Six Principles For Better Teaching

Hello PE Nation!

Today I wanted to share six new principles that guide our teaching and our lives: take risks, embrace the journey, no limits, Kaizen, love your craft, and change the game. Stories range from a final hello to a principal to the Savannah Bananas’ reinvention of baseball, with clear takeaways for any classroom.

• why taking smart risks reduces regret
• embracing process and momentum over titles
• removing false limits for ourselves and students
• Kaizen as daily, steady improvement
• loving the craft so students feel it
• how to change the game without losing standards
• practical ways to make PE more joyful and inclusive
• book one context and what’s coming in book two

If you want to pick up “High Fives and Empowering Lives, A Physical Educator’s Quest for Excellence,” check the show notes to support the show.

Happy teaching,

Dave

-Kindergarten PE Games and Activities ebook ($3.99 for 10 activities)

-Check out supersizedphysed.com for more resources, including free PDFs, articles, and courses to help with your PE program. Please leave a review to help grow this podcast and keep pushing our profession forward.

-Team Building Games Ebook (with preview): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Team-Building-Games-and-Activities-for-PE-Class-14063095

Grab my copy of the Outside PE Checklist as a reference that includes equipment, procedures, transitions, and other essentials for successful outdoor teaching

-Free resources include Substack and Medium articles with PE tips, games, and strategies

