What Do Physical-Education Teachers Do?

The most obvious-role for physical education teachers is teaching! But that is not all they do. The professional teacher in today’s schools occupies a number of roles that require skilful performance and contribute to the overall effectiveness of the physical-education program.

The physical-education teacher has important roles as a planner manager, colleague, professional physical educator, counsellor, and representative of the school, as well as the primary role of instructor. These various roles call for administrative, planning, and social skills that go beyond the skills of teaching children or youth.

Teachers not only plan units and lessons but also work with other teachers to plan district curricula. They also must plan for equipment replacement and facility utilization, as well as for field trips and special events at the school.

Teaching also requires management skills, not only for managing groups of students in an instructional setting but also for managing the use of parent volunteers, teaching aides, student helpers, equipment inventories, and the like.

Teachers inevitably do a part of their work with other teachers. Thus, working with colleagues becomes an important professional role. If a teacher cannot work effectively with colleagues within a school, then he or she will tend to become isolated and ineffective.

Some collegial work is formal, such as in curriculum planning or work on a school committee. Much of the important collegial work in schools, however, is informal the many day-to-day contacts that result in smoother management, better instruction, and a more harmonious working environment.

Teachers often work across subject-matter lines in schools. The physical-education teacher is also part of a larger physical-education profession organized at the local, state, regional, and national levels.

There are professional organizations to join, a professional literature to read to keep abreast of current development, and professional conferences where new ideas can be learned and shared and where relationships can be established and main trained.

Even though there are often trained school counselors in schools today, the physical-education teacher often counsels students. Teachers who are perceived to be warm, sincere, and caring by their students often are approached by students for help with myriad personal and school problems.

Although counseling is not a primary role for physical-education teachers it is an important role that cannot be avoided.

Finally, the teacher is a representative of the school. The day is long gone when teachers had to behave more virtuously than did anyone else in the community but there are still many expectations within communities that teachers will be exemplary citizens and community workers.

Together, these roles constitute professional life. If teachers aspire to more truly professional status in our culture, then they have to be willing to accept the extra obligations that professional persons typically carry.

This means not only doing one’s primary job of instructor as well as possible but also attending to and performing well in these other important roles.