some things you use or do?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I think one of the most important things is to be is to use trauma-informed language, and it's basically good common practices for all teachers. But I took a course through child-led education and it was trauma-informed yoga. Took a course through child-led education and it was trauma-informed yoga, and it made me think about you know how you the words you use. Um, for example and I don't mean to be crass instead of saying spread your legs, you say widen your stance right.
Speaker 2:Or instead of saying bend over, you say hinge at the waist right right and then, when I'm doing a mass sequence, um, I'll stand underneath the basketball hoop and I have all the kids lined up on the three point line and I want them to have their heads towards me. If they're lying on their backs, I want their heads towards me and not their feet right, and I'll say well, it's because I want to see your smiling faces and I want you to be able to hear my voice. But I know that, being a yoga, I don't want to put them in a vulnerable position and having their legs and feet away from me they're more comfortable and nobody's ever behind anybody else.
Speaker 1:So when you talk about trauma-informed, some of the language you said, instead of saying like spread or bend over those words might be triggering right For the students. So using a different set of words that may be more appropriate and sensitive to students.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you can't always see trauma, so you don't know what somebody has been through and we need to avoid triggers. The other thing I do in yoga is I pick my battles. One of the things that I treat my yoga mats like your mom's really precious rug that she doesn't want anybody walking on with their muddy sneakers, right? So I always say no shoes on the mats. If there's somebody who's really really opposed to that or refuses to take their shoes off, then I give them an older yoga mat, one that I don't care about as much, or one of the big green gym mats that are in the gym, and they can keep their shoes on. And I try not to make a big deal about it because I don't want to turn somebody off to yoga over something simple like that right you know, they might just be having a day where they don't want to take their shoes off.
Speaker 1:Right. Everything doesn't have to be a power shrug right. That's right, that's right, stick your battles. I like that. I like that. It's good advice. Kristen, how do you engage or support your learners through the yoga program? What are some things you do?
Speaker 2:Well, I try to make it real life for them. You know, who do you know that does yoga? Why do people do yoga? You know, and just open up with that conversation and you know what are some of its benefits, and then I show them videos or pictures of people who practice yoga. I remember a few years ago I always use this example, whether you love him or hate him LeBron James, when he broke the NBA scoring record at 38,000 points. You know I would tell the kids Google LeBron James and yoga. He's been doing it since 2016. And he says that yoga is the reason why he can play basketball for so long.
Speaker 2:Think about what you love. Don't you want to get good at it? Don't you want to do it forever and be injury free? And that really gets the athletes, especially the boys. The boys tend to think that yoga is more of a girl thing, which is funny because actually, when yoga started, it was the men that would go up on the mountains and meditate and breathe, so they were the ones who actually did yoga before the women.
Speaker 2:But again I think it's become Americanized, westernized.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you see more pictures of females on the ads or the YouTube videos.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially with yoga clothes and leisure wear. So much has changed.
Speaker 1:Right. What a great tip, though, for those male students to give them an example from an athlete like you mentioned, that they can relate to, And so now they see, oh, they're like he's, you know, top level performer practicing yoga, and he's practicing this long and he's how it can benefit them as well. That's great. That's a great great tool.
Speaker 2:I think more and more people are doing it. There's yoga for first responders, there's yoga for military, yoga, for athletes, yoga for differently abled students, yoga for elderly. I mean you could really just. I mean they even have like puppy yoga now.
Speaker 1:Are they really? Is it yoga for animals?
Speaker 2:Yes, my daughter actually went and spent money on it and I said do you know who your mother is? Right? And she said but mom, they're golden retrievers. And I said you have a golden golden retriever, like why are you driving to Cambridge anyways that's so interesting. Yoga's for everyone, including animals.
Speaker 2:I guess right well, that's.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So, kristen, you've presented at many different PE conferences around the country, around the state. What are some common questions that folks have when they come up to you after you? Either before you you demonstrated or given your presentation, or after right?
Speaker 2:um, one thing that people ask me is and it's interesting, depending on where you go in the country um, you know, what do you do if somebody says yoga is a religion? And when I was presenting out in Colorado, I mean it came up in conversation and they said oh no, everybody does yoga out here, you know, and then other places maybe, where perhaps they're a little bit more conservative. So I always tell people you know, get the support of your administration. And of course, parents want to know what they're being taught, what their children are being taught at school. I have two children. Parents want to know what they're being taught, what their children are being taught at school.
Speaker 2:I have two children. I want to know what's being taught in their schools and I think that's why it's so valuable to have my curriculum, to have the book and you can open it up and show them the pictures. There's no Sanskrit and it's all to improve muscular strength, flexibility and just to teach kids how to breathe and move in their bodies, just breathing and moving, breathing and moving. And I think a lot of people are afraid of things that they don't know.
