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APE OSEP Project 2025

Scott McNamara41min

Scott McNamara

00:07

Matt, hello. This is what's new in adaptive physical education with your host, Scott McNamara, your host, and I'm really, really happy to be bringing you a new and exciting episode. This might be the first episode of our new season. Might be our second episode, but very, very excited to be joined here with three of our great scholars who, at the time that this comes out, will be graduated and moved on to bigger and greater things. So we have three ape scholars that are graduating from the UNH program, that's our OSEP Office of Special Education funded program that just went through a long, full year of coursework. And so we're joined here from three of our, I think 10 scholars right now in our program. And so real quickly, starting with henora. Do you want to just introduce your name and maybe like where you came from before joining the program?

Speaker 1

01:00

Sure. Thank you so much for allowing me on this podcast. I'm hanora Carlson Strom, and I got my bachelor's at Hampton University, and I received that within the kinesiology program, pre med physical therapy program, moving on to Old Dominion University, where I received my first master's in physical education with a concentration in adaptive physical education. I took a little break there, and I went to Boston Public Schools, and I taught there for three years as a general PE teacher. And then I found out about this amazing opportunity here at UNH where I'm first doing my second masters of Kinesiology with an adaptive physical education concentration. So yeah, that's a little bit about my background.

Scott McNamara

01:45

Thank you, Nora. And also, I was just saying as moving some papers around, how we need to not do a lot all this moving, because this is my first in person, one in like three years. So Fabian, you want to introduce yourself?

Speaker 2

01:57

Yeah, of course, it's picking an awful time to take a drink. My name is Fabian Pardo. I went to Cortland University and got a bachelor's in kinesiology or science education. PE, whatever the name on the title on the BA is, I'm not too sure. And now I'm in New Hampshire. Davis stopped me and park at Cortland and say, hey, sign up for this grant. You should do it. You're good for it. And I said, sounds good for me. I'm here for it, and now I'm here, and I loved every second of it, so I'm happy. Things kind of turned out this way.

Speaker 3

02:30

Cool. Hello. My name is Bobby Siegel. I'm the only person in our cohort that originated from UNH. So I spent my first year, four years of college year, getting my undergrad in health and phys ed, and then Scott introduced me to this program about a week before the change. I think I was originally signed up for a more traditional, accelerated Master's course in education, but with this opportunity, I thought it was kind of a no brainer, and that's why I'm here. So it's been a great fun time. I like it a lot. Yeah, yeah. So we

Scott McNamara

03:05

have three scholars here from our program. I've been very happy with our very first year, and I wanted to bring us all together to talk a little bit about our experiences from the first year, things that we've learned, things that made this program maybe different special things that were ahas. And then I think the biggest thing I want to hear about, what your what you plan to take from this program to your future careers. So starting out, let me just give a broad overview of the program. Is it's a one year master's program, including summers. They are totally engrossed in courses around AP, special education research methods. They're also in schools and working with an agency called Northeast Passage that does disability sports activities and therapy recreation. They are also going to conferences, presenting at conferences. They are meeting guest speakers. We've actually been really lucky this year. We had more than probably we will in the future, and they also have a group that they get to hang out with a little bit. So with that, can you talk to me a little bit about some of your experiences that you've enjoyed, or that don't have to be just that enjoy, the experiences that you had in the program that you felt like have helped you you know in your future careers.