-High Fives and Empowering Lives  book available as an ebook or paperback

-Paperback or download: HERE

-Amazon Ebook: HERE

Chapters

• 0:11 Setting The Stage And Book Update
• 2:03 Why New Principles Matter
• 2:25 Principle 1: Take Risks
• 6:20 Principle 2: Embrace The Journey
• 9:22 Principle 3: No Limits
• 14:46 Principle 4: Kaizen
• 20:04 Principle 5: Love Your Craft
• 23:37 Principle 6: Change The Game
• 26:59 Closing And Book Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Hello everyone, welcome to the Super Science for Zen podcast. My name is Dave, and today I want to share my six new principles, just principles to live by, to teach with, and just make your teaching experience better and hopefully your life better if you follow these six principles. They will be in my upcoming book two in my series of high fives and empowering lives, which we used to be called The Teacher, the Chef, and the Hockey Player. So without further ado, here we go. All right, everybody, welcome in. So I have my second book done. Thank you for the uh PE Nation. If you uh purchase my first book, the um again it used to be called The Teach Teacher the Chef and the Hockey Player, and I changed the name to High Fives and Empowering Lives, a Physical Educators Quest for Excellence. And I want to make that more specific and less uh ambiguous, I guess, with the title. So if you uh and I'll put that in the show notes if you want to pick up a copy to support the show, but uh no worries if you didn't. I'm just going over the six new principles that I put in my second book because I already went over the principles for my first book called The PE9, the Nine Principles to Live By. So when I made this book, um, you know, I've been inspired by a lot of people, a lot of stories. I'm I'm a kind of a sucker for inspirational stories. And I was thinking about some more principles I could add to my PE9, which is in the first book. And I created six more. Again, I didn't create these principles, I just thought of principles that um have impact impacted my life, have helped me. And um, I'm no uh perfect teacher. I've always tried to get better, but these are the six principles I came up with. And hey, let's make this a boomer. It's been a little bit. So let's go with number one. Here we go. So the first one, and what I'm gonna do with all of these is give examples from the book. The first one is take risks. So it's an obvious one, right? But you need to take risks when you teach in your life. I'm not saying crazy, insane risks like uh dangerous risks, and it's hard to say the word risks, by the way. It's like saying the word wasps or wasp spray when I have to say that. I don't know why. So take risks. It is um you know something I I live by as far as pushing the envelope with my ideas. So uh the one story I shared, it's been a while. I'm gonna share the story again. When my principal, my first principal when I taught PE in my former school, and he's the one who hired me, he was amazing. He his cancer came back. He and wasn't uh he wasn't old, he was like my age, he was like my age currently. Um he's like 53, 54, and he had cancer and it returned, and he had he was forced to retire. And one day, again, I've some of you have heard this story before, but maybe a lot of you have not heard this story. Um he came back, he he he had already uh put in his notice. He met with all of us in the media center, a lot of tears, a lot of um just sadness. And he had already, you know, we already were going to be getting a new principal. That was um, you know, he he couldn't go on physically. And this is um towards the end of the year, maybe like third to fourth quarter, mid beginning of the fourth quarter of the year. So he came in one day, like I was just walking through the office. I was on my break, my lunch break. I was walking through the office, and he was in his his old office, his, you know, his his office, with his wife and our current uh, well, not not our new principal, but our some of the big the quote unquote bigwigs in the school, right? The administration, and they're all talking. And who am I, right? I'm just a PE teacher. Um, I'm just kidding, but I mean that's how I felt. And, you know, I walked right by and I saw, you know, his door was semi-open, but I walked right by and I'm like, I should I shouldn't go in there. I, you know, again, I don't want to interrupt. So, you know, I started walking down the hallway back to my office, and I'm like, I almost said F it. Basically, it's myself, at least. And I turned around and I went in there and I knocked on the door. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I'm not gonna say his name. I'll say his first name is Joe. I didn't call him Joe, but I say, I'm so sorry, Joe. Um, I just saw you here and I I just I had to say hi. And he's like, No, no, no, come on in, come on in, Dave. Uh, or coachy, but he called a coach. Come on in, coach. And I I went in, I just, you know, I just want to say, you know, I, you know, I don't know what I even said. Just I had to, you know, say hi. And um he's like, Well, yeah, we're just kind of cleaning out everything and uh just talking and stuff. And here, you know, it's my wife, and um, I don't think I'd ever met her at that point. So just had a nice conversation, and you know, I walked out of there like, okay, I'm glad I did that, I'm glad I did that. And that was that became the last interaction I ever had with him because he passed away that summer and he didn't