Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode 45- Ty Podeszwa, Elementary PE Teacher

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Episode 45- Ty Podeszwa, Elementary PE Teacher · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Alan Spicotti, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love having this platform to share some of the great things going on in the district so you can meet our powerful staff members and students, and we can uh each episode just tell a little bit more about the district and uh introduce you to some things that might be um invisible if you don't have the joy of being in school on a regular basis like I do.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is gonna be a really fun episode.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually uh at Lee Hill Elementary a few weeks ago doing some classroom visits, and we couldn't help but notice uh some really cool and exciting activity going on in the gym.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll make sure we talk about that.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but at this time I'd like to invite this week's guest uh who is Ty Pedezwa, and he is the physical education or PE teacher at Lee Hill Elementary.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Ty.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Dr.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Spochotti.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me here.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I'm glad to have you here.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you're a popular guy, and when we, you know, we kind of put feelers out there about who would be a great guest, uh, your name has come up more than once.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and you've been at Lee Hill probably quite some time, right?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: I moved there from AJ um after AJ was open for about four or five years, and then I've been there ever since.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: So um probably around 11, 12, maybe.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get to know you well uh in just a moment.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm gonna take us back to the top of every podcast.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love to hear from our guests.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tell me about your favorite teacher and why.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm a huge sports and music fan.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I love anything sports, anything music, uh, especially if it's uh um unknown sport.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I like to learn about it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh if it's an uh artist or something like that, that I like the beat of their music or anything like that.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I really listen to it.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: The first time I was kind of introduced to the Beatles was my uncle.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: My uncle was a huge Beatles fan.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: He grew up in the 60s, so um he kind of instilled that this is a good group.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: I like the sound of them, I like the drum.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's a drummer, so I like the drumming of Ringo Star.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I got into fifth grade at Clover Creek Elementary in Spanaway.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And my fifth grade teacher was a guy named Todd DeCarteray.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And Mr.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: DeCarterre was a former UPS lager football player, and he ran his classroom like he was our coach.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he talked to us so all the time about initiation fun things that they did as football players.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he he would always talk about being part of the team and doing things like that, and he was a huge Beatles fan.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he had Paul John Paul Georgian Ringo on his wall, and he'd he'd play Beatles music in the class, and it was like very musical.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: We'd have things that uh we would do connected to Beatles lore and things like that.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was really, really cool.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then um we had specialized reading groups like a lot of our classes these days, and my um thankfully I was a high reader, so I got to go to the high reading group, and I think they picked one of the coolest teachers in the whole school to run it, and that was Mr.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Strickers.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Mr.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Strickers was the guy that would reward you for everything, every little thing.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you said an interesting vocabulary word, he's like, Oh, great vocabulary, five and one.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: And five and one meant you got five points towards being student of the month, and you got a bonus licorice.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he was a live wire.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this guy he couldn't stop moving, you know.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that was another thing.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he was really into music too.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm dating myself, but student of the month could win a 45 record.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: You could win of a single 45, and so I loved that because I I I ended up getting a collection of 45 records because I won student of the month a few times.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it's actually really cool.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that those are my two favorite guys because they were also male male teachers that were inspiring to me, you know.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just gonna point that out.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about representation a lot, and one area that is traditionally lacking uh in any elementary school typically is is male teachers, and uh it can make a world of difference.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like you just uh rattled off two who they were great.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was out of out of maybe three fifth grade teachers, there were there were two males.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really cool.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And do you think that has a connection to you doing what you do right now?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Most definitely.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Most definitely.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I use music in everything.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh my start and stop stuff is all music.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um if I want the kids, if the kids know that when there's music on, that's their break time or practice time, so they can actually go get a drink, go use the bathroom, whatever they need to do while music is on.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: When music is off, that's when I'm gonna teach them something new about either the skill we're learning or the uh or it's time to relax and sit down on their dot and show their plan.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So awesome.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, well that you know, I just love these stories, and I can't tell you how many guests, definitely the majority, something about their uh favorite teacher has stayed with them for the rest of their career and had a big influence, and uh we hear that again, so that's really cool.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, tell us about your journey to becoming a teacher in the Auburn School District.