Speaker 3

04:32

Oh, Bobby, sorry, hello. Biggest takeaway, or biggest help has been from the placements in meeting and seeing different people in the field. For me, going to the specialized schools and then also going to the public schools that we've worked in has been enlightening to different possibilities of how to teach. Additionally, I mean, it's really fun seeing people do it in the field and learning from them candidly. I think that's how i. Learn best is kind of being not thrown into the fire, but thrown into the fire, per se. So our experience at the bursary center was phenomenal. I think it made me much more patient. And I think just made me much more patient as a teacher, which I can take into my future any school, anywhere. So yeah, I mean, I'll talk about it more, but I'll let someone else talk

Speaker 1

05:19

well. Dr, this is honor, and Dr, McNamara was pretty humble with his what he said, but this opportunity has been amazing. We did 100 hours within school placements, and we got exposed to public, non public, private school settings, as well as unified PE and within our placements of Fabian Bobby and I were actually all in school placements at the same time, and we also got to experience one another from the start to the finish with our school placements, and I've seen each other grow tremendously. I believe that this experience has definitely opened my eyes to, you know, we talk about autism and disability being a spectrum, and this has completely opened my eyes to a whole part of the spectrum that is not really shown, or that we might not be around as predominantly. And Bobby mentioned monarch, and I think that was a really great placement as a private school for severe disabilities, and that really just showed me, especially as teacher. You know, you might your pace might still be faster than others, and you might need to take more of a I guess, the term I can think of as fragile approach, just because that school was had a lot of severe so tested out of public school settings, which most of our, most of us, are mainly exposed to, as well as seeing the unified placement as that's definitely becoming more popular term and environment, and that was very interesting placement to see a different approach to how PE can be ran

Scott McNamara

07:08

no real quick on most severe disabilities and working with them, think a lot of the lessons that we get can be applied broadly. But I think the thing that when we're working with kids with multiple severe disabilities is that we think about the why, like, so what's the reasoning I'm doing this for this child and breaking it down into what is most relevant for them. And I think, again, I think that's something that we could be doing, like, across and like, questioning, why am I doing this? And how do I, how do I break this to a meaningful

Speaker 2

07:44

piece? Davian, yeah, sorry. It took me a second, just analysis paralysis, so many great experiences, um, I think a big part for me was, um, and I experienced this in my undergrad too. Is like, we learned so much about this is what we should be doing. This is what should be happening. And like, these are the strategies we should employ when we're teaching, and all of these like great things, that when we sit there behind a desk, we're like, wow, that's such a great idea. And then when we're student teaching, or when we're out in the field or doing whatever we're doing, it's just like, Oh, what do I do now? How do I apply this? What's going on? So one thing I'm really grateful for is just how much time we've had to be be able to apply the things we're learning. Because it's one thing if we're behind the desk and we're learning the evidence based practices and all these great things, but, um, without the variety of placements, and to a degree, like the options of placements we had, because there's that time frame of, like, let's try out this place. Let's try out, um, like, working with Bill and all that. It's just been good to have that little bit of like, the slates clean. This is a new placement. Let's try something else, or let's try to fix what I did from last time. Maybe this will, maybe this will work with a different group of students. And I think that was just mostly my favorite part, just being able to do more like, it's not like we waited to get in together and start teaching, we just started

Scott McNamara

09:04

doing it. We also, like you had a the part that's nice is that it's like immediacy thing, so you are learning something in class and you're applying it, like tomorrow or yesterday. Yeah, right. Sometimes yesterday, it's

Speaker 1

09:19

happening simultaneously. And that was what was really great. Because with birch tree Center, where we the cohort, ran the adaptive PE program for a non public school, which I really was not aware of non public schools or how they work, we completely ran it. There is no one there that we really modeled from and so Bobby Fabian and I, like, the very first day was definitely difficult, and just trying to figure out this dynamic. And yet we were able to also come back to class and really figure out as a class, as a cohort, and with Dr McNamara, like, what is the next what's the next step? Like. Did this work? Did it not work? How could we continue to see how to improve this model, or if we should just go through a

Speaker 3

10:07

different route? I think this is Bobby. I feel like one of the best aspects of that was the collaboration we had between each other in that like I might see something differently compared to you two, or even you Scott, and all those ideas come together to help us formulate a powerful or productive lesson for these students. And regardless of whether it's a non public or a public school that was honestly one of my favorite aspects of this program, is having a network of people that I'm very comfortable talking with, and I'm able to reach out with basic questions of like, oh my goodness, this kid is X, Y and Z. What do you guys think I should do? And I know that my cohort would reach back out to me, probably within the day, and give me some good information, and I know that I would do the same for them. So it's kind of, I don't want to say, is it heartwarming? Yeah, sure. It's endearing. It's fun. It's cool.

