Through physical education professional development, teachers can gain the skills and knowledge to create a safe and supportive learning environment, develop a comprehensive physical education curriculum, and use technology to enhance instruction. We break down the importance of physical education professional development and feature popular online professional development courses to explore. Better yet, all these courses can be used for your required continuing education hours. Let’s dive in!
Importance of Physical Education Professional Development
Every year, school districts require school staff to participate in teacher professional development or continuing education training. But most professional development opportunities are not specific to physical education professional development.
Instead, most teacher professional development offered throughout the school year is geared towards general teaching practices or other subjects like math, science, and english.
But physical education teachers must keep up with the best practices for today’s physical education classroom. Specific physical education professional development is crucial because it can support PE teachers’ pursuit of creating quality physical education for students.
So where can physical educators go for physical education professional development?
Physical Education Professional Development Opportunities
There are two main categories to consider when looking for quality physical education professional development:
In-Person Professional Development: These opportunities include on-site and off-site workshops. But as noted earlier, many school district workshops don’t typically address physical education. An alternative is to attend state and national conferences like Shape America, where like-minded physical education teachers share best practices.
Online Professional Development: Online resources are becoming increasingly popular for completing a professional development course. Online physical education professional development opportunities allow PE teachers to select specific and relevant materials for their PE program goals.
PLT4M Classroom – Physical Education Professional Development
With an increasing demand for online physical education professional development, PE teachers can look no further than PLT4M Classroom. PLT4M is a leader in physical education curriculum and technology and supports over 1,000 schools nationwide. While PLT4M is utilized in schools by teachers and students, PLT4M Classroom is an excellent opportunity for any physical education teacher to brush up on different topics like fitness, weightlifting, yoga, nutrition, and more.
A bonus to these courses is your certificate of completion after taking your class. These can be applied to your required continuing education hours. If you have questions about this, please feel free to reach out!
Explore some of our most popular courses below and find the right physical education professional development opportunity for you!
Teaching Foundational Human Movements (1 HR PD)
The foundation for all physical activity, especially any fitness, is focusing student learning on the 5 fundamental human movement patterns. These 5 foundational movements include:
Squat
Lunge
Hinge
Press
Pull
This physical education professional development class is a one-hour course that contains written and video materials that review best practices for teaching these 5 movements to students. When teachers feel more confident teaching and developing these fundamental skills, they can enhance student learning.
Teaching The Squat, Bench, & Deadlift (1 HR PD)
More school districts are looking to transition to a fitness-focused curriculum. But for many physical education teachers, weightlifting can be an intimidating physical activity to introduce to students. In this course, we introduce the 3 power lifts:
Back Squat
Bench Press
Deadlift
Through this physical education professional development class, teachers can learn how to go over everything from setting up for the lift, executing the movement, safely adding weight, and much more.
Teaching Basic Yoga Poses (2 HR PD)
Yoga is an excellent addition to your PE program. But, like weightlifting, you may not feel confident running an entire yoga class. And while you can tap into great online resources for yoga lessons, knowing the basic yoga poses and how to introduce and teach them is helpful. In this course, we review 3 yoga poses from each of the following categories:
Standing
Twisting
Balancing
Hips
Spine
Core
In this physical education professional development course, teachers can learn how to introduce basic yoga poses, provide scaling and modification options, and begin to work towards complete yoga flows.
Teaching Intro To Nutrition (3 HR PD)
Nutrition is a significant component of overall health and wellness. But, talking about nutrition to students can be challenging. In this course, we introduce how to teach and talk about the basic building blocks of nutrition. These basic blocks include:
Calories
Carbohydrates
Proteins
Fats
In this physical education professional development course, we focus on how to put nutrition into the context of students. Over 3 hours of written and video lessons, teachers can become confident in speaking the language of nutrition to students.
Teaching Mindfulness (2 HR PD)
Mindfulness is paying attention to what’s happening on purpose with kindness, curiosity, and without judgment. But how do you teach that to students? In this course, we will review some of the basic components of mindfulness:
Introduction To Mindfulness
Neuroscience of Mindfulness
Mindfulness of Emotions
Mindfulness of Thoughts
Mindful Movement
This physical education professional development course is excellent for teachers looking to round out their PE program. We often see physical education teachers expected to cover everything from fitness to social-emotional learning, so proper professional development can go a long way.
Key Takeaways on Physical Education Professional Development
As physical education evolves, PLT4M is excited to offer professional learning resources for PE teachers. Whether you are a brand new teacher or 30-year veteran, we hope these online resources can provide you with insights and best practices to return to your school districts and enhance student learning.
And while we featured a handful of our physical education professional development opportunities, we only scratched the surface. So be sure to check out the full offering at PLT4M Classroom for many more professional development workshops and offerings.
FAQ
How do I pay for PLT4M Classroom?
You can pay for PLT4M Classroom via credit card. Many schools will reimburse you once you have completed the physical education professional development course (just be sure to check with your school first). If you are looking to make a bulk purchase for your school district or department and want to use a purchase order, please contact Doug@Plt4m.com.
Does PLT4M offer services other than professional development?
Yes, PLT4M partners with over 1,000 schools as a physical education curriculum and technology. Think of PLT4M as a learning management system for PE. School districts use PLT4M as their online textbook for everything physical education.
Ready to Learn More?
Schedule a free 10 minute consultation to see how PLT4M can help save you time and empower student learning!
