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"
A conversation with Brad Hunter: National APE Teacher Of The Year!
As the 2025 Shape America National Adapted PE Teacher of the Year, Brad brings a refreshing perspective to adaptive physical education. Rather than focusing on what students can't do, he zeroes in on what standards are truly asking students to learn. "When you start opening yourself up to what am I actually being asked to teach the student—not what may be implied from our PE experience—that can be a huge unlock," Brad explains.
This approach has led to transformative moments in his Baltimore City Public Schools gymnasiums. A lunch table becomes a "surfboard" for a student frightened of balance beams. A pair of tall cones with painter's tape creates a modified badminton net for a wheelchair user, attracting a line of peers wanting to join. Laminated cards give a reluctant student control over creating dance routines, turning resistance into leadership.
These adaptations aren't just clever workarounds—they represent Brad's philosophy that success comes through patience, creativity, and resilience. "When students don't experience success, that's not a reflection on the student or yourself. It just means we haven't yet found the solution for this student to access this skill or activity," he shares.
Brad's impact extends beyond direct instruction through his commitment to communication and collaboration. He connects with parents after every session, not just sharing updates but actively seeking their expertise about their children. This partnership approach, combined with his work as president of the Maryland Adapted PE Consortium and service on multiple education committees, has created ripples throughout his district and beyond. Join us in reimagining physical education where every student experiences the joy of movement on their own terms.
Want to bring Brad's adaptive PE insights to your program?
Connect with Brad:
Email-bbhunter@bcpsk12.md.us
Blueskye-@BHunterinBmore
MAPEC -Free to join and all webinars are posted.
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 Brad Hunter. Brad is the 2025 Shape America National Adapted PE Teacher of the Year. Brad is an itinerant adapted PE teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools, responsible for services across 20 different schools. Brad is the president of the Maryland Adapted PE Consortium, also known as MAPEC, and serves on the board of SHAPE Maryland and is the co-chair of the Maryland State Department of Education PE Standards and Framework Committee. Welcome to the show, Brad.
Brad:Awesome to be here, Jake. I'm glad you were able to fit that all in. The resume gets long after you approach your second decade, I know.
Jake:No, I hear you, brad. It's great to connect with you and thank you so much for saying yes to the podcast. Before we get started, what's making you smile these days?
Brad:Oh, so I'm on the cusp of students coming back. We have one more teacher day and then students will be back on Monday. I think the number one thing that's making me smile is I've already gotten a half dozen inquiries from families of students I've worked with in the past to double check that I'm still going to be working with their student in the coming year and that just like so like clearly solidifies why it's important and valuable to create those home connections and that the family really does value it, because one of the things they're thinking of in their back to school list of things to do is let me just make sure that Coach Hunter is still working with my students.
Jake:Wow, how affirming that's awesome to hear. That's really great. So, brad, tell us more about who you are and how you started your education journey.
Brad:So this will now be my 19th year working with students. I'm not a traditionally trained teacher in the PE field, never taken a health, pe or AP undergrad class. I'm a career changer. I first started working with youth on a consistent you know, Monday through Friday basis with a nonprofit whose work was to bring productive and meaningful play back to urban schools. That had done things like eliminating recess from the school day, which we could go down that rabbit hole. But that was such a disaster, and schools have, by and large, brought recess back in the areas that I worked in. But so then, after doing that for a handful of years, I taught elementary PE for nine years, and here I am starting my seventh year as an adaptive PE teacher. So that's the cliff notes on Brad Hunter's journey.
Jake:So what inspired you to pursue a career in the APE field? Yeah, the switch.
Brad:Yeah. So it's interesting that you bring that up, because so often in life I think of like our parents' generation. We're always talking about climbing the ladder in your career and I read an article one time. It really stuck with me that our generation and the generation after us it's much more of a jungle gym. You know, sometimes you're moving parallel and then you're moving, you know, a little bit up and then a little bit down, and then you have to run to the other side of the playground to get on a different piece of equipment. I just kind of think of more like a jungle gym.
Brad:And that's kind of how I ended up in APE. Because I was teaching a self-contained class mostly of students with significant to severe autism at the elementary school that I was working at full time. An adaptive PE teacher would come in periodically to support a couple of students in that class and it was just one of those like natural organic progressions that he saw me teach. He saw you know the resources I was using and how I was catering the lesson to the students. And when an adaptive PE position came available, he recommended me to the team that was doing the interviews and it went from there.
