PE Blueprint Strategy #1: "S.E.T.S."

Welcome aboard PE Nation!

New to teaching Physed? Or are you always growing and learning? Either way, this episode is for you! 

• Space - Define your teaching boundaries both indoors and outdoors, assess storage areas, and create a vision for your program
• Equipment - Categorize into keep, discard, and maybe piles; focus on items that benefit the most students
• Time - Structure your day with consistent routines for class beginnings, transitions, and endings
• Size - Know your typical class sizes and adult-to-student ratios to plan accordingly
• The SETS approach helps establish organization and structure in PE programs

Take care,

Dave

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First Year PE Blueprint ebook

Beg, Borrow, Build and Steal ebook with links, Free game PDFs and my personal grant writing files: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beg-Borrow-Build-and-Steal-Equipment-13063549

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to SETS Strategy
• 1:36 Space: Defining Your Boundaries
• 5:08 Equipment: Organize and Prioritize
• 6:57 Time: Structuring Your Day
• 8:24 Size: Managing Class Numbers
• 10:42 Cowbell Tip and Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk about SETS, the SETS strategy, what I call the secret to smarter teaching method, and this is especially, I think, helpful for newer teachers or teachers that are just starting a new program, like myself. I've done it a couple of times. So, without further ado, here we go. Rip Nation welcome in. So, like I said, it is called SETS. What I'm going to talk about today, and that is space, equipment, time and size of your class. So these are all things I think form the foundation of your teaching, your program. And, again, I've done this twice, which has been not easy at times, just getting things started, getting the culture I want built. So this will be the first of a four-part series of just how to get your PE program off the ground. And again, I think this is the foundation of where you should begin your journey. So let's make this a boomer. Here's the first one. Let's go All right. The first one is space, and it is not the final frontier, it is not star Wars, it is defining your boundaries. So, are you inside or are you outside? Do you have a pavilion, basketball courts, a track? What do you got? You got a playground. Are you again always inside? I'm always outside and unless it's like a rainy day or whatever, that's a whole other. You know podcast and things like that. But you know what does your space look like, and that includes your storage and your office areas. So I know what it's like to walk into an unknown territory. You know you look around, you feel overwhelmed. You see all this stuff from the previous teacher and you don't know what's going on. My first school I had a lot of space. I had a lot of as far as storage. My office was bright and clean and really nice. I did have to throw out a lot of junk after the first, especially first year, when I didn't use a lot of things, which we'll talk about. But you know I had a nice, clean, big environment, a lot of space and my pavilion was huge. My, you know I had a lot of big, big track, big field, two big basketball courts and a playground which we use during like free time, sometimes like fun, fun Fridays, things like that. So you know it was, it was nice, and my current school is 20 years older than my former school. So you're talking the difference between 2008 and 1988.

Speaker 1: 3:04

And you know I walked in. It was creepy, it was dark, it was, you know, a lot of just bugs on the ground and I had to clean up the kind of the rafters. The pavilion is actually smaller and it's lower and it was disgusting. I spent at least a day during the pre-service week just pressure washing the roof, the top of the pavilion, underneath like, yeah, the roof, basically the awning, and there were spiders and cobwebs everywhere. It was like raining spiders and I hate spiders. I really do. I don't ever like like get me spiders for Christmas or anything. It just I I'm. It was awful and I spent a lot of time on that. It honestly looked like no one had done it in 20 years. I mean it was awful. So you know, that was the.

Speaker 1: 3:58

That's my current school and my goal was to brighten it up because it was it was bad. It was, you know, dingy, old and my storage is a lot less Like. Basically, my office and my storage are together and it's not even close to my former school, so I have to really make do with you know what I have and it's not easy. My goal for both my schools was the same. However, after taking it all in. I decided to focus on what I could control. I got my notebook, my trash can and I got moving. I also got with my principal and my AP and discussed how, you know, rainy days might affect us picture days, recess, you know, I didn't know what I was walking into, so I wanted to make sure I protected my space to. So I wanted to make sure I protected my space and I took all that information in and kind of developed a program, a vision for my program. I wrote everything down, mapped it out and wrote down even games I want to play in these certain spots, like under my pavilion, in the field, on the track, on the basketball courts, all that stuff. So take a deep breath as you walk in, form a plan and get to work.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Number two is equipment, and again I know what it's like to walk into a big old mess. Equipment that's everywhere that's tangled, this bunch of random crap, I guess, and you know it looks like it could be useful some of it, while the rest of it was from the last century. I'm not kidding you. I found trophies from 1992 in my storage closet. I really did so. I know what it's like to have little or no budget as well. But I also know how to flip it on its head and build a massive treasure chest of new, exciting and innovative equipment for many years by writing grants by the Beg, bower and Steal and Build, I guess, method that I have I'll put in the show notes the e-book I made and I talked about it on one of my recent podcasts. So you know, equipment is like. You know, opening equipment is like Christmas Day.

