Corporate Influence

                I was told once that “money makes the world go round, so don’t be square”. At first I thought that this person was a fool, but upon further review and outside of their acknowledgement I began to agree. As we all know the major money comes from business and enterprise. They run the world and everything revolves around them and their successes and failures, so why would anyone think that business wouldn’t have any effect on our public schools? The answer is, business culture has a dramatic influence on our schools and how they operate. They play a critical role in many different aspects of our schools that we might not even realize.        

           When our students are in their classrooms, working on a project and researching a topic they are utilizing multiple different informational sources. One of which is certainly going to be a book, but where did that book come from and how did the school come to get it. Chances are it wasn’t free and that someone had to pay for it. Even though we are in a huge technological upswing, books still play a huge role in our schools. The schools purchase the books from manufacturers who are making a massive profit. Schools typically purchase based on what’s called a low bid cost. This means that companies put forward an offer to the schools for their books, and schools will vote on the different options typically choosing the lowest bid that still meets their requirements for the books they want.

      

       While this is a process that has been going on for many years, some places are looking to make a change in this process in an effort to reduce costs to already suffering budgets. One option that schools in California are looking at is moving away from paper copies and moving to eBooks, or electronic books. These books will be downloaded to either computers or to tablets that students will have access to, and will be able get the same information. This would reduce costs significantly, and would still allow students access to the information from the textbooks. While some see the financial gains as a major positive, others are purists and believe that taking physical books away from students only further pushes our society towards the technological stronghold.

                

      While books are one aspect of business in schools, what companies want more than money from the districts is the opportunity to advertise in their schools. The money earned from advertising far exceeds the money from products sold to the district. Companies know that advertising and influencing adolescents would net them the greatest gains. The advertising is seen by some as an easy way to bring in massive amounts of income to the districts with no effort on their behalf. However the downside to this seen by some is that we are selling out our students to earn a few dollars. We would be allowing companies to brandish their logos and catchphrases around our schools further allowing them to lay influence over our impressionable students. While I feel that this is an easy way to earn money to support other portions of our schools, it’s almost like selling your soul to the devil.

          

      This doesn’t mean that I don’t think that we should eradicate all corporate influence from schools, I think that it needs to be done so in a responsible manner. I think that corporate influence has the opportunity to benefit both parties, but great care needs to be taken so that we can ensure that our students are not being sold out for a few extra dollars in the budgets. When introducing corporate influence into our schools, it can be done by less intrusive ways, such as through technology. Allowing companies that want their products in the schools to be used through grants and donations. Such as computers and tablets from apple, digital cameras from Nikon and so on. Companies are willing to gift their products to schools, but the schools are the ones who need to advocate for these grants/gifts. This is a responsible and meaningful way of introducing the business world into our school systems.

Finances

Money is what makes the world go round. While this statement is sad it is also true, and without the proper funding schools struggle to create and even maintain basic functioning abilities. Especially in today's economic climate we see a steady and constant downturn of the funding given to schools. Over the past five years almost all schools have seen a steady decline in the amount of federal and state funding. School boards have been face to face with creating budgets that are not only filled with difficult decisions, but they are forced to decide how many teachers we will be losing, what programs are worth more than others, and finally which ones can be cut.

So when you ask, why is important for teachers to know where the money is coming from, I can only ask, why wouldn't they want to know. The budget directly effects the materials they will be able to get, the amount of students in their classes, and even more critically their salary and benefits. Teachers are already seen by most as a vastly underpaid profession, and yet they play a major role in the futures of our youth. As teachers and future teachers, we need to make it a point to find out as much information about the budgets as we can so we can be informed consumers.

Each year a school board passes a budget to be voted on by their local community who essentially will pay a school tax that directly affects the budget of their local schools. If as consumers you have no idea what is going into the budget, all you see is the increase in the amount of money you will be paying on top of your property taxes. To many people, they already feel that their taxes are too high, making it difficult to justify paying even more. They have an even more difficult time ponying up more money when they don't have any children going through the public school system. They don't understand that a 3% increase on their taxes could potentially save 20+ jobs in their district. All they see is that they will pay another couple hundred dollars. They don't have anything physical to attach the extra fees to.