Brad:Now let me back up a step, though, jake. That I mean that was there was nine years between beginning to teach a self-contained, mostly autistic class and getting my first APE job, so there was a lot of failure along the way. That's primarily how I learned. I didn't have a lot of resources or experts that I could, you know, tag in for support, but my biggest thing was always, you know, with those students and I would say with all my students routines, working, those systems and structures, because those are the things that provide that bedrock for the lesson and then you can do more creative or engaging activities if those systems and structures and routines are really strong.
Jake:I agree. Let's talk a bit about because you mentioned a couple of times the routines and structures. What's one or two structures that you have set in place? That's really important, non-negotiable, that you've really seen benefited your students.
Brad:Sure. So I'll speak specifically when I worked with a whole class of self-contained students. It's a little different in my current role because I'm either in a support role or more of a one-on-one, but when I had like a half a gym to myself, one of the routines, for example, was we had a large fleece blanket. It was red and I would always lay it out on the floor and the students, after about a a month, realized like that was your home base and they could sit on any part of it, as long because if they were laying on it that was possible, we would encourage them to sit up. But it was a visual cue, it was a made for a comfortable space where they could go.
Brad:For example, we always started with the same greeting song.
Brad:It was like a two-year-old music class I taken my daughter to years ago and it was just simple of hello, how do you do, it's good to be with you, and we would do that a few times through with tapping different parts of our body.
Brad:And I kid you not, jake, that's been seven years since I've done that on a consistent basis with students and I'm fortunate enough to see some of those students who are now in high school and they'll see me and they'll be like, hey, coach Hunter, and they'll start tapping their shoulders and be like, hello, how do you do? It's good to be with you. So not only did they, you know, follow along with the routine, but they realized like this is a way that we greet people, that we start um a period of time, uh, on a positive setting and by making people feel welcome, uh welcome, and having a little bit of fun at the same time. So that was just like the entry routine. But anyone who's worked with students with significant, with mild to significant disabilities, knows that if you can just get the group in, settled and started, you are more than halfway to your, to your goals.
Jake:What grade level is that again?
Brad:So that self-contained group had from kindergarten to fifth grade all in the same group with a handful of aides, Could be anywhere from two to four aides that would come and usually it was anywhere from 10 to 15 students.
Jake:Wow. So let's dive into adaptive physical education. Sure For our listeners who may not know about it, or much about it, what exactly do you teach? Tell us a little bit more about APE.
Brad:Sure. So adaptive physical education is specialized instruction designed to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities. The whole point is to ensure that they have equal access to meaningful and developmentally appropriate physical education. Now, these students with disabilities, they're still working towards the same standards, the same grade level outcomes, the same progressions or indicators that the general education students work towards. So it's really all about. It's an art. It's about how do I bridge these significant gaps.
Brad:And typically in our state, that's Maryland, we think of APE students being two or more years behind their grade level peers when assessed and having informal observations and interviews and things of that nature. So there's a gap that exists. And so how do we bridge that gap between when the student is and where the school or district or state requirements are for their age or grade level? So it's a lot, but the thing about it is it really hyper, focuses you as a professional on what is the standard or grade level outcome really asking of the students. So, for example, we might do a lesson involving striking a ball and some of us might immediately think of oh, we could do softball, or we could do wiffle ball, or we could do baseball or what have you. And those are all very legitimate things to do.
Brad:However, the standard is just student will strike a ball with a long-handled implement off a tee or tossed by a teacher sending it forward while demonstrating some of the critical elements that's an example of one that we have here in Maryland then that's all that we are to require of the student. Notice it doesn't say anything about what type of ball it has to be. It doesn't say anything about what size the ball has to be. It doesn't say what the implement has to be or anything about the size, weight or texture of that. It doesn't say what the tee has to be.
Brad:So could the T be a tabletop for students who need a high level of support, or a traditional T that we think of in T-ball or somewhere in between? Absolutely there's no requirement for how far that ball has to travel or which of the critical elements have to be demonstrated. I think when you start opening yourself up to what am I actually being asked to teach the student? Not what may be implied from our PE experience or from what we've seen in other gen ed programs, but what is the standard or grade level outcome really asking me to help this student learn and help their skill set grow through. That can be a huge unlock and from there it's the problem solving piece and, frankly, that's the best part of the job. It's the problem solving, getting to be creative.
Jake:I was just about to say that this leaves a lot of room for creativity, for the teacher to kind of come up with different ideas to help make the student succeed. So that's really great, and later on in the interview we're going to talk about some of those creative elements that you bring.
Brad:Absolutely.