Scott McNamara

11:00

For me, one of the greatest things is how you all like the the group that that we have, which is about, there's 10 of you. We had a Cora in the spring, and you all like right away, became pretty close and had that ability to kind of work with each other. And the other thing is just the diversity in our group, as far as like, experience and background is really vast. And that part, to me, is like, was really cool. And so I think learning from each other, because we have two people with 20 plus years experience, we have another two people with just few years experience, and then we have several from that are coming right out of their undergrad programs. And then, aside from Bridgewater, everyone came from different undergrad programs too. So we just had this, like, incredibly diverse experiences and knowledge sets. And you all kind of learn from each other, and I'm hoping that's, I don't know that it's replicated in the schools now Fabian and Nora, you're going to Fairfax County. Oh, yeah. And they have a lot of AP teachers, 1516,

Speaker 1

12:14

something like that. Yeah. It's one of the biggest school districts, and they are completely dedicated to adopted PE, which I was even gonna say like AP, is such a small field, and so we're really lucky to be able to be in a cohort and community where we are able to discuss and really challenge our thinking to Better the field. You kind of go to anyone outside of a PE and there's very superficial level knowledge. So it can be really hard to, like, really dive deep. So I'm really excited to go to Fairfax County and work under a brad Weiner, and he has an amazing hierarchy. Like, as soon as we go there, Phoebe and I will have a mentor with an ape, and they really are just believing in support and continuing to push the field in knowledge and spread the knowledge so that we can really be effective, adaptive PE

Speaker 2

13:10

teachers. Yeah, I'm really excited to just have, like, a community of people behind me. That was one of the biggest things, if I was, if I went in even for a general PE job, and it's like, you are the phys ed teacher. Like, great. I have, like, I've met all requirements to do this, but actually implementing and doing is a whole other story. So I'm really happy to have, like, the cohort and support and just a bunch of people around me to be able to, like, bounce ideas off of or, like, just be able to feel like I have that support group, because I know that's something that's typically not had an AP, like, like, you're alone. Yeah, I

Scott McNamara

13:46

think, I think that's a really typical experience. That's when I had listeners communicate with me. It's normally the biggest things they tell me is that there's they listen to podcasts because it's like the one place that they can feel like other people have the experience that they haven't.

Speaker 2

14:02

It's like the I just remembered, it's like on an island, right? That was one of the, I don't know if that was a paper or like, something that people have said, but I definitely have heard that somewhere about AP. I think it was.

Speaker 3

14:12

There was a woman from Maine that was at our AP conference that said something like that. There's like, I'm the only person in my district that is going that really is passionate about this, which is awesome. Shout out that person. I don't know who you are off the top of my head, but you're pretty cool. I think. To add on to that, I think the guest speakers have been additionally, like, super, super helpful, in that they're another knowledge base for us to tap into. I, for my research project, have reached out to a few professionals that Scott has introduced us to, or that I've met myself, and it's been really cool seeing their feedback and how it's slightly different than, say, someone here at UNH, but it's still valuable. And like once again, just being able to tap into different people's minds and see how they think is extremely important, especially in our field. Where there's no two students are going to be the same and no two like solutions are going to work for the same student.

Speaker 4

15:06

So on the guest speakers piece, yeah. So we've had like,

Scott McNamara

15:13

so we have Friday meetings where we brought in several people, so like Tim Davis from Portland. We've had Ann Griffin from from us come in, in person. We had in fall. We had dark timeston from University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, regular listeners, who was a former teacher or professor in this program. Obviously, we've seen her quite a few times. And then we've had Justin Hagel, Anthony Marr and Matt Townsend come in for our for our AP conference. Chad. Chad. Chad, yes, he's our PE conference, or PE professor here. JK, you who's our chair here? I wouldn't call those guest speakers as much, because they're here all the time, but at the same time, yeah, we've been those were outside of even the conferences, people that you all were able to interact with and see and, you know, communicate with. Do you want to talk a little bit about you? Then you could, you know, talk about them specifically, or the conferences too, because I think they kind of overlap.