There are other ways that money can be brought in other than the federal and state funding. There are a massive amount of grants available to teachers, if you are willing to work for them, but since nothing is free, you will need to pay in effort and dedication. Programs like Keep Gym In School are dedicated to keeping Physical education in our schools, and they are advocates of keeping kids active. Strikingly enough, they also offer grants to teachers who they find are dedicated and are trying to pushing the boundaries of their physical education programs. Earning money for your program or school, doesn’t have to come from grants either, because chances are there are people in your community that would be willing to donate funds towards your program. The thing is, it is up to the teacher to go out and find those people, because last time I checked people don’t walk around handing out money. However if your program is open and outgoing, you are more willing to find community members who are willing to support you and your ideas. These ideas need to be reviewed and agreed on, and to make sure that you can explain and present them in a way that shows you have done your groundwork.

As teachers we need to be able to explain where the money comes from and what it is going towards, because the old answer of "it is going towards your child's education" won't cut it anymore. More than that, you need to know where the rest of the money is coming from, because if you aren't informed enough to give an educated answer, how are you going to talk to your community members and express to them the importance of this tax. Having my wife as a teacher has given me greater insight into both sides of the issue that most never get to see. I know what it is like to pay high taxes and see a steady increase each year, and yet I also hear about schools laying off dozens of teachers, and even worse closing schools. I also have a more in depth look into what the school budget involves rather than just buying books and paying salaries. Teachers are being forced to take pay freezes in their contracts simply because funding has been cut in half from where it was years ago. So as times get worse and costs go up, pay stays the same. This increased pressure in their personal financial situations should be reason enough to gain as much knowledge about the issue as possible. Otherwise everyone can keep burying their heads in the sand and hope for the best and complain about the rest.

Bullying

           Bullying is not something that is new or groundbreaking, but it is a more prominent topic of conversation today. We often hear that bullies are pushing other children to their breaking points and beyond. When I hear these stories, they have a special meaning to me, because I was a victim of bullying myself for years, and it was the most difficult time of my life. I wasn’t the best at anything, I didn’t live in the same development as everyone else, I moved to the area in the middle of elementary school, I was short, and had a big mouth. I had a lot of things working against me and what made it worse was my lack of friends. It took many years of torment from a few individuals until I was able to break free and become confident enough to get out from under their control.

      

         When I was bullied, it was a mixture of physical and verbal abuse that was continuous at school. I was able to find ways of staying out of sight in order to avoid being made fun of. While these tactics worked for me to make it through a school day, children today aren’t nearly as lucky. Not only are they tormented while at school face to face with their assailants, but then they go home and get online to receive even more abuse. The world of social media has spawned a new wave of ways for bullies to attack their victims and create a relentless attack. The blessing of instant access to each other online has become a double edged sword that creates an attack pit for bullies to attack on a round the clock basis.

            

           If bullies have so many opportunities and avenues to torment, how are we supposed to stop them? Well, a Tulsa public school has done just that, and created a way to anonymously report and describe bullying and where and how it is taking place. This will hopefully allow students to feel comfortable enough to speak up and tell someone, and have the people listening make a difference. Students often feel like they are unable to say anything about bullying, because they don’t know where they can turn in order to find help.

There are ways of dealing with bullying, that aren’t the confrontational and classic “fight back”, because violence rarely solves violence. You can confront the bullying in much the same ways as ju jitsu, and use their force and power and use it against them. We can teach our students to take away the power from the bullies by teaching confidence. But we can’t stop with teaching it, we must help to build it, through creating active relationships and teaching them to not allow the insults to carry weight. While this is easier said than done, it is possible, because I am living breathing proof.

