Hosted at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy, I attended my first SHAPE America conference a couple weeks ago. I feel very familiar with Montessori and I have attended and presented at many Montessori conferences, but I have not been to any professional conferences relating specifically to physical education. When I got the notice from our ISACS team lead that there was a SHAPE America conference right on our backyard, I jumped at the opportunity to become a registered member and go to the conference.

When I looked at all the different presentation offerings, the first thing that jumped out at me was the focus on SEL, or social and emotional learning. There were several SEL based presentations for each chunk of time, and the theme dominated the overarching subject matter of the day. I was very surprised by this; I thought the majority of presentations would focus on unique activities, games, or technology in the classroom. The title of the conference was the WSCC Model, or the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model. After reading deeper into that title, it made more sense to me why the idea of SEL learning was such a big contributor to this conference’s overall message.

The day started off with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Sherly Chavarria, who is the CPS chief of the office for teaching and learning. The panel included the principle of Saucedo Academy (Virginia Hiltz), one of their PE teachers (Natalie Kerrigan), a school supports manager (Juanita Herrera, and the Chicago Public Schools health and physical education director (Eileen Hare). The main topic discussed were the different types of school-level interventions being implemented that supports the WSCC model. Besides offering summer camps, having after school class choices, and offering professional development, the partnership with outside organizations seemed especially fruitful. In years past at RPMS, the upper elementary have gone out into the neighborhood to talk with local business owners to find out how they started their businesses. It was always one of my favorite projects because the students get to know their community better and they also get to see what it really takes to create and maintain a business. Right now our middle school are doing internships with teachers in the school, as well as businesses across Chicago.

One of the questions asked of the panel was, “How do you measure success?” Their strongest measurement was the graduation rate, which put a lot into perspective for me. I am very fortunate to work in a school where we essentially have 100% of our students graduate. However, I need to remind myself that not everyone has the benefit of working in such a great institution as myself, and I m grateful. Another measurement suggested was anonymous surveys ad questionnaires, which I have used in the past to varying levels of success. I will admit that it so much easier to create and distribute surveys now than even a couple years ago because of technology advances (big fan of Google).

The panel ended with a discussion on community engagement strategies as well as advice for beginners. Saucedo Academy is open everyday, and they offer classes (like swimming) free of charge. They also open much earlier and stay open later for students to have a safe space they can rely on while also supporting parents with very busy schedules. Out of the advice for beginners that I thought hit the mark was goal setting, working towards that goal in manageable parts everyday, and make connections with others.

The first workshop I attended was called “Trauma Sensitive Practices in the Health Education System,” presented by Sarah Benes. The workshop started with a definition of trauma, which is anything that a person experiences as traumatic (which broke the rule that you are not supposed to use the word in its definition). However, we went much more in depth with different types and levels of trauma. The best slide of the presentation provided this context of how to work with our students: “Trauma-informed education is empathy, patience, and flexibility. We must sustain relationships with our students. Educators must examine practices that perpetuate inequity, and work to dismantle them.”  Working to dismantle them was emphasized because we often recognize what we need to do, but without action, it is meaningless. The presentation also took time to underscore the fact that educators also have their own trauma that they are dealing with, and we need to be mindful of our own health and know when we need rest. Finally, the quote I sincerely appreciated was, “Students are not their trauma.”

The second workshop I attended was called “Weaving Health Education Standards with SEL Competencies,” and it was presented by Scott Todnem. He was the 2019 SHAPE America National Health Education Teacher of the Year, and it’s no wonder why, because his workshop was fantastic. He began the workshop by introducing the Casel SEL Wheel to those of us unfamiliar with the terminology, and showed where he believed there was overlap with the NHES standards. A point he made which resonated with me was “active learning needs active practice,” but he did point out how observation can still be active. We want our classrooms to be engaged, which makes the students are having fun. We want our students to be safe, which means they trust us. If our students have the right amount of challenge, then they will be autonomous. Finally, our students will show competence by being health literate. What made Scott’s presentation really stand out were the activities. One was a marshmallow test we did with partners, another was object identification, and the last one had to do with tying and untying shoelaces. They were excellent activities that improved mindfulness (being in the moment), as well as improved self and social awareness. Scott has a cool YouTube channel that goes in depth with these activities and more, and I recommend that you check it out.

The last workshop I attended was called “Nutrition Mission,” presented by Paul Floyd. From the start it was obvious that he was very tech literate, and he presented lots of cool and interesting ways of getting meaningful technology in the PE classroom. While I appreciate apps like MyPlate and MyFitnessPal, the bit of technology that I found absolutely cool was the wearable technology called Curiscope. The students wear a shirt that looks like it has QR codes all over it, and with the a phone or iPad, it displays 3D images of the different body systems over the shirt. It is worth having one or two shirts for when it’s time to study the human body.

Overall, I enjoyed my time at the conference, but it was not what I was expecting. I thought that there was going to be more presentations on different movement patterns or research, but there was a ton of social emotional learning. Teaching in a Montessori school, the SEL component of education is highly emphasized through what is called “Peace Education,” so it was great to see how it is being emphasized in “traditional” educational settings. One of the attendees stated that SEL is not only necessary for working with the whole student, but would add to job security for the PE teacher, which was an interesting point based on the harsh reality of school funding. While the conference was geared more for the CPS or public education sector, it was worthwhile hearing about the differences between traditional and Montessori schools. In general, in my effort to become the best (Montessori) physical education teacher I can be, this conference helped progress me towards that goal.