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a graduate of Washington State University, um, but I graduated in communications.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and they have a great communications school.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm laughing because I was like, Do I bring up the Coug thing?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: What Coug thing?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what Coug thing?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you if you go to the gymnasium at Lee Hill, you'll see the Coug thing.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, yes.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we at Lee Hill, every room is uh is represented by a college, and thankfully Mr.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Herda was able to let me be the Coug classroom, essentially.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I have Cougar stuff everywhere in my classroom.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Coug through and through.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: My I met my wife there.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um she's a coup.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: My daughter currently goes there.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: She's a coup.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: She's currently in the design program there.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I went to WSU for communications because I heard that the Edward R.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Murrell School of Communication was like one of the best in the nation.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: And um I was I have the gift to Gab.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I was into music.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be a disc jockey.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be like the main disc jockey on some big radio station.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, oh, I got to go here to make that happen.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: But um I went and ended up um, you know, loving WSU, um, making lots of lots of friends with my dormates and stuff like that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: While I was there, um I studied predominantly uh science and communications.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And when I left, I didn't leave with my degree because I met my wife there and she had graduated, and so we moved to Arizona because she got a job.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Went down to Arizona, hung out in Arizona for a while.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I actually started taking some um online, not online at the moment.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a a book in the mail kind of class and trying to finish my degree.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: That didn't work.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: I worked for Enterprise Rent A Car.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we decided to get married and moved back to Washington.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: A friend of hers came over one night.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was working for Singular Wireless at the moment, but she came over and said there was a a cohort um starting at Green River Community College, and I live up on Lee Hill, so really close to where I live is Green River Community College.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And she said that there it's a K-8 education degree that you leave with with a science minor.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that I love the sound of that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: The big thing that that med led me to that was that I was doing sales training at the time.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I was training people how to sell better, um, how to sell cellular service, singular wireless products, things like that.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know what, in my brain, I could help kids learn life skills, I could help kids learn math, reading, things like that.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And rather than help it help an adult make more money.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that was really the thing that inspired me when she was there.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I ended up going to the Central Washington cohort at Green River Community College and uh started doing uh emergency subbing after I finished my first degree.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I guess so I could take I can say this to all my friends that know that I went to WSU.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I actually finished my last two classes at UW Tacoma because Go Dogs.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because that was available and it was in it was perfect because it was a communications thing.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so finished that and I went and did emergency subbing at Auburn School District.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I I signed with being emergency sub, started getting ready, getting close to student teaching, and I literally started, I think the year after I graduated as a third grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you started in third grade.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how'd you end up in PE?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: When I was moved to AJ, we were we were there at AJ and we had a half half-time PE teacher.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: We had Mr.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hess.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: He was doing only third, fourth, fifth at AJ and third, fourth, fifth at Lee Hill.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so while we were there, we had to come up with a way for the teachers to teach PE during the time he wasn't there.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And all the um teachers on my team, which was a second grade team at AJ, they said, Hey, Pedezwa, do you wanna do you wanna go do this?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, absolutely, I do.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd love I'd love to um and Mr.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hess was excellent.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: He would come up with a packet of activities for us to do.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time, I was interested in going and re- and recertifying and getting my certification in PE to transition to being a PE teacher.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I took that over.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: I taught all of the second grade um PE at AJ the last the last few years I was there.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um then Mr.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Herta calls me, uh, Ed Herta from Lee Hill and says, Hey, how would you like to be our full-time PE teacher?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I finished up my uh endorsement and was able to uh start at Lee Hill.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been there for, like I said, maybe 11, 12 years now.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it was it was a it was a great transition for me because of my energy level.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love it.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you are uh our first PE teacher guest on the recess, and uh you have an open field to talk about PE.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh let's let's start with this.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: What is your favorite part of being a PE teacher?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go with uh a conversation I had with a former PE teacher.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Travis Goodlet used to be the PE teacher at Jilda Ray Elementary.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: He and I were really good friends, and we he had my ear and I had his ear, and we started talking about where's where's a better fit.