Speaker 3

16:20

Well, Fauci and I were lucky enough to get like, lunch with Garth, yeah, and that was super fun, not only from like, a perspective of just talking about life and random things, but just getting closer with Garth and seeing his perspective on ape and life is really fun, really interesting. And I don't know, meeting other people was great. I don't know if you have anything else to add to that.

Speaker 2

16:43

It was neat with Garth, because he wasn't really, like, trying to, he was just talking about, he wanted to know more about us, yeah, which I thought was great. And then he would take his vast experience and just talk about what we've done in reference to what he's done, or, like, spinning, spinning. It in a way, to be, like, super informative and helpful. But it didn't feel like he was trying to teach us. We were just hanging out and, like, grabbing pizza and just having a good conversation is great. I

Speaker 1

17:10

had a very different first experience with Gareth. Not that it was negative. It was so great, but he was my first observation at unified, so I was extremely nervous. I was like, Oh my goodness. Like, how is this gonna go? And then it was also in unified, which was, again, my first time within that setting. So I was just petrified. But no, he was so great, and he gave great feedback, and he was very supportive. So no, nothing negative from it. It was just a very different like meeting him for the first time experience. I also had Dr Michelle Grenier as an observational at the same the same school placement with Fabian when we were co teaching. And I can definitely say she's very passionate about the field. And I, I was pushed to go even further in depth with my teaching. And so that was also really great in terms of, you know, they're very much analyzing us, and they're very much wanting us to, like, learn from our experience and moving forward. Additionally, when Dr Hagel and Dr Marr was here. That was great. I already have prior experience with Dr Habel at Old Dominion University, but just to also see him in a completely different setting, and then also for us to be in a professional setting within the UNH conference, and then also having, like our school placement teachers coming to support us there or at the natford conference, and then also just, you know, I kind of felt a shift between, okay, we're not just students, but now we're being professionals of the field, and we're trying to spread the knowledge that we're learning, and are we doing this accurately? And Bobby touched on some prior audience members and how they kind of felt like they were on an island before. There's a lot of people coming up to us after our presentation, just coming to us for advice. And that was, it was a very interesting kind of shift within you know, okay, I'm not just a student like I need to know what I'm talking about, because I'm spreading the knowledge and furthering the AP field

Speaker 3

19:23

that to that point when placement at marshwood, or, yeah, Marshall middle school, the teachers there are amazing. They've had their own experience with ape but to that point like they're asking me for advice and like, is this gonna work? And I was like, Oh, I don't know. Good Exactly. I think that's kind of the beauty of this field, is it's it's fun, it's interesting. It's not the same every day, and you're gonna try, try, try again, and like, it is good to have that knowledge base that that you were just discussing, Nora, so, yeah, I don't know. I think that's. Great

Scott McNamara

20:00

aspect. I really liked when Anne came and spoke with us, and she showed us that bag of tricks, if you remember, so having, always having, like these, like top 10 things to have on you, because you don't know what's going to happen and all that. But also, as we've talked about, a lot of people have very, very limited AP experience. So even though you haven't graduated, or you're even in your first semester, people are asking you for advice, right and like, and gain something from that, because there is very, very there's a huge need for it, and then a lot of like, just not a lot of resources and information and all that. So you all definitely were that and so just for our listeners, they presented two times, one at neighbor and one at our our state ape conference that we had, and I thought you all did a great job of both of those presentations. Definitely

Unknown Speaker

20:54

a good time. A lot of fun just making both presentations.