Speaker 2:A lot of those isms right Racism, sexism, racism. And people know what they don't fear, or, I'm sorry, people fear what they don't know. So if you can tell them what they're being taught and what they're actually doing, they'll probably say oh yeah, my kid can play red light, green light and freeze and go into chair pose. You know, that's not what I thought it was. And I also tell people you know, yoga has really been around forever. The word mantra you know we tell kids to to think positively to get a positive affirmation. Mantra means message in sanskrit oh um and karma.
Speaker 2:Karma means what goes around comes around. That's sanskrit too. So I I just I think it's changing over the years, but I just wish people wouldn't be so afraid. Um, I do think there are some people that say it's a religion and I can't teach it, because maybe they just don't want to teach it, Maybe they're afraid themselves, Maybe they think they're going to have to get out and demonstrate. You know, a little down dog in front of the class which you don't have to. And anytime I present I don't have a mat with me. And I'll say to the other PE teachers like my yoga mat. You know, we kind of laugh and I said I'm going to teach you how to teach yoga without you having to demonstrate it.
Speaker 2:I teach a lot of things I've never played and things that I'm uncomfortable with Flag football, rugby, volleyball I never played any of those sports right, but I still teach it. So when people say, oh, I don't do yoga, I can't teach it, well, if you think it has value, go to conferences, get educated, learn about it, and we all make mistakes when we're teaching something new. It takes time to build that confidence. Absolutely, it's so comfortable.
Speaker 1:You bring up a point about a growth mindset and trying something just because the teacher might not be comfortable neck out a little bit and then teaching the students things they need dance, yoga, maybe some alternative activities that aren't your traditional units, right, maybe skateboarding or archery. So that's, that's really important and I think, um, teachers who do that go a long way in serving their students in their community, and sounds like you're doing that every day.
Speaker 2:so and you got to remember too, so many kids don't like sports, don't play sports. It's different than when you and I grew up. We were always outside playing until it was dark. Kids are different today, and one thing I have really been thinking about a lot lately is when I hear people say that they do yoga and they just have the kids follow along on a video. That would be like a history teacher putting on the history channel to teach about you know, whatever unit. It is Right. Of course it's OK to like you know show clips and different things and, you know, maybe like a video of a sun salutation, and then everybody can practice it. But we're not going to keep our jobs if we're just pressing the play button.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, really engage the students, demonstrate, teach them the value, like you said earlier, the standards, why they're doing it, what they're learning, and then also, as you mentioned, including the parents or the caregivers if they want to see what they're learning, and and then also, as you mentioned, including the parents or the caregivers if they want to see what's happening. It's always important to be able to share that information with them, and so anybody can really pick up this book, read it, and the pictures are on there, the assessments are on there, the tips what is it called? The bag of tricks or bag of tips you have so I have helpful hints written in the book I have a big bag of yoga tricks Okay.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, kristen. How has yoga, or the teaching of yoga, changed or remained the same since you first started?
Speaker 2:So, again, trial by fire. I, you know, I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, Um, and I've learned to. I've learned to teach it with confidence, and I find myself saying things like everything we do in here matters. You know, what might be your favorite activity might not be somebody else's. You know, and I think that's an example of my students are comfortable with me and they, they will tell me when they like something, when they don't like something, and I say that's okay, we're all entitled to our opinions. But you know, we, we have a curriculum to follow and we're going to do yoga to strengthen and lengthen our muscles and, um, and I have a yoga code of conduct. Um, I use rubrics to assess their breathing. You know, you're a four if you know which breath to use in which situation, down to a one who doesn't attempt to breathe properly. So assessment drives curriculum and instruction. It's all related and you can assess in yoga just like you can in anything else.
Speaker 1:Tell us a little bit about the code of conduct. Is that specific to yoga, obviously, or no?
Speaker 2:Yes. So we do a lot of players' code of conduct and you can make it five or ten points whether you want to do it. You know two points a category. But it's things like um, treat the, the mats with care. So no shoes on the mat. Um logo side up. And I have them, fold them and put them a certain way. So teaching responsibility through handling the equipment, being mindful on the mat.
Speaker 2:So there's a time where you can be loud and run around, but then when you're on the mat, that's your time to practice. And I always say too, it's a practice, it doesn't have to be perfect. You might be able to do something really well and you might struggle one day and you might be great the next. Let's see Keeping your hands and feet inside the mat, because middle school sometimes you know they like to kick each other or push each other. So being safe and you know trying your best.