come back, so I didn't see him. And so, you know, that was it. That was my last ever interaction with him, and he was just a fantastic person. And I'm so glad I did that. I'm just so glad I took that risk. Again, when I'm talking about risk taking, I'm not talking about, although I have skydived before a long time ago. I'm not talking about that necessarily, but I'm talking about that kind of stuff. Take a risk, and you know, don't live with with regrets, basically, is what I'm saying. So that is number one, take risks. Number two is enjoy the journey or embrace the journey. So again, life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. And the the I did a podcast on this a while ago. It's about uh Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. and Monsters University. And the example I gave in the book was about Monsters University, which is probably my favorite uh animated movie. I just love that movie. So uh throughout the whole movie, um I'm I would guess most of you have seen this, or most of you know who who I'm talking about. Little little green figure with a big eyeball. Um that's that's Mike. He constantly is pushing his limits, even though he's not he's not scary, right? He's not he's not scary, but he's going to scaring school or scare school or whatever the scare program. He's not scary, but he works his tail off, literally, I guess, um, trying to be the best he can. And he just keeps going and going and going. And he's constantly being belittled, uh, because he is little and he's not scary. And he just keeps going and he's studying and he's practicing over and over again, trying to be the best he can. And that's not it, though. That's the that's part of the journey, right? He's doing the best he can. He's doing he's just doing everything he can to live his dreams. But I'd say the best part is actually at the end of the movie, and I'm sorry, it's like a, I don't know, 15 to 20 year old movie. So if I spoil this, I apologize. But at the end of the movie, he's at a crossroads with Sully. They got kicked out of the university and like didn't know what to do. And the joke was, you know, there's always room in the or there's always a job in the mail room or something like that. So they're like, you know what? Let's do it. So they got a job in the mail room, and they they said, you know, he said that we're gonna be the best we can, we're gonna break every record for, you know, delivering mail. And they did it. And then it shows it's kind of like a montage at the end. They become like the best uh janitors ever, you know, the cleanest. Uh I'm I'm I haven't seen this in a while, so I'm I might be making some of this up, but they're like the cleanest uh place ever. And then they work their way up to the uh they deliver the cans and stuff, the canisters of scream uh screams or whatever. And you know, they just he just says we're gonna be the best at each job and work our way up. I mean, he might not say in those words, but basically. So every and then you'll see it, like they're you know, welcome to the team. This, you know, they keep working their way up the ladder, up the ladder, and eventually they make it to the main thing, which is the scare floor or the uh the scaring team or whatever. And it just they embrace the journey and they enjoy the journey. It just if you just say, well, it's just a job, it's just you know, I'm getting young. But I get summers off and no, like enjoy the journey, embrace the journey, have fun, and that is number two. Number three is no limits. And when I wrote this in the book, I came up with a few different things that I really enjoy. Again, I love these stories, right? I love stories of uh men and women pushing themselves beyond what's possible, I guess, and doing things that are just you know, push the boundaries of what people think, you know, it can happen. So one of the stories is actually that I that I put in the book as well, is if you know the the this is gonna date myself here, if you know the song, um it's from St. Elmo's Fire, the movie. It's called um, oh gosh, it's called Man of Motion. Um, and it's it's the theme to, or the well, I guess it's a theme song of St. Elmo's Fire, but the main song of St. Elmo's Fire. Um, and you know, I first of all, I it's funny. I love the Brad Pack movies. Again, I'm dating myself. Some of you younger teachers are like, I have no idea what the Brad Pack is. So, like Breakfast Club, um Pretty in Pink. Uh I'm thinking of 16 Candles. I'm just thinking off the top of my head. And one of the main ones, the first one, one of the first ones was uh St. Almost Fire. By the way, I didn't think that movie was that great. I just watched it recently. I think I saw it once a long time ago, and I watched it recently. I'm like, it was okay. I mean, it was it's it's because it's those actors and actresses that make it um make it great, I guess. But I was like, eh, it's okay of a movie. But the main song in there is called Man in Motion. It's by John Parr. And it's an interesting story behind that that song because it's not what you think it's about. At least I never I didn't know that. It's called, okay, by the by the way, the song is called Saint Almost Fire, and then parentheses, Man in Motion. And the story behind it is very interesting. So as the story kind of has it, or legend has it, or whatever the story goes, John Parr's song, his first song, I guess, or whatever, wasn't connecting with the audience, wasn't connecting with the movie, you