The power of a confiding word is much more powerful than one might expect. Being accessible is the first step that we can take as a teacher to help support our students. We also need to let our students know that there is more to life than school and that there is something to look forward to. Many large companies have stepped forward to pass on the message of “it gets better”. This is a message to help young people who are struggling with their sexuality and the challenges that come with it, and it lets them know that people care and things are only going to go up. This message is vitally important because students need hope and to know that just because things are bad now, it doesn’t mean that this is how things are always going to be. We also need to play an active role in ensuring that we do not allow any form of bullying to take place in or outside of our classroom if we can. I know that from my own experiences growing up, that I will be doing whatever it takes to stop bullying to the best of my abilities.

Diversity

                Diversity is a topic that America has struggled with since its creation. We claim to be a melting pot of cultures, yet the coming together of multiple cultures or beliefs still stands a hard line. As citizens, we must take a look at our own values and ideals when it comes to the issues of diversity. We must ask ourselves, what diversity even means? Is it the differentiation of different races in an area, or does it have more to do with religion? Maybe instead it is the socioeconomic differences where we find diversity separating people. Regardless of the criteria, diversity is the different characteristics that make someone or something different or unique from another.

                Diversity is something that everyone must deal with and eventually accept, because in certain areas of the United States diversity rules. The Western coast of the U.S. is seeing what is called the “minority majority”. This means that there is no single race or ethnicity that holds the majority of the population. While this might not be a shocking statement if you were talking about a smaller scale, however it isn’t.  Instead we are looking at an entire region of the country. This should give people an idea of the massive numbers of different ethnic groups mixing throughout the population. Over the past few decades, we have seen the largest influx of immigration ever. With people coming from all across the globe, it is safe to say that diversity is going to affect everyone at some point. This is highlighted even more in many of our schools. We are seeing students from every race, religion and family structure that have their own specific needs.

                These needs cover a wide array of differences ranging from mastering a new language, moral beliefs, religious practices, to physical and mental disabilities. As a teacher, you may not encounter every single difference; but you will certainly deal with some of them.  Even in my limited teaching experience, I have already encountered multiple students with very diverse differences and have had to make modifications accordingly. However, just because your class is diverse it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to make modifications. Having diversity in the classroom is a good thing, because it teaches students to be open minded and not make judgments of others based on stereotypes.  Creating an environment that is positive and open allows students to focus on the content rather than each other’s differences.

                Allowing students to think for themselves and create their own choices is something that I foster with all of my students. I try to teach them not only about physical education but about being strong independent citizens. I want them to learn to look through stereotypes and prejudices that others around them may have created. Often I speak to my classes about the important character virtues that they need to learn and live by. I not only teach my students about them, but I try to be a living example of them, not only in school, but outside in my community as well.

                Living amongst a diverse population of students and people is only a portion of how we are affected by diversity. As educators we must also be diverse, but not in who we are, instead by what we do. We need to be diverse the ways and methods that we teach our students. It is known that not all students learn the same way or through the same pathways, so we must diversify how we present the content to them. It is also true that not all students enjoy the same activities; if they did there wouldn’t be so many sports, clubs and groups. Artistic expression is similar in many ways as athletic performance. This is because when people are performing a skill that they are passionate about it is irrelevant whether it is a sport skill, or a show of their voice or dance talents.

As Physical Education teachers, we can diversify our classrooms even more by breaking away from the traditional sports and activities we have played for decades. With new innovations in exercise video gaming we are able to grab the interests of students who may not have been as eager to participate in PE. Things like iDance and DDR allow students who may enjoy dancing and music to have something that not only peaks their interest, but also gives them an excellent workout as well. I look forward to working in a diverse culture, and teaching in a diverse way because I feel that the amount of second hand learning that can take place would be irreplaceable. 

Taking a Deeper Look into Anxiety

We all get anxious at some time in our lives, but most of us are able to move past it and continue functioning. Well, what would happen if you became so anxious and so worked up that instead, you shut down. Well this happens more often than you would think. Anxiety is a disorder that affects more than 60 million people here in the U.S. and it can potentially have devastating effects on people’s daily lives.