Jake:Awesome. So, brad, take me to a typical day for you.
Brad:So let's be clear as a teacher, there is no typical day. And then as an itinerant adaptive PE teacher, that means I go school to school. I have a caseload. It's usually about 20 schools each year. Some of those schools I might have seven to 10 students at, and some schools I might not have any students at that year. It all just depends on the students that attend that school.
Brad:A typical day, I would say with air quotes you're starting the day with your morning computer work. Of course it's after my morning workout. I'm a big believer in that. If I don't do my morning workout I'm stuck in like second gear all day and I've had pairs and students be like what's going on, brad? And so definitely got to get that workout in first thing. But then it's 30 minutes plus of emails and follow-ups from yesterday's work before I even like hit my work time, if you will.
Brad:Generally in the morning I see two to three students. That's usually one-to-one. That could be anything from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the student's IEP. Usually that will also be time there for me to consult with a PE teacher. It could be for one of those two to three students that I've seen. It could be for one of those two to three students that I've seen. It could be for another student who may only have those consult or indirect services, but basically checking up on how the student's doing and what I can do to support that PE teacher so the student is learning and growing at the highest level possible when they come to PE. After that there's no shortage of paperwork and note-taking that's required in adaptive physical education. Afternoon is generally pretty similar to the morning, with another two to three students, generally one-to-one consulting with another PE teacher, and then it's again no shortage of notes, paperwork, emails and things of that nature till the end of the day paperwork, emails and things of that nature till the end of the day. And then for myself, typically the evening is an hour to two hours working on projects, and that could be anything from school day related projects like making a new tracking sheet for a student or, you know, making a more attractive target for a student. It could be something like for my state organization, shape Maryland, helping to recruit presenters or doing some research on an initiative we're doing or, you know, planning the next MAPEC board meeting.
Brad:So there's always more to do. I love all the things. It can definitely be a lot. I'm currently trying to find my rhythm as we're getting back into it, but there's no shortage of need and I do find that the more you are willing to put yourself out there, of you know being willing to help people or provide resources, the more that is often asked of you. So I would encourage folks when you do find yourself in that position. It is okay to say either no or no, not right now. So just because you may be in a support role or an APE role does not mean you don't have control over your time, and it is perfectly respectful to say I will help you with that. Let's put a reasonable timeframe on that. I will admit I'm very big. I'm like I will get that done ASAP, but that's my own idiosyncrasies.
Jake:Right, but it sounds like you're alluding to it's good to have a balance, too, right.
Brad:Absolutely.
Jake:Because there is a lot with the meetings and the emails and the follow-up. I did have a follow-up question for you. What are some of the consults about? Is that something where the teacher comes to you or you go observe the teacher and the students? How does that work, this communication?
Brad:Right, that's one of the first questions that I get from PE teachers as well because, like hey, I have a student with APE consult. So I actually started a few years ago giving all my PE teachers at the beginning of the school year a half pager that describes what consult is in our district and I always say, is I write consults so students have a chunk of time. So it could be, you know, six hours annually and I say we're going to use that chunk of time with me and you to best support the student and I'll list some bullet points on there. But it could be something of let's sit down and let's plan a lesson to increase your comfort in working with the student, or let's sit down and go through the student's IEP. So those are more of like one-to-one teacher and me working. It could be something of the teacher knows what they have coming up.
Brad:I have a lacrosse unit coming up. We know this student has had difficulty in the past with grasping long-handled implements. Can you provide a piece of equipment? So it may be me going and building a piece of equipment or picking up a piece of equipment. So it may be me going and building a piece of equipment or picking up a piece of equipment from another location. It could also be hey, brad, can you come and support me?
Brad:I have this unit coming up where everyone's going to be throwing a ball at the same time towards targets and I'm just a little bit concerned about safety. Could you support me with that student in the actual class for a period of time? So I try to offer a menu and that menu to be flexible as well. So if you're doing a unit and the student is crushing it, there's no need for me to come in at that piece. But again, if you have a unit later on that you have more safety concerns or more implementation concerns, like we can dial up the amount of support that I use based on the allotment of time that we've supplied via their IEP.
Jake:Thank you for explaining that. It definitely makes sense. So, brad, what are some examples of successful experiences you've had adapting activities for students? Well, how?
Brad:much time do we have? I feel like this is the meat right, we could just go and go. So some of my recent favorites that I've done. We had a grade level outcome for fifth grade about being able to balance on a variety of apparatus with extensions and you know we typically think of a balance beam or some sort of narrow and high object which, for this student, this was just well outside of his comfort zone. He was adamant that any time he didn't have both feet on the ground, this was just well outside of his comfort zone. He was adamant that anytime he didn't have both feet on the ground, he was very uncomfortable.
