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"
Access for all through Innovative P.E.
What happens when genuine passion for movement meets resourcefulness and creativity? Bradley Land, a K-8 physical education teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, demonstrates how innovative thinking and creativity can transform physical education without breaking the bank.
Bradley's journey to becoming an award-winning PE teacher took an unexpected path. Starting with a love for soccer and art, he discovered his true calling while working as a paraprofessional with special education students. His experience in adaptive PE shaped his teaching philosophy: creating accessible movement opportunities for every child regardless of ability or resources available.
When the pandemic hit, Bradley turned challenge into opportunity by developing video content for his students. His DIY approach transforms everyday materials into effective teaching tools—creating volleyball standards for under $60 that would typically cost hundreds, designing modified games and crafting innovative adaptations that allow all students to participate successfully.
The beauty of Bradley's work lies in its accessibility. Each activity offers multiple entry points, ensuring students with different abilities can engage meaningfully. This inclusivity reflects his fundamental belief that physical education should meet students where they are while challenging them to grow. His advice to fellow educators resonates with authenticity: "There's nothing wrong with trying something new... don't be afraid of it. I've had to step out of my comfort zone with this a lot."
Throughout our conversation, Bradley's commitment to sharing knowledge shines through. Whether presenting to colleagues, posting short instructional videos, or connecting with educators globally, his focus remains on making movement meaningful for all students.
Follow his creative journey:
Email: pandaphysed22@gmail.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@pelearnplay
Instagram: @pelearnplay
TikTok: @pelearnplay
Hello, welcome to Voices from the Field. This is a MAHPERD podcast. Today we have Bradley Land. He is an incredible educator. I met him on social media and he's a K-8 physical education teacher based in Phoenix, arizona, with a passion for making movement meaningful and fun for kids. Before his current role, he specialized in adaptive PE, working to ensure inclusive and accessible physical education for all students. In 2021, Bradley was honored as the Teacher of the Year in his school district, a reflection of his dedication and impact in the field, designed to support PE professionals by sharing engaging activities, skill-building games, kid-friendly workouts and creative instructional or do-it-yourself content for the classroom and beyond. Welcome, Bradley. Hello, it's great to be able to connect with you and thank you so much for saying yes to this podcast. I'm really psyched about this. Before we get started, what's making you smile these days?
Bradley:Well, great question. Summer vacation for me, I guess. You know, I guess, if you can call it that, I think doing stuff with the kid a lot sometimes is as much a vacation right, absolutely, you know, always out and about and doing things so, but just a good time to spend quality time with family friends. You know I got to, I'm from St Louis, missouri, so I got to go back there and see my whole family and spend a lot of time there with my wife and kid and you know he got to see his cousins and you know all that stuff, yeah, every day, and it's just a blast.
Bradley:It makes you just smile a lot, you know. And then, of course, being here with you, jake, I mean this is an amazing opportunity for me, my first podcast, so I mean making me smile.
Jake:Oh, that's awesome. , it's great to spend time with family and, as you know, as teachers we need that break. We kind of need that downtime to rejuvenate and rest after the year. So that's great to hear Bradley. So tell our listeners more. How did you start your education journey? Tell us about that.
Bradley:So my educational journey probably wasn't exactly a linear path in terms of being a teacher. I don't know how much I ever really considered that growing up per se. You know, I do remember, a long time ago maybe, when I was like seven or something years old and my parents would ask hey, what do you want to do when you grow up? And I would say something like well, I want to be a soccer player. Okay, well, if you're not a soccer player, what else do you want to be? I want a job where I can just play all day and run around, not to say that's what exactly you know. Pe obviously is. Exactly you know, pe obviously is. But, and especially as more as I got older, my interest was actually in art, and in high school I took a lot of art classes and I went to college to play soccer. So I was on that path and to maybe do art when I was in college. I also got into coaching at the youth level for soccer, and then, when I decided to kind of ditch the art, I thought maybe going into education might be a good path. And you know, I just set myself up on a physical education path, while I kind of tested some other things in college as well school education path while I kind of tested some other things in college as well, like sports management or something like that, and you know some training things. Even after college ended I tested maybe going into counseling or something, but I always stuck with the coaching and so I actually, after soccer was over, I graduated with just educational studies. I didn't go ahead and do my student teaching. I was like I just came here to play, and you know I'm still figuring it out.