Since the beginning of this semester, I began a new job as the Lead swimming instructor at a fitness center here in Syracuse. Doing this, I have met all sorts of different people from the community, as well as many of the young kids in the area. One thing that stands out to me often is the increased anxiety of new swimmers and putting their faces under the water. This is something that can and does hold back young swimmers from learning to actually swim without any flotation devices. This sense of fear has the power to literally cripple people and this has sparked my interest in learning more about this subject.

This has driven my decision to do my research study on anxiety and its effect on Physical Education. Being in a few different physical education classes for different observations and to teach, I have seen this first hand and it wasn’t a pleasant scene. I want to learn more about this subject, so that I can potentially help students who may be dealing with this disorder in one of my future classes.

The Super Bowl is Super Bad for you

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Even people who aren't necessarily fans of football, know what this weekend is; that’s right, the Super Bowl. There are many people who will only watch one game a year and this Sunday will be the one, because it is such a large part of our society to go to parties, bars or restaurants to watch this game. While the players on the field will be pushing their bodies to the limits, and burning calories at a dramatic rate, those of us at home will likely be doing to opposite. We have built the Super Bowl up to be one of the most watched events in the world, and with the game and its funny commercials comes food. Not just a little food, but massive amounts of food that is packed with badforyouness.According to yummly.com, the average Super Bowl watcher will consume around 1,200 calories while “snacking”.  A few other fun facts include:

           “Football fans are expected to eat an estimated 69.6 million pounds of avocados during this year’s Super Bowl (mostly in guacamole). The most popular take-out and delivery items on Super Bowl Sunday are pizza, chicken wings, and sandwiches. It is estimated that Americans will eat 90 million pounds of chicken wings, which breaks down to 450 million individual wings! An astounding 14,500 tons of chips and 4,000 tons of popcorn are eaten on Super Bowl Sunday. Budweiser has been the exclusive Super Bowl beer advertiser for the past 17 years, and will continue to be until at least 2014. Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest winter grilling day of the year.”

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Now those in the health field are going to say try substituting chicken wings for celery and other non-comparable food items to fight back against the monster calorie foods, but in all reality, very few people are going to have a stick of celery over a breaded or fried chicken wing, dipped in ranch. So my advice for those hungry game watchers is to take the game on in moderation and only have a few different things at the party. Don’t eat a whole plate of wings, or half the container of 7 layer dip, but instead try a bit of each and be done. So go root on your team and don’t hog out on Sunday.

Timing is everything

Time in a classroom should always be spent wisely. This means little time wasted with trivial things, and yet still be engaging so that you aren’t losing the focus and interest of your students. While some subjects are more interesting than others, we as physical educators have a secret weapon. Movement. We are movement based, and while some classes will attempt to use movement as a means to bring students back or to mix up the monotony of sitting, we get to utilize it every day. We see from John Goodlad’s study that time is critical to a students learning, and yet we are focusing in on areas and leaving others out.

As Physical Educators, we know that our main goals are movement and activity as well as learning about why being physically active is important. We want our students to come away from our class with more than just the knowledge of how to kick a soccer ball or how to shoot a basketball. We are more than that, and we need to focus our time on showing the kids more than that as well. When you reflect on a lesson, you will often times look at time management and where time was wasted and how you can improve it. Since we want to maximize participation and activity, it would make sense that we don’t want to sped large amounts of time talking about what we are going to do, and instead just doing it.

I know that I am guilty of being longwinded and giving my students far more information than they actually need. Especially since they are going to instantly forget almost everything you said as soon as they start moving and doing something else anyway. While I feel that this study focused a lot more on the general education classes, we as Physical Educators can still learn from this. The time that we are wasting by talking and explaining extensive details that really won’t play a vital role any way, need to be cut out, or at least brought up during the activity or movement. We need to plan out how we can incorporate the information into the activities rather than stopping action to talk about it.

While we are still the gatekeepers, but instead of directing who is talking and for how long they will talk, we need to be the gatekeepers of movement. We need to make sure that we are keeping a tight grip on keeping the group active and learning the skills and concepts we are trying to teach them. This doesn’t have to be done in an overbearing manner, but instead with proper planning and strategizing, we can work these gatekeeper duties right into an activity where the students feel like they are the ones in control.