Brad:So we started at the first level of using a lunch table.
Brad:We happened to be in a space where there were those folding cafeteria lunch tables and you know the table, part of it has got to be, you know, six feet by at least two and a half feet, so a solid large area, and we turned it into we are going to lunch table.
Brad:Surf was the activity and so you know we I held his hand and we stood on it together and we had some you know surf music playing on my phone and we were on top and before you knew it, he was comfortable letting go of my hand and by the end of that lesson alone he was comfortable standing up on top of the table on his own, without me, and then we were working through progressions in a fun and engaging way, doing different poses, if you will, as we surf on top of the table. You will as we surf on top of the table. So, but again, using a lunch table is not in any, you know, handbook or guide, but that is an apparatus you could balance on and from there we moved to the bench, from there we moved to river stones or balance stones, so we were able to increase the difficulty after we found a place of access for the student that was at their level.
Jake:Perfect, perfect. And so that's one example for balancing. Do you have any other examples for maybe striking or foot dribbling?
Brad:in the gymnasium at the same time, one standard size elementary gymnasium split in half, so it's just noise and balls going over a. I'll call it a barrier, it's not even a wall, it's a five foot. So there's a lot of you know exterior noise and distractions. And so I'm there supporting the student. And they were working on badminton and they've got, you know, regulation nets and regulation rackets and it was all a bit much for my student to physically engage with. So I always bring a bucket of supplies with me everywhere I go, because you never know exactly what the adaptation is that a student's going to need. I might have an idea of the two or three things, but I find having at the ready a large contingent of supplies helps me in the moment to say, well, plan A, plan B didn't work, let's move to plan C.
Brad:So for this student we grabbed a couple of tall cones, like three foot tall cones, ran some painter's tape in between them to create our low net. The student was sitting in their wheelchair facing the stage. Oh yes, this area was also interesting because there was a stage in the gymnasium as well and I was sitting on the steps at the same height as the student and we were using a foam paddles or Nerf paddles or lollipops, whatever you might call them and we were rallying back and forth and, I kid you not, throughout that semester there had not been a day when I didn't feel like I had to ask 11 students before I got one student that would engage with the student. I was there to support with, whether it was partner work or small-sided games, and when we started doing this, we had a line of students that were forming on the step next to me, calling next, which is you know, I got next game. You know that sort of thing.
Brad:So we ended up moving the game to two on two and then it was a three on three and they were making like triangle formations. So it took on a life of its own where I eventually was just stepping back and just helping to make sure the most basic of rules were followed. So that was really a glorious moment to see students recognize that this version of the activity is a high level of fun. We're still working on the same skills and we can have that fun and work on those skills with the student that has some physical limitations, when perhaps in the past we might have just overlooked that student. So that was really. That was a win all around.
Jake:That sounds. That's really cool that they were able to see that and then kind of want to participate, you know where they felt comfortable, so had. But had that not been set up, they this might not have happened, right if they, if this opportunity wasn't available.
Brad:So that's great and I could have, and I could have very easily just waited with my student until it was their turn at the full-size nets and try. You know but that. But there I go back to again. What was the grade level outcome for there? There's no mention of the height of the net or anything of that nature. So like, let's bring it to a level where the student can engage in the skill as independently as possible on their own. And let me be clear even though the student had diminished physical capacity and was in a wheelchair, was independently holding the lollipop racket, was independently striking the balloon over the load net, as I said, I was just a facilitator at that point, so that's great.
Jake:So these are a couple of great examples. You know one about the striking, one about the balancing. Do you have any, maybe for a dance?
Brad:Oh, absolutely. So. Let me be clear, dance is a little bit outside of my comfort zone, but you know I'm always. You know I'm always there because I think it's appropriate to represent of. Even if this skill is not my strength, that's OK. I can acknowledge that with my students and they can see me learn as well.