Bradley:So but no, as I was coaching in one of my camps, another leader of this camp, he put me in as a day job, getting connected with special education school district in St Louis, and I had a day job as a paraprofessional and I mean, what an experience that was. It was amazing, the little girl I worked with. I mean we developed some amazing bond, you know. And as I was working in there too, I would see this guy come in and he would come to PE classes with us sometimes and he was an adaptive PE teacher. I was like you know, that seems like a job I would really like. So, um, anyway, I went back, I did my student teaching and I got to do half of it at that school and half at another school, had a really great experience in that and um, ultimately, when my career crossroads kind of hit to where either I went one direction coaching or the other direction, being a PE teacher, I moved to Phoenix Arizona and became a PE teacher. So that's, that's kind of the journey, yeah that's great.
Jake:So you had, the experience with the special education and then coaching and I think those kind of combined together where you are now Right and it sounds like you had a couple of people that push you along the way too. That really kind of motivated you and inspired you to take the next step. So that's great too. Yeah, absolutely, you know absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about the classroom. What are, what are some unique ways you engage and support your students?
Bradley:Either you can talk about the videos you do or talk about just some other ways that are unique. Well, I think the videos I mean is one way. Um, so the videos is something that's, I think, relatively new in terms of, uh, you know, it's something that I had never really considered until, uh, covid had hit and I feel like that's a lot of what happened you know, for a lot of people, A lot of people gain new skills during that time, Absolutely Certainly.
Bradley:For me that was one of them videos, and you know I was just looking things up myself whatever was out there at the time and then trying to do the best.
Bradley:One difference was I definitely wasn't posting anything at the time, but you know I was using what I could make uh, to, reach my students and then some of the, and then I also in my school district at that time um I don't know if they heard about it or something, but they developed an online school for the following school year and I happen to be the one of the kindergarten through second grade curriculum video content people, if you will, to make that for you know a semester or two, and they still, I guess, use that for their online school today.
Bradley:That's great, yeah. So we will use the content for the kid-friendly workouts that I'll create or something like that, of course, like for maybe kids come into class. We happen to have a two way projector in our school, so even for large classes, it's the easy way to just throw something on and they're working out at the time. You can go around, check in with students, you know, do the exercise with them, you know, see what they like. I have things that are like pick and choose, so like workouts, so kids can choose what they want. So you kind of get like what the kids like, you know, um, but I'd say, generally, keeping things fresh so.
Bradley:I think it's really important. You know I don't know unique wise, but I know for me, based off maybe some things that people may have seen, is and it is probably my adaptive PE experience is I, if I see something that I think might engage students, I'm going to try and make it. If I can't afford it Right, buying it for the school buying it for the school.
Jake:Um, that's such a great, great quality. I mean, I'm thinking of the ones that I I saw you have a bunch, um, but the one I specifically I saw was the badminton birdie attached right with the paper clip and you have to hit it and then it goes off, it spins. Yeah, it's like a paddle skill where you have the birdie attached to another object, a pole or something. Yeah, so it's so creative and, like you said, you don't, you don't have to go out and buy it, you can make it. And just so our listeners are aware, these are all videos that you, you are in yourself and that you created. You're not taking, you know, some other video the kids, and I'm sure that motivates the students to see their pe teacher in the video, you know so yeah, yeah.
Bradley:So, yeah, on that note, like, um, you know one of the things and, uh, you know, I think it's a great game. I mean, it seems that way is a I don't know. Jazz mitten, for instance, is like this one where it's like badminton, it looks like, but you're hitting it through a square, or like you know, and I look up online I'm like, oh my gosh, this costs a pretty penny. And I was like, no, like I know that my upper grades would love to try it, like it's a challenge of hitting it through. And, um, you know, what ended up happening is again like, I think, keeping things fresh and it'd be ability to change, like even within the class, just changing what you see, uh, and changing the rules to make it accessible for everyone.