Diverse Classroom Experiences

Far too often we generalize people, thinking that we already have all the answers and know what to expect. When in all actuality, people are so different and so diverse that it is impossible to create a blanket statement r plan that is going to cover or work for everyone. The same goes for our students, and how we teach them. Not all students are going to learn in the same manner, and surely not at the same rate. Therefore we must learn to adapt our teaching styles to our students different learning styles. Some are going to do better with hands on, some just need to hear it. As physical education teaches we often fall into assumptions about our students and how they learn the skills and concepts in our classroom.

With all of this diversity in our general education population, it must be even more diverse in our special needs population, right? Of course it is, but as educated and motivated educational leaders, we are up to the challenge. The old way of explain briefly and demonstrate doesn’t necessarily work for all students, especially those with these special needs. We need to do more to stimulate their learning and find new inventive ways of getting the information to them. We need to be choosing equipment carefully, and taking even more care in our planning. If we know that students are going to need extra care in a certain area, then we need to be planning ahead with how we are going to tackle the challenge.  Just coming in and rolling out the balls is not going to teach our students anything, so we must steer far away from that concept.

Our classes are already a completely different environment than a typical classroom, so we need to make sure that we are taking full advantage of our time and space. We need to mold the environment to our goals. If we know that our students have difficulties with crowds or distractions, we need to plan for that and look for alternative places to teach rather than in the hectic loud gymnasium to ensure that we are setting them up for success.  Then after they have grasped the concepts or moved closer to mastery of the skills, transition in distractions and people in order to ease them into the more difficult situations. While I fully understand that relocation isn’t often going to be a realistic option, having students practice the skill facing a wall or the bleachers rather than the crowds may be a way to eliminate some of the distraction.

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If attention span is a battle that you face constantly, look for new ways to bring the students in. Since our culture is so consumed by technology already, why fight the current? Bring in new pieces of technology that are going to get the kids interested, and make your life even easier. It is becoming a more common sight to see classroom teachers using technology every day, so why not a Physical Education teacher? While we don’t have a large projection screen or smartboards, we can use tablets with videos to show specific clips for demonstrations. This is something that is so simple yet is going to net huge gains in attention by many students. Further on in my studies this semester I plan to go far more in depth with how we can utilize technology in our gyms to benefit our students.

CHOOSE HEALTHY!!!!!

Anyone in the physical education/health related field should know about what the president’s wife, Michelle Obama, is trying to do for American’s youth. She wants to see healthier, fitter, more active children who are given the right options to make healthier choices. In February of 2010 at the launch of the Let’s Move Campaign, Michelle Obama made the statement “"The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake."   This should ring true to anyone who has seen the current state of our nation’s health and obesity rates. We are fatter and lazier than ever, and there are many factors that are included, but one of the biggest is our diets. We eat much worse food, and with that we are eating it in even greater quantities.

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One place that Mrs. Obama felt we could improve our children’s health was at school.  And most everyone will agree with her, including myself, because I know firsthand that my school lunches were far from healthy. For example, we were told to choose a vegetable with our lunch, and we were offered carrots, peas, etc., however also included in these vegetable options were French fries. Since French fries are made from potatoes, they were considered an acceptable option for our daily vegetables. Now being that I as a normal kid, I ALWAYS choose the fries over whatever the other vegetables were every day. Does this sound like an acceptable option for a kid? Well, it shouldn’t. Now I am in no way stating that kids can’t have French fries, but eating them every day in conjunction with greasy pizza and corn dogs, breaded chicken patties, and burgers is not a healthy lunch. These options I just listed were what I ate every single day of school from the 6^th grade and on. We always had choices, but the thing was I never once chose the healthier options. The problem is that kids are given menus filled with unhealthy choices that they have become victims of opportunity.

