#52 - Returning to Elementary: What I Learned as a High School PE Teacher | Brian Crane

I want to go back to challenges for a moment, just see if there was anything else that you wanted to add.

You mentioned earlier a few surprising moments of foundational skills in students that you filled some gaps in, and maybe that was surprising for a moment to realize the huge gap between the high school students that you were teaching and now having to teach students how to leap and skip and gallop and all of those fundamental skills.

Was there anything else that surprised you about coming back to elementary after spending years at the secondary level?

For sure, it's a lot more physical.

I would say I wasn't as stressed mentally other than how quick everything is and how back-to-back goes with classes.

You have to move inside, outside.

Your cart has to be ready, your PE cart for the week.

You know, at the high school level, I planned a lesson.

I did it weekly.

So I knew I was going to do basketball and I didn't need to worry about having a ton of equipment.

But luckily, Mesa Public Schools provides elementary teachers with it.

It's unbelievable,

Gary.

There's so much equipment.

We have everything you could think of, which is great.

So that whole thing was hard to kind of plan what I wanted to do.

And just kind of like remembering that the kids are elementary school kids.

They're five years old with the kindergartners.

And one of the big differences taking so much time away from elementary is how much larger the class sizes are.

Some of our grade levels classes are really big and you have to know how to manage that.

It can be tough.

Keep them moving.

Keep them active and engaged and be really specific about expectations for their behavior, right?

Oh, for sure.

Everything at the elementary level, which has saved me is when I say go.