Bradley:So, in this game, for instance, I was like, well, I really want to play this, but I can't afford that. But what I do have are volleyball poles and I have rope and I have, you know, clothespins and juggling scarves. So a lot of things maybe PE teachers might already have and, like, a lot of people already have pickleball paddles or paddles of some sort so all I did was I just set up a couple ropes and just put juggling scarves to make squares all the way across the gym.
Bradley:We got like 18 courts going at. Like one time you could play 2v2, hitting it through the area. Or I said like if that's too much of a challenge and you want to play somebody just hitting it over, you could hit over the top one or you could just play hitting it over the bottom rope. So it gave them many different options to play.
Jake:Right, many different access points. I think that's what I really like about your videos, bradley, is there's so many different options and they're so easy to understand. I mean, we're a lot of us are pressed for time, right as teachers. You have, I don't know how many shorts you have. You don't have the top of your head. I don't it's a lot of shorts. So, um you know, for our listeners that don't know, shorts have to be what under a certain time frame, right?
Bradley:they were. They definitely they had to be under a minute and I still shoot for that because I that's what I'm used to. That's where the music I put in cooperates the most. But but also, yeah, they used to be under a minute. I think you two did up it to three minutes, but that's too long for me. I might be cutting it right.
Jake:Yeah, that's awesome. So, bradley, let's talk about the creative process. When you're developing, when you have an idea, how do you develop the video like what's what goes through your head or what are the steps? Do you have like a template that you made up, or or what are some? What are some of your go-to strategies for idea and then implementation?
Bradley:so, like the, the creative process, I would say, you know it's. It's difficult because to explain, because I I don't have something where I, like you know, I guess, an initial goal that I'm I'm working on, let's say it just be more or less either in the moment, this is a need for us. So I'm going to like, uh, try this, you know, and if it works, let's post it, you know, cause you know it worked and it's fun. Or even I might be posting things. I'm like I'm just sitting there and I I remember doing that as an adaptive PE teacher and I think this might be helpful, so I'm going to out there, you know, uh, in terms of uh, the workout videos and stuff, I get a lot of my inspiration from a couple other uh channels on youtube that I primarily started watching and using uh, during those covid times with my students, like right off the bat, uh, you know. So I see some of their ideas and then maybe I want to take it a different direction.
Bradley:Just based on the students. I know, and again, same thing. Now that I know how to do it differently to a point where I think it might be a little engaging, I post those on YouTube as well.
Jake:You know same ideas you have, you try them with your student and then they're successful. You want to share it with the wider audience. Is that right? Correct, yeah, okay, that's awesome. That's awesome. What are so talking about? Your channel? Do you have any long-term goals or, you know, do you check the metrics on audience growth? Or it's really just about, like you said, getting seeing what the students need and then making a video to help them be successful, right?
Bradley:Yeah, yeah, my long term I don't. In terms of the channel itself, you know I've kind of gone through ways because you know, just a little background on the channel is that initially it actually started out as speech learning play, which was a combination of PE and speech. My, my wife she is a speech language pathologist, ok, so you know she knew I was good at making these things, at least for my students, and in terms she would hear about that or hear from my colleagues or whatever. She knew I was good at making these things, at least for my students, in terms she would hear about that or hear from my colleagues, or whatever. She had a PLC, a group that wanted to do a video for speech. I made something for them based on her advice.
Bradley:I'm not a speech-language pathologist, I just act one on TV. Anyway, they got it back to their PLC group, they presented, they thought it was really good. They're like maybe you should post this stuff on YouTube. And so we kind of started out as a combo channel because I was posting something she wanted to get on there. And then I and then at some point, uh, she was like you know what, I don't need to have anything posted for speech. You could just take it over as pe learn place.
Bradley:We kind of split the channel and then I kept, uh, kept the pe learn in place, so that at the some of my end of my shorts it might say actually speech, learn and play you know interesting yeah that.