Speaker 1: 5:55

I love getting equipment right. So you know, definitely go out and get the equipment you want. That will be the best bang for your buck. You want to make sure it can affect the most amount of students and you want to get rid of the junk. So and it took me a couple of years to get rid of the junk you know I wanted to use everything and I just didn't. So I separated the equipment into three categories, not literally, but I just kind of in my mind or I wrote it down the yes, I'm definitely keeping it. The no, definitely not, and I tossed it out. And the maybe. So that's the keep for now and then trash it after a year if you don't use it. And you know, with less storage, that's what I have in this, like I said, my current school. I've got to get rid of the junk. I can't keep things that I'm never going to use or that are just really beaten up. So get the equipment that makes the most sense for you, for your students, for the number of students you have, which we'll talk about. And I'd say, as far as equipment, use it or lose it.

Speaker 1: 6:57

All right, t is time, and I was a mess when I first started teaching PE. I you know the days would go by. I didn't accomplish much as far as planning, as far as getting organized, getting structure. As long as the kids are moving and no one's going to hurt, I was okay with that, and that's not good teaching. A lot can happen in the day and you can't be prepared for everything. So you've got to have a plan Now. I didn't at first. Again, my planning time was like scroll the internet. I just kind of chit chat with my parents, which is great. You do want to have communication with them and you want to have good rapport with them, but you need to get the work done as well. So I realized I couldn't just wing it and go with the flow, right. I had to realize that time is limited and I better serve my students. I need to be on task. So I started to map out my time and have a purpose behind every moment. At school I structured each class so everyone knew what the first few minutes looked like. They knew how we transitioned into stations. They knew how classes ended and where to go. My paras had defined roles and I'm going to do another podcast soon about paras. We had direction and a purpose for everything.

Speaker 1: 8:03

So, years later, I'm still learning and growing as a professional. I'm not perfect at all. I'm never going to say I'm perfect. I'm learning and growing, just like you, I hope. But the goal is for this is to make a plan, structure your day and remember every second counts.

Speaker 1: 8:24

So the last S is size of classes and I wasn't ready for my first day. I remember my principal told me the numbers and he's like you know you have five or six classes at a time, but you got three paras. You know it's going to be okay. But you know, until you walk in and you see 140 to 150 students just staring at you and the para is looking at you for direction and they don't even know who you are, you're just walking into a new space, new everything, a new program. You know I wanted to hide and you know I'm not an outgoing person. I'm really not. I've learned I can speak in front of large crowds of students, but not really in front of adults as much. So you know, some of you have one class at a time and you teach indoors. Some of you are like me and you have large groups and teach outside. Either way, you have to know what you're walking into and how to plan for that. So last year and this year, I feel like I've gotten lucky or I've gotten yeah, gotten a break. I feel like I've gotten lucky or I've gotten yeah, gotten a break. I have three to four classes per grade level with two paras, and that's really three adults for three classes. I'm getting used to it and it's awesome I'm.

Speaker 1: 9:38

I usually, throughout my career, I've had two classes by myself and that's just how it's been, like there's always been one extra class per adult. So in the past, you know, there was five classes and four adults. So there was even when I first started at this school, there was four classes and three adults. So I'd always take two by myself. I'd always have, you know, 60 kids by myself kind of thing, or around there, by myself kind of thing, or around there. So you know, you have to know what the size of your class, your classes, are and how to get. You know, get again, the most equipment, the most time on task per student. So, and what I mean by equipment is you have to make sure you have enough equipment for the number of students you have. Okay, we have a lot of students, but I make sure we have the right equipment and plan in place for our numbers. Okay, we make it work and the key is to know your class sizes and plan accordingly.

Speaker 1: 10:29

And now it is time for your cowbell tip of the day.

Speaker 1: 10:42

All right, so your tip of the day is to incorporate the set strategy into your PE program, especially if you're a first year PE teacher or you're coming into a new space or new program. And I did create an e-book on this, which you can click on the link in the show notes to purchase. It's $1.99 and it has all the things I talked about, plus the graphics and other cool things like that, and that is called the First Year PE Blueprint. It is the first in the series of books I'm creating. Either way, have a plan in place for your sets, for your program, and that is your cowbell tip of the day. Thank you everybody for tuning in today. I really do appreciate it. As always, go to supersizefizadcom for more information and definitely check out the e-book that I talked about in the cowbell tip of the day and with that, pe Nation have a great day, week, weekend, summer or whenever you're listening to this. You guys and girls are awesome and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.