Candid Discussion

This is very good stuff I'm glad we can have this discussion. I think you and I are on the same page when it comes to most of these matters. However we need to compare apples to apples. Let me explain. You (or someone) want us to do the same kind of paper work that a classroom teacher does but it is impossible. A classroom teacher sees their students every day and are able to assess their 25 to 30 kids. Elementary Pe teachers teach 5 grade levels with an average of 4 sections per grade level. I would have to assess 420 plus kids. We see each class and therefore each student 74 times out of 176 student contact days. That works out to 3,700 minutes per student per year. That is 62 hours per student per year. That comes down to about 42 % of the school year. I see my students less then half the year!



Let’s compare that to classroom time. On average a classroom teacher teaches 6.5 hours a day with a 30 minute duty free lunch and a 50 minute prep. That means they teach 24 students for 5 hours per day. That come out to 52,800 minutes or 880 hours per year. If the classroom teacher teaches about 5 different subject and would get 176 hours per subject per student. Classroom teachers have 65% MORE time for each subject then PE does.

My point is there is a great disparity between classroom and specialist student contact time. Creating an imbalance in assessment opportunity. If I had 65% more time I would assess more. At the elementary level all specialist are graded very subjectively by the teacher. Not because we are afraid of assessment it’s because we DON'T have the time and we have so many students to assess.



I like you want our PE department to be one of the better ones in the state. If assessment is that big of a deal then we need to find someone who knows how it do. I have been struggling with this for years and have been trying to find someone or somewhere that has a good elementary assessment and grading system and have come up with nothing. I don't feel the people in that room who don't teach elementary PE are going to be able to help me come up with assessments for students they know nothing about. Please don't get me wrong if there is something better out there, if there is someone who has a great way to assess and grade, I'm in.



I would tell the person who asked you the question about pay that you are going to take 65% of classroom teacher time away give them more students, expect them to teach a new grade level each hour (1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade) still expect them to teach their full curriculum at each grade level, and still assess the same. At the same time you are going to give PE classes 65% more time with fewer students and expect them to start assessing. In one year I bet you would see the classroom teachers having some major problems and PE thriving. Not a realistic scenario but obstacles we face are huge and can’t be denied. If classroom teachers had the same obstacles they would have the same problems I'm sure of it. So we can’t compare apples to apples. It’s not the same.