Speaker 3

20:59

It's an interesting experience too, especially because not often do you have students presenting, I feel like at those sort of conferences, so I don't know it helps with your confidence, especially speaking to people that you don't necessarily know. You've never met before, and like Nora said previously, they see you as a professional, they don't necessarily see you as a student, because of how specialized our field is, so I don't know that made me feel more confident in myself my ability to public speak and just spread important knowledge.

Speaker 1

21:35

Yeah, from presentation wise, we went, I don't wanna say backwards, but our first presentation was at mayford. So that was, like, on a huge, like, a way bigger scale than the UNH conference. So it was like, not that I wasn't as nervous for the second one, but that first one, oh, my goodness. And I believe he had like, 30 people to start and 30 people to end. We had people completely engaged and really wanting to be there, wanting to hear what we have to say. But we do a lot of preparations within our class in terms of just presenting to each other and on areas that, you know, Bobby might be on one topic, fade means on another, and I'm on another. And then we're literally just teaching each other within our classes. So we're getting that experience of publicly speaking and how we're going to talk about this. So we definitely were prepared. It was just like, whoa, this audience is pretty big.

Speaker 2

22:33

I like the when we were like, prepping all that for each presentation, it just felt really organic. It didn't feel like we're throwing ideas at a board and then everyone was picking and choosing what picking and choosing what to do. It's just like, oh, I want to do stuff on sensory integration. And John was like, Can I help? It was like, Great, yeah, me and you were a team. We're doing sensory integration now. It didn't feel stressed. It didn't feel like regimented, or like a like, we're being graded on a PowerPoint, yeah, um, and I guess it's the difference between presenting for a grade versus presenting on stuff you're passionate about or like, you want to try doing. Yeah, just it was good. It was it was a good experience confidence gaining. And it's definitely interesting to have teachers who have been teaching for, like, potentially longer than I've been alive at a presentation that I'm doing, it's just like, oh, like, I do have something like that anyone can learn here, regardless of how long you've been teaching or whatever is going on. That was really just cool to have a good bet, a good experience,

Speaker 1

23:35

and also from the two different presentations. So they both were around evidence based practices for the most part. And I actually chose to do visual aids the from for both and from the first presentation. And I was, I just learned a lot. I was like, Wait a second, there's so much more I could be adding to this, like, you know, and I wanted to, I wanted to add to it, and that's also from my knowledge base expanding, and that's something Dr, JK Yoon always emphasized within our class. With him is to we're always trying to expand our knowledge base, so I think that's something that we all really took seriously throughout this program. And we just continue, continuously, love to expand our knowledge on this area

Unknown Speaker

24:22

good.

Scott McNamara

24:25

So what is, yeah, I want to know like, and we're kind of hitting all these things I want to know, like something that was, like an experience in particular, not broadly, but like a specific experience. That maybe was a big aha for you to learn something new about either disability or yourself or the field of AP, or something that was, I don't know, yeah, something that may be conflicted, that was difficult for you to learn about, or somewhere in that Aha, like, what was it? A specific experience?

Speaker 3

25:00

That's pushed you, yeah. So for me, I feel like with students, and just for my background, working at summer camps and stuff, I'm very engaged with students, and I like to not, like, be around them, be near them, like, support them that way. And at some of the specialized schools, that's kind of the opposite of what some of the students need. They needed more space, and that's kind of conflicted with my prior experiences of being a teacher, professional, whatever. So I had an experience at one of the schools where I was like, hey, like, can I sit next to you? And the kid looked at me and said, No, you cannot sit next to me. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. And, like, I just kind of rolled the punches like, oh, it's not that he doesn't like me. You just need to space right now. And that is a good thing for me to know and to learn. And I think really listening to students is extremely important. And sometimes teachers can be on their own, in their own little world, and be like, No, this is the way. They're my way or the highway type deal. But an ape that is not gonna work. So I think that was an enlightening thing for me, especially with that specific experience. And then he came up to me, like, five minutes later, was like, Hey, wanna play dodgeball. I was like, okay, it was awesome. It was really