know, wasn't it wasn't working. So the producer told him about, I don't know, I don't even know how this came up, a guy named Rick Hansen. He was a Canadian athlete who at the age of 15 uh was in a motor, not a motorcycle, sorry, a truck accident where he flew out of the truck and hit a tree and he severed his uh spinal cord. And he then became a wheelchair athlete, um, an amazing uh athlete in his wheelchair in multi-sports, many sports. He was actually a PE teacher as well at one point. So he was inspired by a man named Terry Fox. So Terry Fox lost his leg to cancer, and he traveled all throughout, like across Canada to raise money for cancer awareness and obviously research, things like that. So Rick Hansen was inspired by him. He traveled the world in his wheelchair and even climbed the Swiss Alps, and he raised over$26 million for spinal cord injuries and uh you know, everything that goes along with you know, the again, the research and don't, you know, the people were donating to that cause. And when he finally got back to Canada and he's he traveled, he circled the world, he that song was playing, like the last like mile or whatever. Um, that that song, the St. Almost Fire, Man in Motion, that song was playing as he crossed the finish line. So, and this is a long time ago, but what an incredible story. And he was actually the torch bearer in the Olympics. Uh, Rick Hansen was. He was actually twice 1988 and 2010. He was the torch bearer in the Olympics, which, you know, I mean, I've never been the torch bearer once, so he's twice. But even famous, you know, like Wayne Gretzky, like the greatest ever, was a torch bearer one time. Rick Hansen was a torch bearer twice. And again, he raised$26 million for k for spinal cord um injury research. And, you know, I'm I'm just thinking about that.$26 million is a ton of money, obviously, something I don't have. But back in the 80s, that I mean, I don't, I'm not doing the calculations right now. I'm not a math teacher anymore, but I'm sure that was way more than$26 million um in those dollars that in those days. So amazing, you know, just amazing story, amazing everything. I've never heard that. I I had previously never heard that story before about the song or about that person. And so, you know, it made me think of if he can travel the world, and by the way, it was a 26-month trek. So, over two years traveling the world, if he can do that, what else can human beings do? What else can we do? What else can we do as teachers? You know, if we're just sitting around watching Netflix all day long, we're not gonna change the world. You know, we need to live our lives, we need to show that there are no limits to our career, there's no limits to our lives, there's no limits to our teaching, there's no limits to our students. Teach them that they have no limits as well. Okay, it's only the limits they put on themselves, only the limits we put on our ourselves. And so I wanted to bring out that principle. So again, that is number three out of six, that is called no limits. So number four is called Kaizen, and I hope I pronounced that right. I've been saying kaizen for like 25 years now. So kaizen, I'll spell it for you. It's K-I- or sorry, K-A-I-Z-E-N, Kaizen, it's a Japanese word that is loosely translated into constant and never-ending improvement. And the, you know, I try to live by that. I I've been trying to live by that for again 25 years at least, actually, probably more than that. I was introduced to the word through my uh martial arts, my uh karate sensei. And I actually named um for my black belt test, I we actually had to name, like we had to create our own kata, like our own movements, like a whole sequence of movements. And we had to name our kata, and I actually named mine Kaizen or Kaizen Show or something with Kaizen in it. I don't know. So very important to me. In the book, when I talk about Kaizen, I talk about how, again, even as teachers, we need to constantly improve ourselves. And one of the uh stories that I shared in the book is a story about Kobe Bryant. And I love uh I love talking about Kobe Bryant and his work ethic and how he always was trying to get better. And I'm not even a huge NBA fan, a fan. I don't watch that many games. My son does, my teenage son, and we debate all the time who the greatest of all time is. Again, it's Michael Jordan. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to your younger, younger folk out there. It's Michael Jordan. He says it's LeBron, of course. And I, if I'm ranking, honestly, well, okay, never mind. I think Kobe's number two, but that's just me. So we could have that debate some other time. Um, anyways, for Kaizen, again, I use Kobe. There's two stories from the Olympics. Now, if you ever watch, by the way, watch this documentary. It's called The Redeem Team. Yes, the Redeem Team. It's on, I don't know if it's on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I think it was Netflix. And it's about the team that uh after after the okay, so after the dream team, there was there was a team that lost the, I don't remember what years all this stuff was, but there was a team that lost in the Olympics. They got bronze. And so the team that came back, and I have to look at what year this is, I'm not even sure. Uh, Kobe was on the team. The the and it was with like a lot of the big names, look like LeBron, and um he, you know, they they won the gold that year. But Kobe joined the team late in the process. He wasn't