Your administrator walks in, tells you that you’re teaching health next semester, and walks back out. That’s it. That’s the whole orientation.

After 11 years of teaching K–12 physical education at Win-E-Mac, Heather Burd suddenly found herself taking over the school’s health classes—and feeling like a first-year teacher all over again. Heather joins us to share what those first weeks really looked like, from setting up her classroom and learning 170 names to preparing for sensitive topics and searching for resources when all she inherited was a textbook.

Along the way, Heather discovered that many of the principles that made her successful in the gym carried directly into the health classroom: every student counts, every student belongs, and every student needs a purpose.

We also debate pairs versus tables, random seating cards, and the best ways to build classroom community. Then Heather turns the questions back on us, leading to an honest and important conversation about teaching mental health.

Plus, we share what we’re teaching this week, hear about a faucet project entering hour twelve, and preview an upcoming series on health education standards.

You may not have planned to become a health teacher—but LET'S GO!

SHOW NOTES and LINKS - https://bit.ly/HPEHangShowNotes

So You Want to Be a Health Teacher... The Hope is High for Our Future Educators

Most health teachers didn't set out to be health teachers. They came in PE-first, picked up the health license to make themselves hireable, and then a placement or a schedule change made the decision for them. Dr. Ann Hockett joins to talk about what that pipeline actually looks like right now: shrinking programs, adjuncts replacing full-time faculty, and a shortage of health placements so severe that student teachers get sent an hour away just to find one. Plus what cooperating teachers can do about it, why year one feels so isolating after four years of a cohort, and the free stuff nobody tells new teachers about.
Also: 38 kids in a PE class, a second-floor gym, and a levy that keeps failing.

Show Notes - https://bit.ly/HPEHangShowNotes

WHAT'S IN THE TOOLBOX?!

Matt, Steve, and Ian are back together again, which means somebody finally remembers how to start a podcast.

School is closing in fast, so we opened the toolbox. What is already in there and never leaves, what we are trying for the first time this year, and where any of it comes from when you have no budget and no time. Steve explains the actual toolbox his son built, which has been to more conferences than most of us. Ian has a letter that works better than any icebreaker. Matt has a quiz that is somehow a comedy act.

Also in here: Best Practices in Stevens Point, class sizes that should be illegal, what happens when Minnesota loses its health standards, seventeen hours in a car to see sand cats, and a shockingly large amount of squishy prizes.

Free stuff worth your time in the notes, including AMAZE SexEdCon on September 17 and InspirEd from Concordia University.

Show Links - https://bit.ly/HPEHangShowNotes

Matt and Ian are live from Best Practices in Health and PE in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Steve is not. Two days into the conference, in an empty conference room, they found out exactly how much of this show Steve has been carrying.

Mark Housel’s keynote recalibrated the room. Andy Milne was finally in person. Matt and Ian both presented, and they compare notes on how it went and what they’d do differently. There’s also an ad read Matt had not seen and probably should have, and a surprise guest who stopped by mid-segment.

Then Alex Grykowski and Chloe Allen sit down, and one of them found out Ian had the job first.

Also: a bubbler, a brandy old fashioned with sausage in it, a polka that really happened, and the correct pronunciation of Weyauwega, which Matt did not get.

Show resources and links:

Mark Housel - 

Housel Fun Fitness - https://houselfitness.com/

Mark Housel on X - @HouselPhysEd

Andy Milne -

Health Class Greatest Hits - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gY7Awe2uq8M8uEV3mPGyPUV_ieFPiPIz/view?usp=sharing

What’s In a Name? - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YxzA5NbzOZN1kQjaSkwnfapod2_Dq0H9/view?usp=sharing

Meaningful PE - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kNuKOMobFOrinozNbDbF8uUF4VnKB7l7/view?usp=sharing

Matt Hagedorn - 

Agency Required - AI session Presentation - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1t3_W2_O3AXqWteRzIf3BfBehpv1c_ofkNlfFBop8uO4/edit?usp=drivesdk

AI Resources - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1obVdwt2Lja-AQD0JXmTfORXXkZOylvkGoIHYJaqvzTo/edit?usp=drivesdk