Speaker 2

26:12

funny. One for me. It wasn't, it's not particularly around ape, but it was from our placement at Northeast Passage. I did a lot of work with the power soccer team, just because it fit really well in my school. Well on my schedule. And I went to the one tournament we had, they had super early this semester. And I was like, This is awesome. This is so cool to see. This sport is fantastic. And I want to help more. One of the athletes there, we were chatting and whatever. And we like, oh yeah. Like, he said, Oh, some people, like, left the team, or whatever was going on. I was like, Oh yeah, you know how it is. And he goes, No, I don't this is my first time on an organized team. And that just like epiphany. I was like, Oh my God, this dude's older than me, and he's never been on an organized team. Of course, that makes sense, because he's never had that opportunity to do it, and this is his first time in this format, or in the community, or with a community team, and it was just really interesting to be corrected on that, and not like a mean way, but just like, yeah, no, it's my first time doing this. I don't know what, what are you saying to me right now? That was cool.

Scott McNamara

27:13

Yeah, real quick on that one. I think Sport is sport, to me, is probably the biggest barrier. Organized sport is probably one of the bigger barriers for disability community. Just because there's not the opportunities, there's not the access, I think there's, there is some there's always some type of physical activity that's accessible to some degree. But organized sports, I think, is one of the areas that, like a lot of us, get a lot of benefit from that. That's just not the option. But the other thing too is, I think that one of the things that I'm always engaged in, and you never know when it's going to come, is like addressing your assumptions, your biases, especially around the disability community, because it's just we don't know. Like, I'm not, I'm a non disabled person. So like, for me, I always in, although I can try to empathize, understand, learn, I have a, you know, I was talking to someone at the shape conference that has a physical disability, and they're like, you know, I You all can talk about disability and talk to people with disabilities. I want to try to understand, expert. Understand experiences. But when I go home, I take a shower as a disabled person, you know, I like so, like, there's just all these facets that are really difficult and to kind of be open to those experiences and understand, trying to best understand those experiences, I think is something I always want to be open to.

Speaker 1

28:41

Yeah, that kind of just like opened my mind to a different type of aha moment based off what you're saying. Well, one, I agree with the opportunity in sports, so that's why I'm doing my research project on creating a directory of experiential learning programs so that can at least help possibly encourage more opportunity for the individual disabilities. But then off of what you were just saying, so I had a car accident, and so I became impaired for three years, and with the brace, which you all know, but prior to that, you know, I was on the California state soccer team. I was doing hurdles as like, gold medalists for the Olympics, and then this happened to me so and then how do you kind of transition into like, Well, can you still be active? The main aha moment that I really thought about since I always knew I wanted to work with individuals with disabilities, been like 10 years now, is kind of the difference between ape and adapted recreation, and that's kind of where Northeast Passage kind of opened my eyes. And also just the fact that even though they're two different fields, there's ways that they should be kind of working together. There in a way like I would be talking to my students about, you know, class and AP and getting involved. And they might not have ever heard of Northeast Passage, you know. And it's like, you know, when you this is an opportunity that you might be able to look into if you want to continue to do physical activity outside of school. But then, yeah, I don't know. There's so much that I learned through it was aha moments. And what was

Speaker 4

30:28

the things that like pushed you? Um, yeah, um, things that pushed me well, the

Unknown Speaker

30:36

whole program, definitely,

Unknown Speaker

30:39

yeah, one of the others. So,

Speaker 1

30:41

yeah, yeah. So I guess that was an aha moment, because I feel like the rest of the cohort too is like, oh, you know, I when what I've seen and been exposed to might be considered adapted recreation compared to a PE prior to,