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Classroom teachers are excellent people, they get to fully affect the lives of 25 to 30 kids every year, right?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: They are there seven hours a day, and even when they leave, they're their person, right?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: While a PE teacher or specialist, PE art, things like that, they can affect the entire school.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought being a positive influence on five to six hundred kids seemed like a really awesome thing to to get into rather than you know the the the the great work that our classroom teachers do, but rather than just those 25.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that I mean that's that's a great uh influence that you have across, and you get to have those multi-year relationships with kids too, which I think is really powerful.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's excellent because one of the coolest things about um my position or any PE position, if you if you do service the entire school, is I've seen kids starting kindergarten.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like our kids this year, I met them on co during COVID.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: I met them online.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: So these these students that that I saw for the first time, these kindergartners, I saw them through a screen first.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now they're fully, fully grown up fifth graders.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the coolest thing is whatever I start with them in kindergarten, I build on every year.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And by the time they're in fifth grade, if they've been there with their with me for every year, I don't have to worry about behaviors.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because they know what to expect from me and I know what to expect from them.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the coolest things about my position is that when I don't when I miss school, if I'm sick or I have an appointment or something like that, kids will actually come up to me and go, where were you yesterday?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Which is really cool.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is cool.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: That obviously you have a good connection with them.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so tell us about your students.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and the question is this what are some of your students' favorite PE activities?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's called treasure hunt.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's basically red solo cups and there's toys.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the toys are eight random things or eight eight connected things, eight of the same type of item.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the kids hide them.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: So they hide them on one side of the gym.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: As they're hiding that item, they're not really thinking about okay, I remember where I put that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then at the end, and then after it's all set up, they get together and I put them in teams, and then I show them an item that they have to find.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So they're trying to find all eight of that item, and they love it because it's running, it's involved involved running.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I I throw in other locomotive activities like you have to skip all the way there.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's a skip, it's skip, it's skipping today, it's side sliding today, things like that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: But they go down, they get to peek under one cup, they peek under that cup.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: If it's the item they're looking for, they bring the cup and the toy back to their team, and the first team that has all their items wins.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I it sounds so so simple, but something like that, where it's almost like uh for anybody that celebrates Easter and Easter egg hunt, you know, it's kind of like that.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like kids love like scavenger hunts and Easter egg hunts and things like that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: So treasure hunt ends up being like that, and it's got it it hits all the boxes, you know.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's like their that's like their, I would say, if I'm looking back, it's probably their favorite one.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I I actually want to build off that for a second.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get back to fun PE uh activities, but uh you mentioned motor skills and you know checking boxes, uh uh developmental areas.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: So uh make the case for the audience, because probably a lot of people haven't thought of you know how physical education is you know a discipline, it's child development.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what are you trying to do as you take those kids from being kindergartners to fifth graders and prepare them uh for secondary school and life?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So the big thing that I do is um my primary kids versus my intermediate, so K through two versus uh three through five.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're starting out in K through two with um body movement, body spacing, things like that, locomotor activities, running, skipping, side sliding, um, galloping, things like that.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I teach them how to do those things, or at when they first get there in kindergarten, I see who's already got it and I see who we need to key in on more.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um if a stud and sometimes that's maturation, you know.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when they come in, they just haven't matured into that yet.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: But showing them the proper way to do those things is is is very important.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And um, giving them the keys and the points of each thing, so we explain how that works, but by the time we get to third grade, I want to see that everything I've taught them in kinder kinder through second has stuck and we can build off of that.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we do a lot of tossing, we do a lot of throwing.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Third, fourth, fifth is where I really jump into my sports skills and I can't I I'm not going to do a lot of sports skills.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's harder to do sports skills if I don't lay the groundwork.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if I get a student from another school and um they can't skip but they're in third grade, it's not gonna be a huge deal.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um if we play a game where there's skipping involved, then I'll notice it.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not it's not necessarily a third grade skill, it's a K through two skill.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest thing is if I don't uh practice spacing, body spacing, I don't practice stopping and starting and things like that, my sports skills are gonna fall apart.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're not gonna know um I need to be this far away from someone when I'm throwing a ball or catching a ball to to keep myself safe because safety is a huge thing in PE.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a music teacher and we have a similar kind of trajectory.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if kids aren't learning rhythm and tonality and movement and all all of those building blocks, um you know, then you pick up an instrument and at best you're just typing.