Speaker 2:That's things like you know following along, you know when kids are actively engaged and when they're not. And just by having this code of conduct they know how they're supposed to behave. And I tell them too someday you know, if you go into a yoga class and you act like that, you know they're going to kick you out. This is how you behave when you're in a yoga class, so you're setting them up for success for in the future. So someday, if they do join a class outside of school, which is ultimately what we want our students to do as PE teachers we want them to be lifelong learners and competent movers.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. You're getting them set up for success by teaching them what they what they should be doing and what they what they shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 2:And you're right.
Speaker 1:They could really love this and join a studio or join a club, so that's really cool. As you come to a close, Kristen, what are some goals? You have either professional or personal goals.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, someday when I grow up, what I'd really like to do is continue to present at conferences. I'm going to go to Illinois in December, in Connecticut in November and of course, present at MAPERD again in Massachusetts. I would like to offer more professional development to schools because I think, especially as PE teachers, we really need valuable professional development.
Speaker 2:We need things that apply to us. We need things. We need to learn from people who are doing what you're doing right now, not somebody who's been out of the field for a few years or isn't interacting with kids the way we are on a daily basis. Another thing I've been doing is working with future professionals. I did a training at Bridgewater State University and two at Springfield College, and that's really exciting because those are the kids who are going to be student teaching soon. You know, and they're told okay, you have to do a yoga unit and they go. I don't know anything about yoga, so I came and did a training and they bought my books, and so I think that's just another way, the ripple effect just getting it out there. But I do love teaching. I have a few years left and I would really like to make presenting and sharing yoga my post-teaching career. Any books in the future? Any more books?
Speaker 1:or are we sticking with the K to five and six to eight? I don't know if my mom will let my sister and me do another book because she was in the future any more books, or are we sticking with the k to five and six to eight?
Speaker 2:I don't know if my mom will let my sister and me do another book, because oh really she was in the middle of it, so much I'd call her and say, oh, she did this, and. But you know, we're sisters and we're tight and we put together something really great.
Speaker 2:But I am working on a high school curriculum okay um and I think I'm going to do it digitally um, I I don't know if I have it in me to print and publish another book, but I think this will be really helpful for high school teachers especially. You know, high schoolers, they're a different breed, so I'm going to collaborate with some of my high school friends and see what we can come up with.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. You mentioned that the first book was really hard and the second was a little easier, right? The 68 was easier, so the 9 through 12 should be a little bit easier, right.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll see. You know, nothing is ever really really easy. But, as I mentioned before, middle school is my sweet spot and that's the age I know the best.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic, but that's really good to hear, too, that you are going into the colleges and offering your expertise with pre-service teachers, because those are those teachers that are going to come out into the field and eventually teach Once we all retire. They're the next generation, so it's good we're going to tap the torch. That's right, but they're getting that quality background about yoga and the resources that are so necessary Right.
Speaker 2:And I say to them too, when you go on an interview you can say I had this yoga training and you can speak to it definitely so it's a differential that they can put in their portfolio absolutely so, kristen.
Speaker 1:How can our listeners connect with you? What type of uh social media are you on or or not on?
Speaker 2:I'm learning my teenagers. My two children make fun of me because I'm on instagram and I'm apparently not as cool as they are. But you can follow me at YogaInPhysEd. Okay, that's my handle. I have a website, yogainphysedcom.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Believe it or not. My email is YogaInPhysEd at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:It makes it easy. Everything is the same.
Speaker 2:That's right, and the books are on Amazon.
Speaker 1:Books are on Amazon. Okay, so you go to Amazon and are there any Kindle versions, or are they both hard copies?
Speaker 2:No not Kindle versions. One thing that we're working on, hopefully this summer, is to create a card deck, but the book is designed for teachers to rip out or tear out the poses and laminate them.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, for visual needs. That's interesting. Not a lot of books offer that, so you can actually rip the pages out?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I would suggest a straight edge. You know a box cutter, but yes, that's, that's what I do and I laminate them and I, when I go to conferences, I have a book that is torn apart and then it should. I show the teachers what it looks like laminated's so cool.
Speaker 1:All right, so we will make sure they have all of your information in the show notes, and I hope our listeners take uh check you out and take uh all the resources that you have to offer with them. So thank you so much, Kristen, for sharing your experience and time with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you, jake.
Speaker 1:Thank you definitely. We'll have to do it again sometime. Likewise, listeners, if you have any questions, please email us. We'll have this episode uploaded soon. We're also asking our listeners to rate and review this podcast, as it does help other folks find it. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we will be back soon.