Brad:So, with dance, I had a student that I kept trying to introduce dance to this third grade student as a warm up and, you know, no traction as a like, as a instant activity we did like in between two larger activities, no traction, with that I would start dancing. See, the student would be enticed. No, so I tried some, some things and I couldn't get anywhere. And so, uh, then one lesson for our, the mini lesson, part of of the lesson we. I started asking the student if they knew any dance moves and he started demonstrating a few, like the dab, or you know other ones that I don't know the name too, but we started making up names for them, like, oh, like that's the peace sign, jangle, you know, if you're going back and forth. And, uh, I had these little mini again in my kit that I keep ready, little mini laminated cards like half the size of an index card and I started writing down, uh, with a dry erase marker, the names and drawing just a little stick figure picture of it. So, pretty short order. We had a small deck, it might have been eight to nine different cards, and then I asked the student what song we could do these two. And so the student chose a song. That's fine. And then we took the cards and I let the student decide which one we would do first, which one we, what order we would do them in. How many times we would do that? So how many beats or order we would do them in? How many times we would do that? So how many beats or counts we would do it?
Brad:And after just like two times going through, the student took charge of it and was like rearranging the order. He was like, no, I want to do the hip shuffle and then I want to do the head bob and then I want to do the like raise the roof, you know. And then he would re-sequence them and you know, it was just such a beautiful moment to see that he needed a, for it to be something tangible, that he could see the process instead of just trying to follow along to a uh, uh, an audio song or try to follow on with the teacher and and it was a control piece as well. And so one and the key thing, one of the key pieces I think, was that he was the leader and I was doing it with as well. And so one of the key pieces, I think was that he was the leader and I was doing it with him.
Brad:It wasn't that I was arranging the cards and then he did them. He arranged the cards and then we did them and by the end of that unit, which is probably four weeks seeing him once a week, we were doing eight dance moves in succession and then repeating for the length of the song, going through this routine like three whole times. I was so impressed with his growth and again, it's part of the art of, I would say, all teaching, but especially adapted pe of like. How can I make this skill accessible, engaging and fun for this student?
Jake:What a great story. I love it. Choice and voice, and he had plenty of choice.
Brad:Yeah, it does right. And if he decided he was like nope, I don't like that one anymore, you know, we would just put the card off to the side and I would never bring it up or I would never go back to it. If he decided he was done with it, that's totally fine. Now we did have some dance moves that we did three or four times in the routine as well, but you know what that's okay.
Jake:No, that definitely. You got to have fun with it, though. So, Brad, what advice would?
Brad:you give to someone considering a career in adaptive physical education Right? So again, I would say this applies to definitely all PE teachers, even maybe all teachers. But you know, double-clicking on adaptive PE teachers, you got to have patience. The students that you're going to be working with you're overwhelmingly going to be working with because you know they're not able to do the skills at the pace of their general ed peers, and so you have to have patience and understand that when they don't experience success, that's not a reflection on the student or yourself. It just means we haven't yet found the solution for this student to access this skill or activity.
Brad:That goes right into the second trait that I think is essential, and that's creativity.
Brad:If you hear basketball and immediately think, regulation-sized basketball, regulation-heightened-sized hoop, five-on-five go, that's going to be extraordinarily difficult for adaptive PE students to successfully engage in.
Brad:But if, when you hear basketball, you immediately start thinking, oh, I could use, you know, a trash can as the hoop, or and I put it on the floor, or I could use a balloon as the ball, or I could use a beach ball, or, you know, I could adapt this rule so that we no longer are worried about dribbling, we are only focusing on passing or whatever the case may be. That creativity is going to provide opportunities for success. And the last one is resilience. It can be challenging working with students with significant additional needs and encountering failure can be a little bit taxing on both you and the students. So I would encourage folks who want to go into adaptive P is to be resilient. Know that just being a positive and caring adult that interacts with that student is such a huge benefit and the learning will come. It may not come at the rate or pace that you had hoped for, but be patient with the student, be creative in how you're going to get there and just be resilient.
Jake:Love it to get there and just be resilient, love it. So have you gotten a chance to observe other programs in your line of work, or have other programs come and visited you, and what's the benefit of that? Right?
Brad:So not as often as I would like, and I felt the same way when I was a PE teacher. You know it's always an issue about sub coverage or what have you. I would say that I network with a lot of adapted PE teachers, but it's sort of like you know, reading the directions for how to assemble your new IKEA furniture versus seeing the finished product, because when you see the finished product, like awesome, I know where that would go in my room or my house, I know what I would put in it, I got it. Versus you just read the directions You're like, well, maybe this would go in the living room, maybe I'll get back to it.
Brad:So definitely, observing a high-quality PE program is a huge benefit if you can do it, and I encourage folks that.
Brad:If that, we, we do a give and take, so folks want to come to my program or to my district.
Brad:I always ask that they will reciprocate as well so then that partnership can continue and that we can grow from the, from each other's experiences and learning.