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: You really need to actually have internalized the building blocks and the skills and the and the just the musical sense.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a a a parallel with athletics and and uh physical fitness for sure.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get back on to some of your students' favorite activities, because uh I always joke that I'd like to come back as an elementary PE teacher.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: It just looks fun every time I'm in there.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you mentioned the treasure hunt.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: What are some other fun activities or or games or sports you do?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you're if I'm thinking thinking games, we play a game called Star Wars Star Wars Hula Hoop Tag, which is super fun.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: They they love that game.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Did you invent that?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: I I I learned that um Star Wars Hula Hoop Tag is super fun.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: They love it because it's like a freeze tag game with kicking a hula hoop.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you you kick a hula, you slide a hula on the floor, you kick the hula hoop, it slides.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's the tagger's job.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: It hits a kid on the foot and they have to freeze like Han Solo and Carbonite.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that means hands up, mouth open, legs, legs, legs wide, and they stand there until they're saved by a Jedi.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the Jedi come around with a pool noodle and they tap them on the back, and that gets them back in the game.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it gives me chances to talk about you know safe spacing.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: They can jump the hula hoop.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's the number one thing they always ask.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Can I jump the hula hoop?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, absolutely you can.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: But if you land in the hula hoop anyway or it touches you, you're frozen, you know.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: So they love games like that.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Freeze tag games are are a huge, huge hit with uh with them.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Anything noodle, noodle-based.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you about a couple of things that I've observed.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, as I said, uh uh a number of us were visiting Lee Hill uh and we could not take our eyes off of the gym.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't been to the new Lee Hill Elementary for the audience, from the the downstairs and the upstairs, you have this bird's eye view into the gym.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it had uh like I think the lights are out because it well, you can tell what it is, but it was super cool.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: So basically, um we have a rotating the Auburn School District for all the 16 elementaries has a rotating bowling curriculum, and the bowling curriculum comes with carpets for the lanes, uh pins, and uh a holder so the pins don't splash all over the place, and then a um different different size ball or different weighted ball for the different ages.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, with teaching that curriculum, um, I always remember going uh to like Daffodil Bowl and Puala, and they'd have like late-night bowling, yeah, and everything is dark but it's black light or disco disco dancing and stuff like that.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, what I decided to do since I I was a DJ in uh in college, so when I uh started doing this, I used my DJ light, my DJ light trellis and hooked all my DJ lights up.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was a dance party, but it's a dance party and we're bowling.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I always make the second week I have bowling because we get it for two weeks for every rotation.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I always make the second week the bowling uh disco bowling week.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so I put on I put on tunes that they like.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right now it's kids bop, you know, popular music, but it's kids bop music, so it's appropriate.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: I've recently added different lights along the sides.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I take my own Christmas lights off my tree and I put them lined up next to the next to the thing because they're app controlled lights.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's my newest thing.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I can change the colors of them, the speed of them, and things like that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's actually really, really cool, but it's awesome.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: The kids love it because as the kids walk by, when it's going, kids can't help but stop and look at it.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the adults can't either.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm proof.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Very good.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Ty, part of why you're here is uh I was talking with a PE teacher and he encouraged me to have a PE teacher on the podcast, uh TJ Naviglio.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was my boy's PE teacher uh a ways back, and uh he's now teaching at AJ.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he was telling me about the bike unit that we have in elementary school PE now, and that's a relatively recent thing.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool and a really a great opportunity for students.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: So could you just share a little bit about what we do with bikes?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh I personally haven't had it yet, but we're we've all done our training on it, and they have a support.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: The people come out with a big trailer and they um bring out bikes.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: If it's uh good weather, obviously we can use the outside for the for the bikes.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and there it's a really great low entry level type thing.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: If a kid has never tried a bike before, they have the bikes without pedals that they can they can work through that.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if they have tried a bike before, you can have like uh kind of a more expert area or an experienced area versus inexperienced area.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: The goal is that every kid knows how to be safe on a bike and um ride a bike by the end of the unit.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we're hoping that every year um it gets it gets more and more, meaning that every year we're gonna have more and more kids knowing how to ride bikes and be safe on bikes.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, like uh we do a lot of helmet safety talk, uh, which is important.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's a video that's great.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the helmet has a watermelon in the helmet and they drop it with the watermelon, and it's and the watermelon survives, right?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they drop the watermelon without the helmet and it's crashes, and then um, but yeah, bike safety is sounds like an old David Letterman bit.