Bradley:So it kind of came from that um, uh, but uh, long-term goals, uh, you know, when I first started I got a couple videos. I got these massive views to me. It seemed like in the beginning I'm like, oh man, maybe this could be something more, um, but to be honest, I've kind of gotten away from that idea. Um, so, long-term goals for the channel is probably just to keep putting up things I already do but also then expanding on things. Uh. So you know skills, activities, you know modifications to activities like, or ways that you can adapt an activity within. You know those things. So just keep building on what I already have and then, if other people find it useful, reaching out and you know I did. I've done a couple presentations in my district. I would love somehow if more opportunities came and I got to present in more places and you know, yeah, that's that's great out there.
Jake:This isn't on the script, bradley, but tell us more about that, like when you presented what did you? You showed the, your colleagues, your content or what did. How did that look like? What did? Did that PD look like?
Bradley:So you know a lot of some stuff on there, like I said, it's, you know, like you've seen, is DIY and you know our school was a new school, built in 2020. We opened the school. So we opened the school during COVID and you would think a new school would have all these amazing nice things right For PE. No, I mean, we, we got, you know, a small area we, we don't have. You know volleyball, you know standards or anything that you can just like hang nets across.
Bradley:So you know, we, we, we made all these, and one thing when I present was to my district, especially this last time, was that what's an unknown thing sometimes is that every district might have these vendors that are approved, and one of our district vendors is Lowe's. So you know some of these standards costs. They cost hundreds of dollars, right, a lot of money. But I can make two standards that are functional for volleyball, you know, uh, in under 60 dollars. And you know, using with when you add in the closet rod, steel closet rod that we use. So, um, you know we're able to build over time, a bunch of these standards with the use of, like, a purchase card that our school will give us, you know, or something like that. So, because they know what we're putting it towards.
Bradley:So so you're saving the district money right, You're being creative and you're teaching your colleagues about this, but you're also saving a lot of money too, and that's all the stuff you're doing is practical like yeah, exactly, and then the first, like the first few of them you know it's on my dime, you know, because I gotta see if it works first right, you test it out.
Bradley:Right, test it out yeah, so, um, but you know they're easy, they're, they're easy to make. So, uh, like, generally speaking, like you know, you just do it with the bucket, we do it with the whatever. So I, I will present on how to make these things and first, and then after that, the rest of my presentation at least in this way, which I got good feedback on was a bunch of other things. I created Some of the things that you would be find on the YouTube shorts or elsewhere, and I would have QR codes to each one of those as you go around, and I just allow people to go experiment with all of them. So you go experiment with it. If you have any questions, come find me.
Bradley:You know, in the area I might be helping out other people, you know, and then brainstorming with other people. So I love, like anyone that comes to me like, hey, you got an idea for this? Yeah, I would love to. You know, let's brainstorm and chat about it. During my presentation, I had my pickleball tee, where it kind of is a hanging tee and you can hit the pickleball right off of it, and while I was doing that, some guy was saying that they were on their bet, they were playing badminton and if they had anything for that, I said you got a paperclip. So we hung a paperclip off of that and it fit the birdie right on. You can hit the birdie right off. And then I made a YouTube short for that.
Jake:That's the one I was referring to. Yeah, so that's so creative. Just so many different ideas, and they're all practical. And, again, I love the fact that there's different levels for different folks, different access points. It's not just one way right, there's many different ways that the material can be utilized. So, bradley, what's the most rewarding part about doing all this?
Bradley:the channel aside, from helping your colleagues and the greater audience, right? Well, you know it's interesting. I would say it's, you know, coming from a social media standpoint. You know I want to. I guess one thing I want to put out there is that you know, obviously you know likes, subscribers and followers and all that stuff is is always like nice, but that's kind of like the instant gratification and you know, we're teaching our kids anything. I would be like that's not what you're in it for, you know, and it's not the most rewarding thing at all. The most rewarding thing is like something like this like you know, you see my content, invite me, invite me on here. Uh, I get to speak about it, you know, um oh, it's an honor to have you so it's, it's.
Bradley:I mean it's, it's, that it's like you know the opportunities, the opportunities that seem to have you know the small amount so far that has come from this, you know, has been amazing, the most rewarding. And then also, like when I presented to my district teachers and I got all the feedback from them, I mean it was amazing. It was hugely rewarding from them to hear all the positive things they had to say. And and usually I go into something like that and I'm thinking, you know, if I, you know, get to one or two people like I've done a good job, and like 20 plus, like just great reviews on it from my colleagues, I was like, oh man, I had their attention. It felt great.