Claude for Educators - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nCyv6qLVJhiNwhyww4AO22k5Wbtf0DOFrPygKem0TwY/edit?usp=drivesdk

ChatGPT for Teachers - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7BoOYnNwo20MDdGqUE-PSL_YOQGHArtx6Q4i6vFdDc/edit?usp=drivesdk

Matt Hagedorrn on X - https://x.com/TALLMADGEHEALTH

Alex Grycowski - 

Building a Culture of Effort Through Growth-Based Practices & Student Choice - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gx_Cs80fuA99Ay23-ONngCyZlX9cjtXTs-LhAxy-Jug/edit?usp=drivesdk

Alex Grycowski on X - https://x.com/Alex_Grycowski

Chloe Allen and Carlos Rodriguez - 

Skills in Action

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IhxxhHHOdC0c7Hayu6r2D64Wp6b_5M27/view

Ian Lacasse and Katie Schultz -

Modeling Decision-Making and Communication in the Health Classroom - 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gJSaVQWQmzYrZkB2Wei72iqQ77RwAKj7/view?usp=drivesdk

Canva Link - https://canva.link/i3enh6eeodolhng

Ian Lacasse on X - https://x.com/Mr_L_health

Alisha Blanchette, Jamie Betry, and Youth Advocates from Wausau Women's Community -

Pause, Check, Protect - Scams and Sextortion

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZSkRs6y8nwdGDDenOXlGMu__nacfWkNx/view?usp=sharing

Ian's back. Two episodes on the road for Kentucky and San Diego, and the band is back together.

Joining us for this one is Will Westphal, 2025 Wisconsin Elementary PE Teacher of the Year and 2026 SHAPE America Midwest District winner. Will is the data guy: Likert scales, closure corners, daily reflections, and using AI to turn thousands of student data points into something he can actually teach from. He gets into anchors, silent middles, and ghosts, and how one small question ("who made your day better today?") turned a class of conflict into something completely different. Matt, Steve, and Ian pull all of it across the aisle into the health classroom.

Also on the docket: a summer edition of What's Good, What's Tough, a full hype for Best Practices in Health & PE in Stevens Point (July 27-29), some well-earned sports heartbreak, and a World Cup ad read Will may have been born to deliver.

Real talk for health and PE teachers, by health and PE teachers.

In this episode, recorded during a health teacher retreat in San Diego, we sit down with three Teachers of the Year: Leah Wheeling, Chris Ahrens, and Korey Kleinhans. Leah opens things up with how she builds games into her curriculum, and brings nonstop energy to games and life. Then Chris and Korey take us into the world of adaptive PE, sharing what that work actually looks like day to day and why it matters so much to the students they serve. A grounded, honest conversation about the kind of teaching that doesn't always get talked about.

Leah's game links - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Eeacxy4UhjMS4aP42W4rhtnQWMSsghSzIkk7Kd6DXBQ/edit?usp=sharing

ND SHAPE link - https://www.ndshape.org/2026-nd-shape-state-conference/

Best Practices Link - https://www.uwsp.edu/continuing-education-and-outreach/homepage/customizable-services/conference-planning/2026-best-practices-in-health-and-physical-education-conference/

Guests

Leah Wheeling - https://x.com/LeahWPE

Chris Ahrens - https://x.com/chrisahrens

Cory Kleinhans

Hosts

Matt Hagedorn - https://x.com/TALLMADGEHEALTH

Steve Chapin - https://x.com/stephenchapin

Ian Lacasse - https://x.com/Mr_L_health

The HPE Hangout hit the road for the Kentucky SHAPE conference in Lexington, KY, and this one's all about how Kentucky does a conference. Matt and Steve were both there and both presented. Ian missed it, busy back in Wisconsin setting up his own conference, Best Practices in Stevens Point (July 27 to 29, still time to register). He'll get to Kentucky one day. If nothing else, for LaDonda's BBQ.

Sharp sessions, great socials, hospitality about as good as it gets. We sat down with three people who make Kentucky SHAPE go: past presidents Jamie Sparks and LaDonda Porter, plus Jordan Manley on the HPE Collective and the Nexus community he co-founded, where it stands and where it's headed. With some Kentucky flavor mixed in.