Brad:So you know, in my personal experience not nearly as often I was like we are fortunate to have five of us that do itinerant adaptive PE teaching in Baltimore City schools, and so each of those teachers, at least every other year, I do, if not in person or virtually, watch them do a lesson, just to help me grow my own practice. And, as I mentioned before, I always reciprocate and it's not limited to like a one for one exchange, but anytime that they would like to come and watch something that I do, I'm open to it. And in fact just today we had a team meeting and one of the itinerants was asking you know, hey Brad, next time you have a, an indirect consultation with a PE teacher, could I tag along and just kind of see, like, how you flow through it and how that conversation works, because that's an area that she had identified a growth for her. So you know, it may not be in the same time period, but I think once you start opening up those avenues for observations and exchanges, it can be really helpful.
Jake:Definitely. So that brings me to my next question. Actually, yeah, you collaborate with a lot of different folks therapists, special education teachers, parents. Who am I missing in there, and how does that work this?
Jake:communication piece. Why is it so important, right?
Jake:So for me, for me, like, the biggest piece of that puzzle of communication is with the parent or guardian, and I am adamant about sharing with the family. After every time I work with a student, something that we did at a minimum, usually it's a picture. You know we were working on X skill Student was able to do A and B. C is still a challenge.
Jake:I always try to ask a question as well, because the parent or guardian works with that student every day.
Jake:I see them for maybe a few minutes a week, so I'll ask the question of for example, a student was very nervous when a ball was moving in their direction at medium to fast pace. Have you noticed that at home? Or are there times and circumstances when the student is comfortable with the ball moving quickly in their direction? And parents love to talk about their own children, and so it provides an opportunity of reassuring them that, as their parent, you are an expert on your child. Maybe you're not an expert yet on their specific disability or on adaptive PE, but you have a lot of expertise and I want to tap into it, and that just makes it so much easier on the rare occasion that there is a legitimate concern or an issue to say hey, you know, we've hit a speed bump and I need some support here, because they know that you are consistently working with their student and consistently have their best interest in mind and consistently trying to improve your own practice.
Jake:So I found that to be by far the most valuable piece of communication and that's really important too, to be able to ask the parent, because obviously they know their child, you know the best and not just give information but also receive information from them.
Brad:That was one of those things that I had to learn. When I kept getting responses my first year or two. There were things like okay, coach, or, like you know, the thumbs up emoji. I realized I wasn't engaging parents on the level that I wanted to, and if I'm just, you know, giving them a paragraph of what we did there, I'm really not giving them an opportunity to respond. So that was one of the reasons why I started implementing that. Let me ask a question, and that's really helped a lot. And of course, I also check in with the PE teacher. Even if it's not part of the IEP, I still want to know their thoughts and their notices. I'm really fortunate that I share an office where I have a desk, which I'm rarely at but when I am, and there's a PT and an OT professional in that office and a speech pathologist next door. So I'm really fortunate that there's experts in those, uh, in those fields that often have overlap to adapt to P, that I can, you know, tag in for their expertise.
Jake:Uh, you can pick their brain too, yeah.
Brad:Yeah, exactly, and sometimes we all get stuck. You know, you've tried, you know 18 different things and you're just not sure. You know, is it the way you're presenting it? Is it the student? Is it, you know? Not the right time, place and space, so those types of things.
Brad:But yeah, and outside of that, I think it's really important to collaborate with your team, whether that's PE teachers, other adaptive PE teachers in your school, your zone, your district, and I would encourage everyone to build their team so they have folks that they can ask when they need assistance. So I've been really fortunate, through social media, to have networked with folks and I feel like I have an expert for everything that I need. You know, when I need to know how to make a really eye-popping visual, like, I have someone I can connect to for that. When I need assistance with. You know, I've got a unified PE program that's trying to get off the ground and that's not an area of expertise for me. How can I better support them?
Brad:I've got someone I can ask for that when I need to craft a piece of equipment that is switch operated again, to craft a piece of equipment that is switch operated Again, not one of my core competencies, but I've got someone I can ask for that, and all of these folks are from outside of my district and I will say that if you're nervous about reaching out or if you're not sure how people would respond, I have yet to encounter anyone in Adapted PE who was not more than forthcoming and supportive and helpful. When you ask, you just got to ask right, right, I mean, they always over deliver and I'm just so impressed with people in the field.
Jake:That's great. That's great. Yeah, I can definitely see. You know, in our district we have our APE teachers as well and you know they're collaborating with everybody and they do a great job as well. No-transcript.