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She has been pushing forward to force schools to provide healthier options and weed out those other calorie killer meals filled with breading and fried parts. Thankfully this message of healthier meals is not just a fad, but is starting to spread outwards to restaurants in our communities. More and more we are seeing establishments offer more options and healthier versions of their dishes.  Big names like Chili’s, IHOP, and Friendly’s are just a few big names whom have changed up their menus offering healthier options and noting it in the menus. One big hitter that you might not tie in as having healthy options is the Olive Garden. Well after a reported 5 quarter slump their parent company Darden is looking to jump on the healthy option bandwagon. Good news for consumers, because like children we are often victims of opportunity, so if a major chain like Olive Garden is going to revamp their entire menu, we can only speculate and hope that the healthier choices are more abundant than not.

Here are some useful links that will give you even moreinsight into these topics.

Regardless of your political stance, I feel that everyone should be watching the state of the union address. There are always those who are instantaneous to shoot down or deface anything that the other party says, but those of us either in or going into the education field should always be active listeners to what is going on. We need to be informed when important topics are up for discussion that could have dramatic effects on our lives.President Obama addressed the issue of students dropping out of school. He raised the issue that all states should take a firm stand and adopt a universal policy that students wouldn’t be able to remove themselves from school, A.K.A. drop out until they were 18. While I’m sure this topic will be followed with scrutiny and rebuttal from politicians as teachers we should be fighting for this.

Having family members who decided to drop out of high school early on in their educational career, I see the ill effects it has on future career choices and salary earnings. Also as anyone who has worked with adolescents, we know that they are not mentally capable of comprehending what sort of repercussions dropping out will have on their future.  Teenagers think that they know it all and have all the answers, which is normal, but they shouldn’t have the option to make such an important decision until they are at least old enough to vote. Regardless of your political stance, as a person who values education we should all be standing together on this issue.

Who's the Professional here?

Being a professional is more than just having diplomas hanging in your office and sitting behind a desk feeling important. It is more about being important and making an impact in your field, whether that is business, healthcare or teaching. The question arises of whether all teachers are considered professionals, and one would be quick to say that a math or history teacher would be considered a professional But what about  a physical education teacher, or better yet a “gym coach”? If you are looking at our predecessors, than you might not be able to agree that they should be considered equal. However if you look into the new era of physical education, than you will see that it is more than the warm up pants and dodge ball.

To first be considered a professional, we must first act as such. We must take the appropriate steps to show that we are more than just the guy/girl who wears a whistle and rolls out the basketballs. We are educated individuals who have a solid understanding of the science behind how the body works, and what is going on during movements both cognitively as well as in the psychomotor aspect. We need to take this understanding of the mechanics of the body and use that to create units and activities that are going to show growth and development in all of our students. We must stand up and fight back against the stereotype and show that we not only deserve to be considered professionals, but that we demand that same showing of respect for our field. 

Why would you ever become a teacher?

In today’s media there is a lot of conversation going on about teachers, and their roles, positions, and worth. This hot topic of conversation has spurred from the economic recession that we experienced, and the toll it took on public schools budgets. Every parent is going to argue that they want the best possible education for their children, the problem being that they aren’t necessarily willing to pay for that top dollar education. It’s the classic champagne tastes on a beer budget. This leads me into my first point about the pros and cons of becoming a teacher, and that is the salary. A lot of the public feels that teachers are way overpaid and rarely work, because of all the holidays and breaks. This is more than evident when reading any of the Syracuse.com stories about education. While some of the comments will drive you crazy, they are always good for a laugh, because they are so out of touch and off base.

These comments are generally made by individuals who have no idea what a teachers job involves, what schooling is required to become a teacher, and the amount of out of school hours teachers put in. When all of these factors are taken into account and then compared with jobs in the private sector, one could easily argue that teachers are drastically underpaid and surely underappreciated. One thing we can say is thank goodness that there are still intelligent and passionate people who continue to enter teaching, knowing well in full that they could easily double their annual salary by choosing another career path with similar educational demands. This is why we know that most teachers are in the classroom because they want to be there. Why else would you take such a massive pay cut, put in all of the extra planning hours, and put up with the angry unappreciative parents? Because you care about the kids, plain and simple.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are other perks that come along with the job. You do have paid holiday breaks, and in most cases, summers off (unless you choose to teach summer school). For those with children, like myself, this is a major draw because I know that for the most part I will be off work and at home when my kids are. This is different from a lot of jobs, because rarely will you get a break in the middle of winter and just get to spend time at home with your kids while they are growing up. You also are given a chance to be creative and try new things, as long as you continue to work towards the national and state standards.

