iPhys-Ed.com in 2017: A Year in Review

As 2017 draws to a close it’s time again for a look back at all things iPhys-Ed.com in 2017. This past year has been a big one for me both professionally and personally and has involved a LOT of life changes. In the past 12 months alone I have become a father, lost a parent, moved from Singapore to Canada, started a new job and purchased 2 cars and a house. It’s fair to say it has been quite the adventure! All the while I have tried to maintain iPhys-Ed.com as a resource for those of you who are interested in developing your teaching practice and delivering physical education with purpose.

In last year’s review I mentioned that I thought with all the changes that were about to take place that it would probably be difficult to continue to share on the site, and while the volume of blog posts definitely diminished this year we were able to help a lot of you by creating and launching:

• Our online course platform designed for physical educators. We had 41 students join us for the Creating Game Animations with Keynote course and are excited to welcome 22 new students (so far) for our Physical Education Assessment Strategies & Tools course which will be launching in February 2018.
• A physical education teacher coaching community called The Squad which is hosted on Slack and provides mentoring and support to help you supercharge your practice. In 2017 we have 15 Squad members who received support, access to premium resources, monthly webinars and coaching. If you are looking for help taking your teaching to the next level consider joining us in 2018.
• Our online shop stocked with our premium resources, including our very popular Movement Skills Assessment Toolkit and Swimming Assessment Toolkit. Thanks to more than 300 of you who purchased high-quality resources in 2017.
• A brand new daily podcast, The Daily PhysEd where I share reflections on my teaching practice, tips, techniques, technology tools and all things physical education every single day of the school year. Take a listen to an episode or two, they are short, sharp and informative. If you like it feel free to subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Google Play or another podcast provider of your choice.

I am so happy that our iPhys-Ed.com community has continued to grow. Welcome to the 20000+ new visitors who found us in 2017 and for our long-time supporters thanks for sticking with us.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, 2017 was a year of change personally and professionally. It was a year in which iPhys-Ed.com really clarified it’s purpose as an online professional learning resource designed to give physical educators all the tools they need to deliver quality physical education experiences. 5 years ago iPhys-Ed.com started it’s life as iphysed.weebly.com with a focus on Inquiry and Technology in #PhysEd. Over the past 5 years our mission and vision for what the site is and can be has undergone multiple iterations. You can see the history of our logo and branding in the image below. As we enter 2018 with a renewed sense of purpose we also unveil a new look for iPhys-Ed.com, one that is aligned with our mission to provide you with all you need to improve your practice to help your students have quality physical education experiences every day. In 2018 we invite you to take one of our online courses, join The Squad, or download some of our free and premium resources with the aim of delivering physical education with purpose.

Thanks again for your ongoing support and I can’t wait to continue on a professional learning journey with you in 2018. I am super excited for the year ahead and hope to help as many of you as I can in the next 12 months. Onwards and upwards towards quality physical education.

Nathan Horne is a physical educator currently based in British Columbia, Canada and the founder of iPhys-Ed.com Be sure to never miss out on any of iPhys-Ed.com’s future posts by connecting with us via Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or Instagram. Nathan can be contacted on Twitter @PENathan.