Physical Ed.

Our earliest physical education teachers included Brenda Birdsall and Marty Phelan who imagined a program that stressed cooperative games. After-school sports were taught by teachers in various locations throughout the city. After the current gymnasium was opened in 2000, we were able to include more team sports and even lure parents into playing basketball after hours! Claudette Coverdale, PE and movement teacher, as well as admission associate, reflects on her experience at TPS:

While reflecting on my experience teaching movement and physical education the last five years at TPS, it’s amazing to witness what has changed and what remains the same. So to take the reflection journey all the way back to TPS’ earliest days, am extremely humbled and grateful to be a part of the evolution of this program. With the help of former PE teachers, coaches, and students, I had the opportunity to learn about what remained essential to the program and what has shifted over the last fifty years.

As early as 1987, one of the biggest structural changes for PE was the gym space. Former PE teacher Marty Phelan taught all PE classes in what we all know as part of the front office and Multi-Purpose Room in the Lombard building. The school yard had a slanted basketball court which was not the most ideal space for outdoor games and activities. In the early 2000’s the Lombard gymnasium was built where former PE teacher, coach, and Athletic Director, Terry McConnell spent his last nine years teaching before his retirement. He shares that out of his entire teaching career, TPS was the best place he ever taught. He considers TPS to be “the real deal” where we always put the kids first. Terry has fond memories of teaching a variety of units from the foundational locomotor and gross motor skills for our youngest learners to a variety of team sports and social dances.

I was fascinated to learn that a co-teaching model remained consistent for many years in PE. Terry shared that there was a co-teaching model used with a lead and assistant teacher. Our program today still follows a co-teaching model that shifts from having a lead and assistant model, team teaching, or parallel teaching. Depending on the unit or activity, the PE teachers adjust their approach which allows for differentiated learning to meet the students where they are but also challenges them to build on skills and strategies they have already learned.

Another change in the PE program over the last few years has been integrating TPS’ commitment to social justice into our PE classes. Aside from our daily practices of reflection and praise as a group and an individual, we intentionally connect the Black Lives Matter Week of Action guiding principles to our lessons. Additionally, during Black History Month, we also hold discussions and lessons about athletes from the past and present who have used their platform to stand up and speak out on social issues that continue to affect our society. We value the importance of sending the message that we all have an opportunity to be upstanders and to speak up for what is right. I look forward to seeing the PE program at TPS continue to grow and continue to put kids at the center.