Brad:Right. So you know, whether it's professional development or professional learning or webinars, it's just a must have for teacher growth back in 1995. And just consider how much we have learned about how students and their brains acquire information, how much we've learned about how movement is essential to learning and health, how much physical education curriculum has evolved over those times, how much we've learned about disabilities and how to connect and reach students. So to think of someone still teaching the exact same way they did in 1995 and 2025 is appalling, and so that's why we need professional development and professional learning, et cetera, and it really just helps to impart that growth mindset.
Brad:As a teacher, I don't know how you can be successful without having a growth mindset, because you've always got a new crop of students coming in that have a different background or different life experiences, and you've got to be adapting the way that you present, share and expect students to perform, present, share and expect students to perform. Even in my own case, I'm honored to be the 2025 National Adapted PE Teacher of the Year, and that's such a high honor that I never dreamed of reaching. And I find myself, for example, when I meet with the district teachers of the year Steve from Minnesota and Matt from Virginia. You know experts in APE and I'm always learning something from them every time we sit down. And you know, here I am, you know, the national APE teacher of the year.
Brad:So it's one of those things of there's so much out there that we can do with APE students, that we can learn to help our students, that we can learn to help our students, that I think it's important to have a little bit of humility and recognize that there's always more that we can do or implement or even experiment and try with. And perhaps it won't work for you, it won't work for your program, the first 10, 12, even 20 times you do it, and that's all right as well. I don't see how we can encourage our students to work through failure if we're not willing to do it as well ourselves. So I'm a big believer in professional development. I think that it's an essential part of being a high quality professional.
Jake:Well said, well said, brad, and I love how you I haven't heard the example you put about the teacher that came in in 1995 and then 2025 and how they obviously they should not be teaching the same way, but this PD and having this growth mindset and being humble and learning from other people that's so important in order to help not only ourselves grow, but also the students. So, like you mentioned, they're coming to us different years, different perspectives, different backgrounds, and so they really need our best selves, so PD is something that can help lead us to that.
Brad:Right.
Jake:Yeah, really great. So what are your thoughts on the future of AP in promoting even greater inclusivity within school communities?
Brad:even greater inclusivity within school communities. Yeah, so you know it's really. It can be really easy for students with adaptive PE, who often have significant disabilities, to be marginalized, not just in PE but throughout the school day, and there are a lot of efforts to try to remedy that. One of them is Unified PE and that's a program where, outside of your required PE class, it's an opportunity for students to come to the gym and work at a pace that's appropriate for the adapted PE students, with a one-to-one ratio of gen ed peers. So it's as much about those social skills as it is about acquiring manipulative skills, for example, and while I don't have a tremendous amount of experience with that in my district, I am so heartened when I hear stories from other districts or even students that have presented on the topic, sharing that making a connection in a unified PE program is incredibly powerful when you see it carry over to the lunchroom and now that student is sitting with gen ed students more often, or when they're in the hallway and someone gives them a fist bump when they go by, and it's those little wins that happen throughout the day that, if you keep stacking, can really help with a culture of change.
Brad:I will say as a educational field we have a long way to go. I have encountered programs who, with the best of intentions, they think they're doing unified PE when they take a self-contained class of students and drop them in to a 30-kid gen ed class and are shocked to realize that that's not a best practice and, again, doing it with the best of intentions, you know thinking that they're doing something like unified PE. So I think APE can really support in you know advocating. You know these students are part of your school community as well. These students are to have all of the same opportunities as everyone else in the school community and that these students should be engaging with their gen ed peers to the maximum extent possible throughout the day.
Brad:It's so easy to have an us and them mentality when you have this bubble of self-contained students that you know they go to a resource by themselves, they go to lunch maybe by themselves or at their own table, they're in a separate classroom. It just becomes so easy to be like that's the other group as opposed to that's part of our community. So I just keep coming back to this AP. The best thing I think I can do is just to advocate that these students are here, they're part of your school community and I'm a resource and while I don't know a lot about everything, I know a good deal about some things, especially when it comes to physical activity and to let leaders in the school know, I'm here to help with those types of things as well.
Jake:Well said. So what you mentioned the unified P and people have the good intentions, what's something that those students or those teachers or that staff would need to make it, even with good intentions, to make it. I don't want to say acceptable, but to make it appropriate. You know, so somebody has. You have a lot of people with good intentions, but they might not know the steps or the appropriate method to go forward. So can you talk a little bit about that?