These being only a few of the numerous reasons to be or not to be a teacher, I have already weighed these factors in my own life. After much internal debate, I gave up jobs that would pay me a significantly higher salary, requiring much less schooling, and little to no off hours work. While to some this may sound like a silly decision, but I chose to pursue a profession that I know I am going to be happy with everyday. While I may not drive a BMW to work every day, and jet set around the world, I do know that I will make a difference in many lives, and will be remembered not by my salary, but instead by my impact.

A little history and Philosophy of William Jones....

"Leading is not something to take lightly, and there are only a small percentage of people willing to take on this role and the responsibilities that come with it." I heard this upon my arrival into NCO (non-commissioned officer) training course for the Marine Corps. As intimidating as this was to hear, knowing that soon we would be leading our own troops, I took it on with an open mind and a positive attitude. It was here that I built my base of confidence and how the skills of how to lead.

One of these skills was teaching my fellow Marines how to do certain tasks. It encompassed everything from leading/teaching new P.T. (Physical Training) exercises, to repairing tilt-rotor air crafts. I began timid and uncertain, but as time went on I became a strong leader who was willing to take risks in order to benefit my group. Not all of these risks worked out the way I had hoped, but each failure taught me a new lesson. These different experiences were filled with multiple victories and failures, but each made me work harder to improve my skills to better myself and my group.

My moment to shine was during a squadron wide workshop with over 1,000 Marines in attendance to discuss training requirements and policies. While many followed in each other’s footsteps, basically repeating what their predecessors before them stated, and in all actuality this was no different than what was already in place. They were all taking the easy way out and in essence just “rolling the balls out”, but I was ready for change and was tired of the current outdated style of how things were done. Prior to speaking I had created a new training model that would revamp the policies and procedure, to something more relevant and substantial.

While I was quite nervous, and wasn’t sure whether or not I should brave this new trail, I decided that it was worth the risk. When I finished presenting this model, I stood there terrified of the responses I was about to receive, instead I was greeted with a standing ovation. This story took place very shortly before I exited the Marine Corps and entered school to become a Physical Education Teacher. I knew that I could teach people how to move, and how to think differently about the way they do things, so I set out on my new path. Having gone through the triumphs and failures of teaching and leading in the past, I took a different view on leading a classroom than many others.

One way I did things differently, was that I was constantly looking towards change. I wanted people to change their lives, but not for my benefit, instead for their own personal growth and prosperity. I firmly believe that as a future physical education teacher, I can and will have an impact on my students that will create forever change. I know that I won’t affect everyone the same, but I will strive to reach out to all of my students and push them to their highest potential and hope that they will reflect back on it later in life knowing that I helped to promote this positive change.

I will do all that I can for my students so that they will know that I am not here just to teach them how to play basketball or soccer, but instead that I am trying to help them to create a foundation of overall lifetime wellness. I will do this by teaching them about different activities that are readily available to them that will not only improve their fitness levels, but also give them a time to mentally relax and let go of their everyday stressors. I want us to break free from the stereotype that we are the swishy pants crew who only teaches in order to coach. While I love to coach, my first love and preference is to teach those non-athletes and get them excited about being physically active. I already know that the athletes like being active, so I want to reach out to all the others.

With that being said, I hope that I am willing to reach out and affect as many students as I can. If I am only able to affect a few of them, and possibly have a large enough impact to drastically change their path of wellness, than I have been successful. I am not going to rate my success on quantity, but the quality of attention and effort that I will give to each and every one of my future students.