Scott McNamara

30:59

yeah, I think there's a big gray zone in the differences between those fields. You know, we have this adaptive physical activity umbrella, and then we have adapted physical education, disability sports, the therapeutic or adaptive recreation. And there's ton of gray there, because you can do disability sports in your PE class, right? Or you can promote those things to your students to do outside of school. Same with adapted recreation like, you know, and even, like, a lot, a lot of adaptive recreation therapy and preparation includes, like, facilitating activities. And sometimes there's, like, different approaches to them that might be a little different too, but like, there's a ton, and actually, so Nick Pete, which we've been exposed to a little bit, is that Nick Pete is the National Consortium for physical education for individuals with disabilities. Ridiculous name, I think Nick Pete. Back in the day, it was, there was an R in there, and so it was NCP, R, E, ID, and that like that. There was a recreation piece to it made. There was a I don't exactly know, but in historically, they were out. They kind of became their own entity at some point, because there is so much overlap in there,

Speaker 1

32:23

yeah? And I now I realized where I was going, Yeah, as being someone who got an impairment and drastically, like, now I'm not physically active, you know? I'm not in an AP class. Like, how can I myself get physically active. What I've learned in both programs in terms of ape and then through Northeast Passage is really about comfortability and like being able to apply yourself. So like even in some of the activities where we did, like adaptive kayaking and wheel court sports and all these different things, there are certain ones that I just physically was not comfortable trying, because I didn't feel like I had the ability to do so. And that was like, weird in terms of, like, okay, if I'm going to be a PE teacher, an ape teacher, like, how can I facilitate and help others within physical activity if I myself am not trying, when, as PE teachers, we're really just asking our students to try. So I think that was a really big aha moment. And also ones where it was like, Oh, my confidence just went, like, through the roof from even just stuff in the gym and our AP class or in our classes that, you know, you kind of pushed me to be like, hey, you know, you should try. You should try. I was very hesitant. But then, like, now I'm making threes again, you know, so, like, it's, I don't know, I just think it's, like, an amazing it's a different, interesting perspective to kind of have, like, both sides within this program.

Scott McNamara

33:53

Awesome. My last question, and we can, you know, feel free to take time on it. But the last big question is, like, so like, what specifically do you see taking from this program into your future careers? So like, what, what piece are you taking, and how is that kind of impact you as a future PE AP teacher?

Speaker 3

34:17

Funny enough, we're taking an assessment course right now, in the summer, and I think that standard based grading, something that we've recently been discussing, is going to be extremely helpful for me. I'm going to be a general ed physical educator in Hudson, New Hampshire, at Albert High School, and I'm going to have some ad responsibilities, and I'm really excited for that, but I'm excited to take standard based grading and really run with that, because in PE it's so sometimes grading is so subjective, and I think that's very frustrating for people and for students, especially being like, wow, you're not wearing sneakers today. You get an F for the day. Like, that's kind of ridiculous and definitely a dated practice. So at least, like first thing is definitely standard based grading, and that being able to show students their progress and help them understand exactly what they need to do in order to become proficient at a specific skill, I think is a great way to think about PE specifically. And I'm really excited to take that into the future, falling back a little bit. I mean, just like patience that I've developed from this and working with so many different individuals and just bouncing ideas off each other like, I think that's the most important thing for me, is when I have a challenge, knowing that I can reach out to people like, I know I already said this, but I really do think that's one of the most awesome aspects of this program, in that it also makes you, like, humble when you're like, oh gosh, I know I don't know everything. And there are people that also don't know everything, but let me text my group of 10 great people that will be like, Oh God, Bobby, that sounds crazy. And then one person, maybe, baby, goes, Oh, wow, we'll try this, and then it works, you know. So I'm excited for the future in that regard, to reach out to you guys and hear about your experiences, and you'll hear about mine. And I don't know, I think I'm really, really excited for