Jake:You know that's awesome Good for you, yeah, so, Bradley, I'm sure people listening to like I want to. Maybe I want to do something like this. Do you have any advice to give anybody who maybe wants to start utilizing YouTube as a way to share what they know? You know how, how would you? What advice would you give somebody who just just wants to start? You know?
Bradley:So, actually, you know what that brings to me like a really good, a great comment.
Bradley:This really wise person had said to me when I before I was putting anything really on there, like, or uh, trying more things to put on there, um, there's a quote. I think he put it backwards, so the quote I think I might be wrong, don't put me on the quote, um, but it it says like, uh, good is the enemy of great, but the way this person put it was great is actually the enemy of good. So, um, basically, he put it in terms of don't worry about perfection. If you have a good idea and you want to share it and you think others might enjoy it and it's good enough, put it out there. You know, um, uh, in case anyone like needs to know, or whatever is on my channel youtube channel I have the comments off. Um, you know, so for me, uh, I know that, in terms of probably shooting up the youtube board of whatever you you know, I think comments are necessary, I think in terms of engagement, and then it gets YouTube thinking maybe.
Jake:Like the algorithm rate change. Yeah, we want to showcase this For me.
Bradley:I have them off. I you know, although it would be nice to interact with people that find the things useful, ultimately you'll you'll get negative ones too, I'm sure so are people that just get on there to you know say something unnecessary and um, it's something that part of it right now either I'm not comfortable with, I'm not interested in.
Bradley:So, uh, really, uh, I would say, know, know yourself, put out something that you love to put out, so it doesn't feel like a ton of extra work, because making these things is it's work in time.
Jake:Right.
Bradley:So, and I would you know other than that it's like, once you start doing it, you'll start realizing you know what you can do, you can do better, or you know how you can do it faster or what programs work the best for you. It sounds like.
Jake:You get into a flow of things and you know what works and what doesn't work and you capitalize on making the everything more efficient right as the process goes on. So, um, it's very interesting, brad. You know how you're talking about. You know not. The likes are nice, but it's not the main thing. It's really, especially with the way the YouTube algorithm works. You mentioned the comments and how that could help, but it's really about having a passion for what you do. Just like you said, try your best, you know, and put it out there If you think it's, youtube's ready for it. But I did have a question about the YouTube and the platform itself. Is there what is something that you wish more people understood? Or are there any misunderstandings about the platform of YouTube in your line of work, what you do?
Bradley:Well, what I you know, I think YouTube seems, it seems tough in terms of making it. You know, um, I you know, I think it would be a grind, like I mean you definitely got I think anyone that's looking at people that create content in any kind of way um, even even if you have a group, the stuff takes time. You know, it's a it's a lot of time out of your day. The best time for me usually to get videos done is like early in the morning, before anybody in my house is awake. Got it, so you know other than that.
Bradley:I got a four-year-old running to try and play with me you know, I got you know, father, and at work, and everything.
Bradley:You know. Taking the video part is the easiest part. Putting it all together it takes a lot of time, you know finding. You know I've listened through. I mean, I like my taste of music that I put with it. But you know, just sifting through the soundtrack that you want to put in with your videos and you know just sifting through the soundtrack that you want to put in with your videos and you know, or how you want to come across to make it as engaging as you believe it will be. You know it all. It all takes a lot of thought and time and and I think that's that's coming from me who you know I don't, I'm not monetized or anything Like. I'm not, I'm not monetized or anything like.
Bradley:I'm not, I'm not making any money off of it and I'm definitely doing it more for the love of it and more for the sharing of it. But I know, if you're going into it with that angle, just be prepared to. You know, put in the work because it's work, it is work.
Jake:No, that's honest. I mean, yeah, you're being that's, that's good advice. We're coming to the close of this interview, but I did have a couple of questions. What type of goals do you have in the future? They could be personal or professional.