• 21:06
  unknown: Yeah.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Stupid human tricks or something like that.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, but yeah, we um the big thing about it is um we set up courses, we st uh talk about braking and how to how to take care of the bikes.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about um uh how to how to get on the bike for the first time.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: We make sure that the kids are uh able to be safe.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about road safety, things like that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: We have some areas in our district that are not safe for bikes, really, you know, and kids need to know that, you know, they need to know that if you can get a helmet or if there, you know, there's so many free resources for helmets that we talk about that too.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure that they know, please wear a helmet.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Adults, you wear a helmet, be the good example to teach the kids.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do that with the all of our adults, but if at least the kids are wearing them, we know that we're doing our job, you know.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that safety message and uh learning to ride a bike, but also doing it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Safely is you know part of childhood and not all of our kids have that opportunity.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then you see a lot of a lot of things like I I'm on those community message boards and with the e-bikes and everything.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we worry about kids and I'm glad that they're getting a good foundation in our PE classes.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's shift gears here.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the ways that we like to illustrate our programs is to have a staff member uh talk about what a student success story looks like.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have one or two to share with us?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: I one of the one of his success stories is actually one of my students who parent whose parent actually works uh within the district, their son, Devin, came to I I came to Lee Hill when he was uh I think third grade, but I had a different way of teaching him throwing than uh his previous PE teacher.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: And his previous PE teacher taught him throwing, but he remembers this thing that I taught them about how to do the muscles.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: You put your muscles up um with your ball by your ear, then you Superman, you put your arm out like you're well it to describe it, I'm I'm putting my hands straight out with my fingers together like Superman with fly in the air, and then swimmer.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: So muscles, super swimmer, and you bring your arm through as as like you're swimming through like a freestyle swim stroke.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it he remembers that from when I taught it to him.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm not saying this is it's this is why he's where he is, but he's playing college football right now.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I just want to say that.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's one, yeah.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the but the the thing I really wanted to say was um with um success, I I don't find my success just in the in the idea that uh I taught a kid how to throw, I taught a kid how to toss.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I find my success in did I make an impact, a positive impact, that is, did I make a positive impact on a kid well enough that they remember me?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And every year they do this thing called Make Them Weep, where high school students, seniors will come to their original elementary schools and they'll they'll walk through in their caps and gowns, and they call it make them weep because we do, when we see them all old, older and and we're so proud of them for making this accomplishment.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: They will come through and sometimes give honorary degrees to teachers.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I get one of those, I I don't always remember what I did for that child, you know, what I did for that student.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: But when I get those, that makes me feel so good.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and just seeing them get to that level already makes me feel good.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: But if I get one from somebody that I wouldn't even think that they would give me one because maybe they were a really good student the whole time and I didn't have to um intervene in any way, and I just did my regular thing and they they learn from me.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not osmosis, but they only learn from my my teaching methods.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: But when they when I get one of those, that makes me sit here and go, okay, I impacted this student in a positive way.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting chills just listening to you.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And literally, just this morning I was in a meeting where we were talking about how to get more young people into teaching.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the kind of stories that we need to get out there.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's so inspiring, and it's an amazing career to make a difference.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you just captured it right there.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So uh if if if we could buy advertising time, we would run that clip.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was perfect, Ty.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we're gonna wrap up.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I love getting to ask this question of a PE teacher.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Type it as well.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: What was your favorite thing to do at recess?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: We played a game in uh middle school, they they gave us like kind of intermural time, and we played a game called Merit Ball.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: But Merit Ball was one of those games where they banned it for a reason.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: So in Merit Ball, you either had a tennis ball or a racquetball, and you would it was a one-handed game.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: You'd have to throw the ball against the this giant cinder block wall at at my my um junior high, which um you'd throw it and it'd bounce back.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: And to be able to throw it back to the wall, you'd have to catch it with one hand without bobbling it.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if you caught it with your body, that's called a trap, and you'd have to drop it and run to the wall.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you caught it with one hand, you just threw it back to the wall.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: But if you if the ball touched you in any way and you didn't catch it securely, you had to run to the wall before somebody picked it up and threw it at you.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they're not trying to not hit you hard, they're trying to hit you very hard.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: So so merit ball was one of my favorite things because I think it gave me actually some really good power with my uh overhand throw, and it made it so that I there was one bad part of that game.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that game was fun, but the bad part of that game was if you had three people that got that hit you with the ball, those are all called merits or demerits, however you want to say it, and they got to throw the ball at you on your third one.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: They each got a free shot to throw the ball at you.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: So like I said, got done, Dr.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Spacotti.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: This game is not one we can play today.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: See, stories like this, and I've heard uh I think we had a dodgeball uh example a little bit earlier on the podcast.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's why we've spoiled the fun for all the kids today.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's funny to look back and think of the things that we did and uh you know, riding around in the back of pickup trucks and whatever it was, it's just a different time.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but the like the joy that that brought, just like if you could see Ty's face light up, um, that's what Reese's about play is about uh kids do it differently today, but they're building their own memories as well.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and they're getting that solid foundation in your class that then they take out on the playground, they take into uh secondary athletics, they take into just a healthy lifestyle uh throughout their adult lives.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it all starts in elementary PE.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, Ty, thank you for taking us behind the scenes on uh the elementary PE teacher role and what happens in the gym.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh just really appreciate you sharing.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for having me.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my guest has been Ty Pedezwa, the PE teacher at Lee Hill Elementary.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we really appreciate hearing him.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Please help us get the word out.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you know uh somebody who would get a kick out of this podcast, or they know Ty or uh they're a fan of physical education, please uh send it their way and uh help us share the good stories in the Auburn School District.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be back with another great story in a couple weeks.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, I'll see you on the recess podcast.