Speaker 2

36:14

that. I personally never thought I would be an ape teacher. It's like when I said the very start Dr Timothy Davis, just go for the grant. And I said, Okay, I would always thought about, like when I was teaching, if I were to be teaching in New York, that, like, I'd like to be more informed about ape just because there is that need. So I was something I was toying around with. And then from that day, when Dr Davis stopped me, and then I got into the grant, I was like, All right, well, I'm just gonna fall in now. There's no reason why I shouldn't. I'm getting a specialized training. I'm meeting all these great professionals in the field. I have a fantastic backbone and like a strong cohort. So I feel like, for me personally, it would be a waste to not specialize specifically, because I have so much information, um, that like, I should be pointed directly at AP at this point, just because of how everything is lined up. So I just everything I've learned in general and how things have kind of fallen into my life, why I feel obligated at this point to, like, I'm ape and I'm doing it. I don't care what anyone says. So

Speaker 1

37:21

because there's just, I just feel like the whole program itself is just, there's nothing I'm not taking with me, but kind of going off of what Bobby said, but kind of kind of expanding it more, using the network of people that you've brought in to us, and also the whole thing about expanding your knowledge. And I have, like, JK, in the back of my head, you're not reading enough. Like, it's like, you know, I I am looking forward to not knowing the question and then doing my research to finding out the answer, you know. And we're in class and we're reading all these research articles and contributions to the field, it's like, oh, wait, I met him. He was here. Like, dr, time is in. I'd be like, oh. Dr Hagel, I'd be like, Wait, Dr McNamara, read your article those books. I know faces to names. And then also, even with Dr Davis, like I added him on LinkedIn, and we only met on Zoom, but I just thank you so much for talking to us, you know, and he responded, and it's like, you know, they really are there for any questions, if needed. And I'm just looking forward to continue to expand my knowledge and with those that network. And even with Fairfax, you know, we met dr Bradley Weiner at Baltimore shape America when we went there. And even Dr Hagel was like, Oh, I know a great person that you should connect with. And it's like, oh, it's Brad, you know, and telling Michelle, and she's like, Oh, I love Brad. Like, Fairfax is gonna be amazing for you. I'm like, Wait, this is a small like field, and yet, like, it's so connected, and that's because there's genuine individuals wanting to continue to push this field. So I'm really just happy and honored to now be a part of that.

Speaker 3

39:15

I think coming to that point, it's gonna be exciting to be a couple years out of this program, and also seeing the new students that you have, because I would guess that you would not, like, wow. Like, go talk to Bobby for four hours about Abe. But like, I know we're all probably open to being resources for your students in the future. So like, like that. Like, I'll be a professional in a few years, but Scott students in four years may have new information for me, so I think that's a really cool opportunity to go back and still continue to learn with newer people in the cohort, per se.

Speaker 1

39:51

So yeah, and even with that, as a student, it can be really hard to ask for help or to admit you don't. Know something, it's like, oh my gosh, this person's gonna think differently of me because I'm asking this question. But I guess advice to all students like reach out to people who either been in your shoes before, or if someone says, Hey, you should talk to this person, they're not just saying that. It's for a reason. It's for helping you to further develop yourself. So really take those little pieces of advice and really follow through with them.

Scott McNamara

40:28

Well, I really appreciate you all, and we have three weeks left of classes right now, which does so crazy. I know we have our projects, which, you know there's a little bit more of a question mark on those dates. It has been, it's been an honor and a privilege to work with you all as well, and it's been really nice to have the podcast and kind of reflect on the stuff of you all. And I will, I'm not gonna lie with all the politics that are happening now. I'm kind of thinking maybe I will release this now and just highlight the importance that this funding and all of that that we currently have are right now

Speaker 2

41:08

Absolutely. Oh yeah. Education, yeah,

Scott McNamara

41:12

funding. Education, yes. Well, I really appreciate it. Thank you all for being on this episode of the podcast. Thank you for being part of the program, and we'll make sure all your peers listen at

Speaker 2

41:24

least okay. I hope this podcast specifically gets assigned to a student somewhere, and they have quite a

Unknown Speaker

41:31

reflection on this podcast.

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