The Supersized PhysEd Podcast
The Supersized Physed Podcast is dedicated to providing new ideas, activities and inspiration to our physical education field. Each week a new episode about various physed topics comes out, sometimes with a guest, sometimes it's just me!
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The Supersized PhysEd Podcast
Level 3 Equipment: Taking Your PE Program to New Heights
What's up PE Nation!
Today we dive deep into "Level 3" equipment for physical education programs, exploring how to dream big and significantly elevate your PE offerings beyond the basics. From securing $9,000 obstacle courses to writing effective grants, this episode provides a roadmap for transforming your program with strategic equipment investments.
• Define your "why" before investing in major equipment
• Create a list of "moonshot" equipment dreams you'd like to pursue
• Focus on equipment that benefits many students simultaneously
• Write effective grants by demonstrating educational impact through pre/post testing
• Partner with school foundations, PTOs, and local businesses for funding
• Think beyond traditional PE equipment to create unique, memorable experiences
• Don't let rejections stop you from pursuing program-enhancing equipment
• Ensure equipment aligns with your program vision and curriculum needs
• Transform teaching from a job into a passionate career through strategic investments
Take care and happy teaching,
Dave
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Article on Level 3 Equipment with checklist
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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FREE E-Book on setting up your PE program
My website: https://www.supersizedphysed.com
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Hello and welcome to the Super Size for the Dead podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to go to level three with equipment. We've done one and two and if you haven't heard that yet, please go back and listen to the podcast but today is about level three. So we're going big, we're going beyond and we're dreaming big. So, without further ado, here we go. All right, welcome in everybody. So you have equipment, you have good equipment, you have a decent amount of equipment, but now what? So now it's time to dream big. If you're still building, you know basics. Go back and listen to my first two episodes.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I have an equipment list, an essential equipment list, and that will help guide any new PE teachers that might be looking for guidance with what to order when you first start out. And I'm sorry, my dog is playing with a ball in the background, so if you hear that, I apologize. I'm on the run-eye this morning, recording on an early Saturday morning and trying to make sure the kids stay asleep while I do this. So thank you for indulging my dog, peppermint. So if you're ready to go for it, keep reading. It's time to add bigger and better equipment to your program. This is your time to upgrade. So I want you to think about things that you know you want to just go for it. Right, new things, new dreams, just go for it. And um, new things, new dreams, just go for it. And again, I provided a level three equipment, a list of ideas. But this is a fluid, ongoing thing that you can build as you go and it's up to you and your program. So if you haven't already downloaded the copy, the free copy, of the ultimate PE equipment checklist, it will be in the show notes and it's in the other episodes if you already grabbed it. So level three is like the extras you have money, you have a budget maybe, like I don't really have a budget, but I write grants for some of these things.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about some of the things you could add potentially and then go beyond that even so. Here's the first thing. My level three ideas are gymnastic mats I'm just gonna go in order Pillow polo sets, large exercise balls or cage balls like for crab soccer kind of thing. Flag belts or pennies. Rebounders like shoot ball, which we do a lot of. Spike ball sets, which I don't actually have at my current school. I had in my former school hockey sets, like just hockey equipment, baseball equipment, golf clubs um, we have first tee, so there's there's ways to get it without paying money or just donations, and also tennis, badminton, pickleball, volleyball, that kind of stuff. Those sets, um, I put balance boards on there as well.
Speaker 1:It's primarily a program. Depends on what you want, what your students' needs are, what's available in your community. That's always a big thing. So you know, let's talk about where do you go from here, and you can add these things as you go. You can add these things a little bit at a time. You can DIY, kind of make some of these things.
Speaker 1:But how do you know what to do, like where to go? Don't just buy random equipment and spend a ton of money. So let's begin and figure out how do we go from here, like, what do we do? So we'll make this a little bit of a boomer here. So here we go.
Speaker 1:So, all right, the first thing is what is your why?
Speaker 1:So you have to define your why.
Speaker 1:If you don't know where you're going, how do you know what you're going to do?
Speaker 1:How do you know what to cover?