on the team originally. I did I forgot about this. He joined the team late, and you know, he at the time was um not controversial, but some people didn't like him as far as you know, he was just maybe standoffish or too hard on people like his teammates. And so they, you know, they weren't sure if they wanted him, if he was a good fit or not, right? But there's two stories from that. And you gotta see this. It's it's great. And again, I'm not even a huge NBA fan or anything like that. I used to be when I was a kid, but not as much anymore. So he there's two these I love these stories. The first one was the the team went out, they were like, I don't know if it's after a practice or after a game or whatever, they went out, you know, clubbing, partying all night long. And when they came home at four in the morning, Kobe was in the hotel lobby doing like exercising. He had weights in his hands, and they came home and they were like just flabbergasted. They're like, oh my gosh, what this guy, like he's just his work ethic was second to none. You know, again, four o'clock in the morning, working out when these guys were out partying, and he set the tone for the work ethic that was you know like moving forward for the team. The other one was, and this there's actually clips on uh not there's little clips of this on like Instagram and things like that, where his teammate, Paul Gasol, um, he was you know, again, really good player. He played for I think Spain or Portugal, I'm not sure. He I'll have to look that up, but and it's it was his teammate, like for the Lakers, like they were teammates, they were friends. He said, I'm gonna first play, I know what they're gonna do, and I'm gonna run right through Pau Gasol's chest. And he he did. He he just knocked him flat out on his back, not flat out, but I mean not unconscious, but he just knocked him really hard. And again, talking about setting the tone, that set the tone for the for the game. And the he just like everybody was like, they could not believe he did that to his teammate, to his friend, but he had that focus, that concentration, and the ability to, you know, just change his mindset and be like, okay, this right now this is not my teammate, this is my enemy. And I'm not saying to do that in teaching, but I'm saying to constantly elevate your craft, constantly get better, constantly um, you know, show that kaizen, you know, be you know, reading, listening to podcasts, listening to books, um, just learning, getting online, connecting, always getting better, always improving. And that's Kaisen in a nutshell. So that is number four. Number five is love your craft. And this kind of goes along a little bit with number two, enjoy the journey. But I want you to start seeing your your job as your craft. It is something you are constantly refining. Think of you, think of it like being an artist. You're constantly trying to get better day by day, and that goes on with Kaisen as well, I know. But loving your craft means you need to find something that you truly enjoy. And I have many examples of this, but um, I I can think of a couple people that I've met along the way in my teaching journey that I don't think they like kids. Like I really don't. And I'm not just talking about teachers, it could be like in the office area or whatever. I I feel like they they're just there for the paycheck. They're there for the summers off. And kids can tell that, by the way. I mean, they might not flat out say it, but they know when you care. They can tell when you really put your effort into it, they can tell when you're looking at the clock and you're just killing time. Like they can tell that. So loving your craft means fine. If if if you're not in education for the kids, I don't know why you're in education, really. I mean, I look at it like I'm inspiring a whole new generation of children, and I hope I am, and I'm not perfect, but I I love what I do. I do, I love what I do, and I've seen that it could be any job, it doesn't have to be teaching. I've seen that and I did an episode on what I learned from my uh when we went on a cruise, it was two summers ago. There were these people that served us that clearly loved what they did, and they weren't making much money. That's why I know on these cruises, and I'm not trying to uh demean anybody, anybody that has a that works hard at their job, their craft, I applaud them, I admire them. But I know you don't see you don't see a lot of Americans on some of these cruise ships because I don't I don't know what they pay, but I can't be a ton. And these men and women work so hard and they do such a great job to try to make our experience, at least I'm talking about my experience, our family's experience. And they they just did fantastic. I mean, I'm gonna point out one of our servers. He was actually our our uh room attendant uh for the whole hallway. His name was Jonair, like um J-O-N-A-R. And he was from Indonesia. Um, he only got to see his uh family like for two months out of the year, and he was sending money home to his newborn uh child, um, who was um, I think her birthday was coming up at the time. And you know, I was like, I was just talking like a lot, and you know, but he always had a smile on his face. I'm thinking, man, this guy this guy worked so hard for his family and always smiling. He knew everybody's name, by the way. But when I walked in the door, they must have been studying faces and names because he knew our names when we walked