Well we made it through one heck of a year and I for one am hopeful for a new beginning!
Hello Arizona Health and Physical Educators (AzHPE) members and beyond! My name is Dr. Jennifer Houston and I am your 2021 President for AzHPE. Before I get started on me, let me please take a moment to recognize the efforts of our past President, Toni Chilton. When Toni stepped up to take over as our state organization President, she had no idea how fitting her theme of Adventure would be, as this past year was surely an adventure…or at least that is one word for it! Toni not only provided us all with words of inspiration each month through her blog and descriptions of her own adventures, she worked tirelessly to navigate the waters of this thing we call a pandemic providing teachers with resources to continue to provide quality physical education for our students. Way to go Toni!!
I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank those of you who took a chance and attended our first ever totally virtual convention! Our first inclination was to just cancel the convention and try again next year. Instead, as a board, we decided we needed to be there for our members and all Arizona State Physical Education Teachers. At times, we felt as if we had no clue what we were doing (I’m sure you all know that feeling…) but we worked together to give it a go! With over 40 sessions I feel as if our team was able to deliver one awesomely amazing week of professional development relevant to all physical educators! Again, what an ADVENTURE!
The theme for our 2021 convention coming up in November is MOVE.PLAY.LEARN. As physical educators we are always advocating for our students to move (ya know, those 60 minutes a day) but I want all of us to remember that moving should not just be for the sake of moving! We need to teach our students to play because when they are playing, they are moving and hopefully we all know that movement is essential for learning. Teaching our students to apply their movements to play equals one heck of a lifelong learner and it is our job to instill that love for physical activity into all of our students, no matter their ability levels.
If you are as passionate about teaching as I am (and I know you all are), then I encourage you to present a session during our November convention! I know you all have some amazing, wonderful lessons and ideas for instilling the love of physical activity in our youth, so why not spread your knowledge and ideas? My other challenge to you all this year is to invite one teacher who is not currently a member of AZHPE or has not ever attended a convention, and bring them along; give them the opportunity to drink the Kool-aid and join an amazing group of Arizona teachers who love what we do and love to share the wealth! Lastly, I encourage you all to inquire about becoming a committee member for AZHPE or to find out how you can contribute to the profession outside of school as there are numerous opportunities.
I look forward to hearing from you all throughout the year so please feel free to reach out to me with questions and or concerns that I can bring to our board.
This is going to be fun!!
Sincerely,
drj