Speaker 1:So what is your vision for your program? What do you want your students to learn and what units do you want to cover or introduce to them? And these are really important questions because it's not a one-size-fits-all kind of program like PE or, better yet, subject area. It's not one-size-fits-all. You can teach grade-level outcomes and standards in lots of different ways. It's not just. You know you have to do it this way and for me, I get a lot of latitude because it's PE and you know it's not as important as math and reading. I know I don't really believe that, but some people do and we have a lot of leeway. So just, for instance, like throwing and catching, you could do beanbags and hula hoops, or you can do like jukeball, or you know handball or some kind of like. There's different ways to teach units and, of course, the age level of the students is important as well, but we have a lot of latitude, all right. For instance, at the PE Institute in 2015,. That was a long time ago. It's 10 years. Wow, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So that's when I first saw the Rally Yard obstacle course. I was like, oh, this is amazing, it's so cool. And if you don't know what it is, well, it's in the article. I wrote an article about this, about this entire thing we're talking about and I'll put it in the show notes if you want to take a look. The obstacle course is like a big blue. I guess you can get it in one different color, like a gray also, I think. Just different pieces of an obstacle course you can put together. It's amazing, it course you can put together. It's amazing, it really is. It's awesome. So. And it's large and sturdy and can be used for lots of things like fitness, climbing, other things.
Speaker 1:So I was hooked. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I was hooked and I wrote a grant for almost $9,000 and got it. So now you know when I bring it out. By the way, I got it at both my schools. Technically, I wrote a grant for it three times and was rewarded for it, because the first time was again for like $9,000. And then they decreased the total amount you could write a grant for. So my current school I wrote a grant for it for like $5,000, got half of it about, and then I wrote another grant a year or two later and got more.
Speaker 1:So my why we'll talk about why here is I want to introduce new and exciting things to my students and introduce them to just things they would never see before or never probably will see again in their PE class or elsewhere. And you know we could teach different things on it, like I teach sometimes we do. I don't teach cup stacking on it, but part of the obstacle course is you have to up, stack and down stack. It depends on the grade level three stack or six stack, and you know kindergartners are so proud of themselves when they achieve their goals and they make it across the obstacle course and overcome their fears. So you could do throwing and catching on it, which we've done before Again fitness, all sorts of things, relay, races, and you know I just want to keep bringing new things to my students and you know that's my why. There you go, that's my why. And that's the first boomer.
Speaker 1:All right, I'd say number two start listing your possibilities and moonshots. So once you have your why, you know, just come up with a ton of ideas, just brainstorm, write it down. And I have all had a lot of hits and misses over the years and I'm always looking to expand my program and to keep up with the times for my students. Um, I write down everything in my PE journal and I revisit them to make adjustments and to be like, oh yeah, I got that one or I created that or whatever. And when I receive money from fundraiser grants I can see if these ideas fit into my school year. So here's my top 10. I'm going to give you 10. I'm not going to do boomerang on this one, but top 10 moonshots over the years and they didn't all hit, by the way. They're usually not all hits. A lot of them are, but not all of them All right. So here they are.
Speaker 1:So number one, I'd say, was the Rally Art Obstacle Course. Like I said, I received at both my schools, which is awesome. Number two are the Brain Balls, which are balls, basketballs, small basketballs with numbers and letters on them. I received them at both my schools as well, which is grants I wrote. Number three archery. I've been denied every time I've asked for it, but I'm going to be working on something soon with safer alternatives. Number four heart rate monitors.
Speaker 1:I received them as a grant at my former school, but the technology this is again about 10 years ago wasn't sustainable for outside PE. It wasn't great and with a lot of students it was okay. I mean, I'm glad we had them, but we didn't use them as much as I thought we were going to use them and just downloading them and everything at the time was a pain, just a pain. Number five is pedometers Kind of the same thing. I got them at my former school, but just downloading them and then the kids would log into like a google uh, doc or um, I think, google form actually, but it just took too long. I had too many kids. I had like 140 kids, which is just hard to do sometimes.
Speaker 1:Number six these things were awesome. They were the called the funky, funky moves, I think it was called, but we call them the funky cones. These cones lit up when they were touched or controlled by a receiver. I got these in my former school. Again, this is at least 10 years ago. They were amazing but they kept breaking and they were really good. We'd play games like kids had to run across and if they hit the green cone or yellow cone or whatever, it would register the numbers and we'd see just things like that. Or we could randomly light them up where kids have to run to certain colors. It was a lot of fun but they kept breaking and the company I'm not kidding went out of business like overnight and we never got them replaced. So, speaking of never getting replaced, number seven is fitness equipment. So I got a credit for the funky cones shout out to Gopher Sports, by the way. They were very good with that, with giving me credit for and this is thousands of dollars those funky cones and this is thousands of dollars, those funky cones and when they broke they gave me not me, but my school credit. So we received a bunch of fitness equipment that I ordered and so that was great to have, and they're still at my former school.