Brad:Yeah. So the easiest way, or the best way that I found, to explain it is what unified PE should be is that we have students with adaptive PE requirements and they are in a PE environment that moves at their pace. They dictate the pace of the class With Gen Ed students. They're doing the activities with them, supporting them in their work, helping perhaps in leadership roles as well, but the students with additional needs are setting the tone and the pace, Whereas what often happens is students are placed into Gen Ed PE that have additional needs. They're outnumbered, you know, one to three, one to four, one to five, because there's already 30 other students in there and they're expected to keep up with the gen ed curriculum, which, if they could do and this isn't all students, but if, but, if that was something that was easily attainable they would be with the gen ed class on a more excuse me on a more consistent basis.
Jake:Got it. So it's really about having the students with the needs dictate and set the pace, not the other way around. They're not following the pace of the other students.
Brad:Exactly.
Jake:Got it, got it. Thank you for explaining that. So, brad, we're coming to a close of the interview, and it's been great. But what do you hope to see in the future? What goals do you have? These can either be personal or professional.
Brad:Wow. So I'll try to keep this narrow. But I'm talking about our communities too, where I think it's important that we acknowledge that there is a sports industrial complex and that is not benefiting the vast majority of youth, with and without disabilities, and we need to find a way to normalize informal physical activity in which adapting the rules or the equipment easily flows through that activity so that participants don't ever feel like they're causing an issue or can't be part of it. I'll give you a great example. I believe it was this past year at Mother's Day. There was myself, my 13-year-old daughter, my brother and my nine-year-old nephew were in the front yard, and I always have equipment in my trunk and my daughter had asked me to get out one of these mesh-coated trainer volleyballs. I'll call it A little bit lighter than trainer volleyball, but you know we had no net. We have, you know, a tree in the middle of the yard and we start hitting the ball back and forth. And then we're talking about well, you know, you can let it bounce Like that's fine, and then it's well, you can let it bounce as many times as you need to to send it back over to the other team and and then it's well, you can use any part of your body to send it back over to the other team.
Brad:And we just kept adding more rules, not to constrict the activity but to open up the activity. So the fun and engagement was at a maximum level. Oh, like, if it bounces off a tree, it's that's still inbounds, you know, like you decide if the brick was in or out, that's, you know, framing out the flower bed. And, jake, I kid you not, I thought we were going to do like 10 minutes. It was a warm day and everyone was going to go inside.
Brad:Two hours later, my sister is wondering where her son has been when he, when he's a hot, sweaty mess up there, he's like ma, like it's going great, you know. And we we had made up little like names for our teams and a little chance and cheers. And if you had asked me what the score was or who was winning or who was doing the best, I had like no idea. It was literally one of those examples where we were having maximum fun and we were being physically active in an activity that anyone could have joined like, for example, if, like, my mom had stepped outside, she would have just like been inserted right into the game without missing a beat that's awesome.
Jake:What a great story. Um so red. How can our listeners connect with you? Uh, social media, email, what's the best?
Brad:questions, all of those things right. So, um, uh, email. Uh is bb hunter at vcpsk12.mdus and maybe we can post that in the show notes. I know it's hard to pick up verbally. I'm also on x and blue sky. You can find me at b hunter in b more um, and I'm pretty active there.
Brad:I try to post at least something every day for what I'm doing or what I'm thinking. I'm really good about answering emails, so if you reach out to me, I promise I'll get back to you within the week, and then a lot of resources that I help to collect and post are on the Maypeck website. If you just Google MAPEC, m-a-p-e-c website, you'll find it. If you want to receive the MAPEC resources or notifications of what we have going on, there's a link there that you can join. It's free. You do not have to be a Maryland teacher. You don't even have to be a teacher to join. The whole point of that organization is to provide support and resources to folks that need additional support for students with additional needs and so, for the folks that are listening, these are all great resources.
Jake:I was on the Maypeck website and that's how I actually met you, brad. Through the Maypeck website. I went on a couple of webinars and you do an awesome job with the seminars. You have great folks come on. I really encourage our listeners to reach out and check those resources out. So I really encourage our listeners to reach out and check those resources out.
Brad:So, brad, thank you so much for sharing your experience and expertise with us. This has been tremendous. Jake, I know that we could go on for quite a lot longer talking PE and adaptive PE, but I appreciate this time and everybody took the time to listen, thank you.
Jake:Listeners, if you have any questions, you can always email us at mahperdpodcast@ gmail. com. We'll have this episode uploaded soon. Also, we're asking our listeners to rate and share the podcast if it has helped you in any way, as I'm sure it has. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we will be back soon.
