Ot: becoming a gym teacher

Triathlon Forum
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hi everyone,

was/am hoping to complete my first tri this season, but training was thrown off as i needed all available time to work on my undergrad thesis. recovering/pushing hard now & optimistic… still hoping to do something around halloween. my real question is actually off-topic:

i’m 26 and have a profession that pays well but that i don’t care for & can’t imagine doing for the rest of my life. i’m seriously considering going back to school, and thinking that i would really enjoy becoming a health educator/pe teacher. the last four years have been completely eye-opening in terms of body awareness, health and fitness, and i’d love to be able to further share that knowledge, and to help others who aren’t natural athletes to discover the many benefits of an active lifestyle.

i’ve been a tutor in the past & have family & friends who are teachers, but don’t know any gym teachers or coaches, wonder what’s involved.

do i get a masters in sports science? or a teaching certificate? both? are there school rankings out there somewhere? competitive field? other websites/resources for the topic?

thanks for your advice & patience.

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all the pe teachers i remember used to love looking at middle schoolers in the showers
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In Ontario you’ll need an undergraduate degree in physical education, kinesiology or recreation and then an extra year at a faculty of education to get a Bachelor of Ed. then you’d be certified to teach. Good luck with your choice. I used to be a senior computer programmer/analyst and got sick of sitting in my cube after a few years so I went back to school for a B. Ed. I’ve just started my 13th year of teaching mathematics and never regret making the change.

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mine just yelled a lot and made me feel crappy for not being a natural athlete. i think that many people get into that job for wrong reasons. as a result, i had to make a lot of bad, stupid health decisions before i finally hit a turning point & realized the many benefits that come from physical fitness. i don’t think it should have gone down like that. i think those classes had the potential to be something way more important and relevant than they ever were.

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If you are a woman and teach PE you need to be sure you are a lesbian. If you are a man you need to be sure that you are a perv.

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I grew up in Texas and every single coach also taught classes that were not physical education so this may or may not apply. I think only superstar football coaches did only football. You need to investigate where you might want to teach and just see what the demand is. You also may consider what other topics you would enjoy teaching and the maturity level of the students you would find acceptable to coach. For teachers, if there is a shortage and you have professional expertise in that area, in many areas of the country you can get certified very quickly without going back to school, especially if you are willing and happy to teach in a poorer school district. edit:also if you can coach swimming or running those are very popular sports and this could be an in for you as well. edit end. You may or may not have the patience to teach kids who don’t want to be in class ( which could be a dishearteningly high percentage ). When I was in high school and expressed and interest in teaching, all of my teachers advised against it (won lots of academic junk in h.s.), and all of my adult friends that are teachers ended up quitting young - even the ones in high income school districts (lots of unpaid OT at home, paying for school supplies, raising money for school, coaching kids for testing and therefore not spending as much time teaching to think …) I have a volunteer job coaching youngsters in cycling and it’s wonderful and rewarding in seeing the kids learn and grow but it requires a lot of patience and I am not sure if I could maintain that for five days a week, 40 odd weeks a year instead of two to three days a month, not to mention I get to pick my curriculum and schedule for volunteer work.

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bachelors w/ teaching Cred. and master in Kines, ex. phsyio, PE, etc.

 If you like traveling, check out Australearn.com , Universities in OZ and NZ have grad programs that are 15k TOTAL, and you live in OZ for a 2 years CANT BEAT THAT!  Sports Physio is one of the best degree programs in OZ.
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When one says gym teacher, I assumed you meant high school or lower.

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Brooklyn,

a lot of things to consider. I was in a similar boat many years ago. Had an undergrad in business management and wanted something different. Through volunteer work with both a local Optimist Club and Boys & Girls Club a found my calling to be an educator.

For the most part your pay raises are tied to your education. If you have an undergrad education degree, you get one pay level. Then when you get your masters degree in education, you get a decent pay raise, and then again if you get your PhD. So keeping this in mind, within the public school system, they would rather hire teachers that don’t have their masters yet so they can start them off at a lower pay level. If two candidates are applying for the same job, and one has his masters, the other just an undergrad degree, almost every time the one with the undergraduate degree will get the job. The ideal situation would be to apply what you already have towards and education degree and get your undergraduate education degree. Then once you are teaching, start working on your masters, but plan on recieving after you have recieved tenure.

Suprisingly, it really makes little difference where you go to school. The important thing is to probably get your degree close to where you want to teach. In your final year of undergraduate work, you will spend most of the year doing student teaching and for a lot of potential teachers, this is an inroad into that particular school system. My first teaching job was at the same school that I did my student teaching at. When I walked in for my interview the principal told me right away the job was mine since all of the kids and other teachers already knew me.

You really need to check the state and local set up regarding PE. I taught for ten years in Alabama, and for a PE teacher, it is actually one of the better states to teach in. PE is required daily for all kids in both elementary and middle school and is required to be taught by a certified PE teacher. Not all states require it daily and/or require it to be taught by a certified PE teacher. Laws such as this increase the demand for PE teachers. States that do not require daily PE or not require it to be taught by a certified PE teacher have less demand for us.

PE jobs are tough to get. I was very lucky that I got hired my first year. I had a lot of friends that didn’t get hired. Something else to consider is adding a certification in adaptive PE to your teaching credential. This is for teaching kids that can not attend regular PE classes due to physical or mental limitations. This is an expanding area.

Another thing to keep in mind is that as a PE teacher, you will probably be pressured into coaching a sport or two. Your getting hired might also depend on your willingness to coach. I coached high school cross country in the fall and middle school track in the spring. For me it was about an extra $1800 per sport for the year added to my paycheck. Which when you divide out the time involved, it wasn’t even minimum wage, so you certainly don’t do it for the pay.

I loved being a PE teacher. I did it for ten years and then took early retirement since I was in a position to not have to teach anymore with my business. I taught adaptive PE for 1 year, elementary PE for 3 years and middle school PE for 6 years. When I moved to California, I transferred my teaching credential here and still substitute teach every now and then because I miss it and still love to work with the kids in one way or another.

If I can answer any questions for you, just email me back channel, I’d be more then happy to give you guidance.

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I didn’t ask the question and I have to say thanks for that response, very informative.

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for some reason good information is hard to find when it comes to becoming a PE teacher. I was very lucky in that I had a lot of good people guiding me and telling me what to do and how to do it. Many friends within the system helped grease the wheels.

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"Another thing to keep in mind is that as a PE teacher, you will probably be pressured into coaching a sport or two. Your getting hired might also depend on your willingness to coach. I coached high school cross country in the fall and middle school track in the spring. For me it was about an extra $1800 per sport for the year added to my paycheck. Which when you divide out the time involved, it wasn’t even minimum wage, so you certainly don’t do it for the pay. "

$1800 per sport extra … in Ontario we coach for free. I’ve been coaching cross-country and track for 13 years and it usually costs me money since I end up driving kids to meets and buying lunches, drinks etc. when they forget theirs :slight_smile:

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thinking that i would really enjoy becoming a health educator/pe teacher.

You need the same thing every other teacher needs … a BA or BS from a university w/ completion of their teaching program (~2 years), passed your Basic Skills test, and initial certificate.

Here’s the question you should be prepared to answer … “What can you coach?” … and the next question is “what are you willing to coach?”. If your answers to those questions are not “everything” and “everything” … you better be the best damn PE teacher in the history of the world … and that still may not be enough. =)

I’m a high school teacher that’s just finishing his masters in Education Administration. Seems like getting hired today isn’t about what you do in the classroom, but what you are willing to do OUTSIDE of the classroom. Too many tasks, not enough personnel (no enough money to hire more).