Speaker 1:Number eight is a bike and scooter trailer. We had this as a district trailer that would come around different schools, but they lost the funding and I'm working on a new thing now. I'm working on it now, trying to get some bikes and scooters back at my new school. Number nine is skateboarding. I was kind of denied for safety reasons because we're on cement, we're not on a gymnasium floor. Roller skates, roller blades I'd love to do that. I just don't think that's going to be feasible, at least right now where I'm at, and just not really allowed. So anyways.
Speaker 1:Number 10 is gaming. Like exercise gaming equipment. I'd love to have that. It's way too expensive. But you know, don't call me out, I'm still working on things like that. So it's okay to dream big. I'm actually not working on that currently but you can never stop dreaming, right? Keep those dreams and keep working on it, keep figuring out answers. And that's number two, all right. Number three is get partners involved.
Speaker 1:So in the past I've asked my administration for permission to write grants. Fortunately, we have a foundation that works with our, just strictly with our district. Again, I'm sorry about some of the noise. I can hear some of the noise outside the just cars and air conditioner units, so I apologize. So the district works with our or the foundation works with our district every year, and you know I'm currently writing a grant right now. Every single beginning of the school year they put this out.
Speaker 1:So you know, just asking for PE equipment isn't always the way. Demonstrating how the equipment be used is the best way For your school, for your children. Listing standards, grade level, outcomes, showing a before and after is the best way. When I'm writing grants, the best way to do it is to do like a pre-test, post-test, show results and make it into a project. So and I know not everybody has this foundation that works with. You know a district, but you know.
Speaker 1:Reach out to local businesses, other charitable organizations, and you know they district, but you know. Reach out to local businesses, other charitable organizations, and you know they'd like to help. You just have to find them, you have to look for them and I do have some of them listed in my Beg, borrow, build and Steal Equipment ebook that I'll also list in the show notes. But you know as well, get your PTO involved. I just met with them the other day about field day stuff. Last year they got us some Frisbee golf targets, which they're expensive. So get people involved to help you build your program. And that is number three. The final one today is just go for it. Don't just sit around and be content with the status quo. Come up with a plan, put the work in and make your dreams come true for your program.
Speaker 1:I have many former students that I see all over the place. I see them at Publix Target, the arena that I work at, and they still talk about all the fun they had in my class. They talk about Webster, our mascot, or the shootball tournament or the kickball tournament or just different things we do and the fun they had. Or the obstacle course. Again, I am well my former school because I wrote the grant, but my former school and my current school are the only schools in the district that have the obstacle course. And again, I'm not bragging, I'm just saying like that makes us unique and that makes our students' experiences unique. And you know they talk about these things. Again, these kids are in high school, college. I mean, I have students that are way older than that, but in the district I live in, that's how old some of my former students are.
Speaker 1:Former students are, and you can teach with little or no equipment. I'm just challenging you to go all in, make your teaching job into your passion. Don't make it just a job, make it a career, make it a passion. I always say this do what's best for your students and you can never go wrong unless you keep asking for archery over and over again. But that's a whole other story.
Speaker 1:And now it's time for your cowbell tip of the day. All right, so your tip of the day is to just kind of like the last one. Just go for it. Come up with a plan and work on your big dreams for this equipment expansion I guess level three if you're at that spot Again, if you're not, go back and listen to and definitely download the copy of my levels one and two, and actually three is on there as well. But you know, this is your time to dream big. If you have the budget, you have a basic foundation of equipment, go for it, but make sure it's something that could benefit the whole school. I didn't mention that before, but you know, don't just buy something that could benefit like 10 kids at a time. There are some things out there that I see them like oh, that'd be cool, but it's like oh, for $200, it can serve six kids or something like that. It's like no, I want to benefit at least one class at a time, hopefully more than that, like two. But look at your program, decide what you need and go for it, and that is your cowbell tip of the day.
Speaker 1:Thank you everybody for tuning in today. I really do appreciate it, as always. Go to supersizefizadcom for more information and check out the links in the episode notes for everything I talked about today, and please leave a hopefully five-star review. I linked it real quickly so to Spotify, where you just click on the link and see my dog is making noises, click on the link and uh, yeah, it'll take three seconds. So that would definitely help out the this podcast and help out, and help out everybody. Hopefully they want to uh, grow their program and I'm just trying to reach as many people as I can. So, thank you, pe nation. You guys and girls are awesome. Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you listen to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.