Bradley:Yeah, so I think I touched on a couple of them, you know, on the. I guess guess their personal and professional is like I, you know, I I am looking into, you know, maybe joining a few more organizations. Now my kids a little bit older, things are a little bit more feasible in that way. Um, I definitely want to get out and, you know, present to more people, or like, at least get out in front of more people. I would, you know, more PE teachers, make more connections. That's been really helpful in this too is the more people who see you. You see the more people that have PE teachers and that are PE teachers out there and you connect with them, or you see their stuff and you're like, oh yeah, I'm going to do that in my class too, you know, or my, my, you know my kids would love this. Um, so, like you know, the, you know personal goals is just more connection. Um, and professionally, you know, yeah, it's just more organizations, more presentations, maybe more conferences too you know.
Jake:So you, you, you're, you've gone to um, you have your local pd right, that's for your school district and then you're thinking about maybe like more shape america's, those type of things. There's a lot of online pp conferences, too. That'll be. That are good. A lot of online networks, um, there's hp collective. Have you heard of that? Um, uh, yeah, I think I just just heard of that. Just okay, yeah, it's pretty good and so I'll. I can share more about that with you later on, but, yeah, that's a great, that's great advice. Um, just be involved. So, bradley, um, do you have any advice you can share with our listeners? Is there anything that that you would like them to take away?
Bradley:yeah, um, I mean, based off of just like you know what I do, really, um, I would say there's nothing wrong with trying something new. You know, um, we teach that to our kids all the time. So if you have an idea out there, um, doesn't not talking about making, putting up videos or anything like that, but just in the classroom too, you're just like sitting there, like, oh man, this could be better, or I could try and do this with my students, or, you know, I want to give this a go like don't, be like afraid of it. I've had to step out of my comfort zone with this. You know a lot and I think, just trying something new and just seeing if it takes.
Bradley:If it doesn't, we have another day, you know, or we try something, we try something else new, and then also, you know, this is just again, again, personal standpoint is just be yourself. You know, we recently had student teachers, last past semester at our school I co-teach, and we got lucky and we got two of them. We just got one, oh wow, yeah, it was great. We just got one. Oh wow, and yeah, it was great.
Jake:But one thing I wanted to make sure that I told them.
Bradley:You know, going into this profession too is especially coming from us as mentor teachers was. You know, we don't want them to be mini me's, mini us, and just like each one of our students, each one of our classes are different and they learn the best in different ways. No teacher teaches the same, teaches the same way, or don't? You don't need to copy another person. You can be yourself. You can, you know, do what is best for you and for the kids you know, and find your happy medium so that it's the best experience for everyone, so that it's the best experience for everyone. And you know, I, yeah, I think that they reached that while they're under our care and you know they're two great young guys and they'll do great, and so, you know, that's that's probably. That's probably my best. Two cents I think I could put out there.
Jake:Very, very well said, Bradley. I couldn't agree more. So obviously you're on a bunch of different social media platforms. So we have an email right PandaFizzed22 at gmailcom. Then we have YouTube, youtubecom at P-E-Learn-Play, and then Instagram at P-E-Learn-Play, and then TikTok right At P-E-Learn-Play. So it's all the same hashtag, so to speak, or handle right At P, learn, play.
Bradley:So it's all the same hashtag, so to speak, or handle right, correct. Yeah, I'm fortunate that it worked out that way, because I've started each one later down the road as I think oh, maybe I should be on that one too.
Jake:I guess it worked out yeah.
Bradley:Anything that's on YouTube Shorts is probably on Instagram, and then Instagram has a couple other things that don't really fit into YouTube Shorts, has a couple other things that don't really fit into YouTube shorts. It's like I know I have a on that one. For instance, I have like some PowerPoints that could be helpful for PE teachers, and then, but yeah, anything on TikTok is probably on Instagram. So I just started that weeks ago.
Jake:Oh, awesome. Good for you Bradley. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and expertise with us Listeners. If you have any questions, you can always email us at mahperd podcast@gmail. com We'll have this episode uploaded soon. We're also asking our listeners to leave a review If this podcast has been helpful in supporting you in any way, as it does help other folks find it. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we'll be back soon.