in. And he had a whole uh like uh hallway full of people, and he was so friendly, so kind, did everything and anything and went above and beyond uh with different, you know. I know they do these little animals and stuff, like with towels and they do all this fun stuff. But they're they were always he was always present, always kind, always helpful, and he loved what he did. And I appreciate that. And I hope you um can find that in your craft. Like enjoy it, love what you do and find meaning in it. And that's again, that's that's the love of your craft. That's number five. The final one is called Change the Game. And I'm a big fan of this. I I loved uh the Savannah Bananas are just fantastic. I I love the Savannah Bananas. I've loved them for a few years now, and I love seeing their story get, you know, just from the beginning and continue to grow. They they were um when we saw them, they were in a small stadium. They were in it's right next to where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play. It's called George Steinbrenner Field. It's actually where the Tampa Bay Rays played this season because the Tropica Tropicana Field got damaged from the previous hurricane. And it's a small stadium. We saw them uh it's probably like three years ago, and they were so personable, it was so fun to watch. They flipped the game of baseball on its head between the rules and the just the constant entertainment. If you don't know who they are, you you probably do by now. But at the time, like a lot of people didn't even know who they were. Again, think of Harlem Globetrotters meets baseball. Um, that's the easiest way to explain it. And they're continually growing, they're growing more teams next year. They're selling out, I mean, they're selling out football stadiums now. It's unbelievable. Um, we used to live in Charlotte, North Carolina for a few years, and that's where my son was born. The stadium where the Carolina Panthers play, I they played at least two nights in a row, maybe three, and they sold them all out. It's crazy. They played here in Fort Myers um about it wasn't quite a year ago, it was like the last spring, this past spring, three nights in a row, all sellouts. And it's just incredible to see where they've come from. They came from pretty much bankruptcy to now being one of the biggest, well, acts in the world, I guess, of entertainment. And I've met Jesse uh a couple times, the the owner and founder of it, um, just kind of saying hi, nothing crazy, but very nice guy. Um, all the players, super nice. I actually went to school with one of the catchers of the party animals, his parents. I went to school with them. Um, I grew up in a not a really big town, so it was kind of nice. I said hi to him here in Fort Myers, and I grew up in Buffalo, New York. So it was that was kind of cool. But the main point of this is they changed the game. They changed baseball forever. Now, I love Major League Baseball as well, but they took everything that was boring with baseball, like the time, the speed of the game, and they just made it faster and more fun. And now I can't take my own children to a regular baseball game anymore. Now that I've taken the Savannah Bananas because they just uh they're not big baseball um kids, I guess. My my kids, and now I can't, there's no way I could take them to a regular game anymore. I can't. I love baseball. But but the point is they change the game. And what I want to do with PE is change how PE's being taught, how I teach constantly, and this goes back to Kaisen, I guess, constantly improving, but also, you know, looking at the past, how PE's been taught. Um, and I just try to make it more fun. And yes, I teach the standards, yes, I teach the grade level outcomes, yes, I do all that stuff, but I teach it, I think, in a more fun way, exercise in a more fun way, movement in a more fun way. And my goal is to constantly change the game, constantly get better, constantly add more things and more experiences for my students. So I I challenge you to be like that as well, to change the game, change your PE program as best as you can, and just keep getting better each day. And that's number six. All right, everybody, I'm gonna leave it there. I won't even do a cowboy tip of the day because that was a long episode. But those are the six new principles in my book that will come out hopefully next spring. I just have to finish getting all the editing done and all the professional stuff done. But uh, that is book two. Book one is in the show notes. If you want to check it out, is there are other the PE nine, those are nine principles that I taught and shared in the book. And again, it's a book about um somebody named Jay Carter, um, just a fictional character, but it's a based on my experiences of being a poor, and when I say poor, I don't mean uh not not wealthy, but a poor um teacher, not a good, not a good teacher. Let's just say in the beginning, I was not a good teacher, starting off, and I made a lot of mistakes, I still do. But as I as I've grown, I've learned a lot of things along the way, and I've I taught them in the book in a narrative form. So I'd appreciate if you check that out. And um, yeah, love to spread the word on that book and then my upcoming book, which I don't even have a name for it yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do. So take care, PE Nation. Have a great day, week, weekend, whenever you're listening to this. And let's keep pushing our profession forward.