Show Links:

KY SHAPE Homepage -⁠ ⁠https://kyshape.org/⁠⁠⁠

KY SHAPE - Twitter - ⁠https://x.com/KY_SHAPE⁠

KY SHAPE - Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/kyshape⁠

Special Guests

Ladanda Porter: ⁠https://x.com/lporterPE?s=20⁠

Kentucky Q - BBQ Food Truck - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/kentucky_que/?hl=en⁠

Jamie Sparks: ⁠https://www.kentuckyteacher.org/subjects/health-and-physical-education/2016/09/meet-kdes-coordinated-school-health-team/⁠

Jordan Manley - ⁠[email protected]⁠

Sign up for the HPE Collective: ⁠https://www.hpecollective.online/⁠

Steve Chapin’s #KYSHAPE26 Presentations:

Making Nutrition Education Taste Better -

⁠https://tinyurl.com/10ChefKYSHAPE⁠

Creating a Student Health Fair - https://⁠tinyurl.com/HFairKYSHAPE⁠

Matt Hagedorn and Maria Schneider’s #KYSHAPE26 Presentation:

Flip the Fridge - ⁠Flip the Fridge⁠

Hosts

Stephen Chapin - ⁠https://x.com/stephenchapin⁠

Matt Hagedorn - ⁠https://x.com/TALLMADGEHEALTH⁠

In our fourth episode, we finally tackle the topic looming over every classroom: AI. We brought in Kevin Mason to help us figure out whether artificial intelligence is the teaching partner we always wanted or the fastest way to think our students out of thinking for themselves.
The conversation kicks off from two blogs that, on the surface, read like opposite takes: Matt's "Intention Is Everything" and Kevin's "A Brain-Based Case Against AI in Health Class (and beyond)." Dig in, though, and they're not actually fighting. Matt makes the case that AI is a tsunami already at the door (the Geek Squad days make an appearance). Kevin counters with the brain science behind why struggle is where real learning lives, and what happens when we offload it. Put the two side by side, and you land in the same place: slow is fast, a free-throw analogy, and a hard look at treating AI as a tool instead of a transaction.
We also catch up on what's good and what's tough, Ian gives the Milwaukee Brewers an ad read they never asked for, and we close things out on vinyl, blind pulls, and why flipping a record might be the best wellness move you make all week.
Real talk for health teachers, by health teachers.

Show Links

Matt Hagedorn Blog - Intention Is Everything

Kevin Mason Blog - A Brain-Based Case Against AI in Health Class (and beyond)

Follow Kevin Mason on X - x.com/mrmasonhealth

Project Zero Thinking Routine

Commencement Speeches

A.I. Doc Video

Book - Empire of AI - Karen Hao

Best Practices Link - Stevens Point, WI - July 27-29, 2026

Hosts

Stephen Chapin, Ian Lacasse, Matt Hagedorn

Our first guest, and she came ready to flip the script.
Jessica Matheson joins us for episode three, and we tried something different. We had some questions for her, but she brought her own for us, too. The result is a real back-and-forth about health education and how it actually fits into everyday life. We get into risk and the bigger chances each of us has taken, swap our favorite parts of conferences unrelated to the sessions, and pull some genuinely useful advice from Jessica along the way.
Less interview, more conversation. Our first time having a guest on, and a good sign of where this is headed.

Episode Links

Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT)

Hawaii Health Education Standards

MN Health Education Standards - Draft

Jessica Matheson - @CoachMatheson

The Blueprint — What I Teach, Why I Built It, and How to Make It Yours

Hosts

Stephen Chapin, Ian Lacasse⁠, Matt Hagedorn

Why don’t more health and PE teachers show up to professional development? What’s actually stopping them — and how do we get more people in the room?

Matt, Ian, and Steve dig into the real talk on PD: the presenter pipeline problem, the university disconnect, the funding equity gap, and the burnout reframe that flips the whole conversation on its head. Plus a community member who survived 55 minutes of CPR, an art teacher shout-out, and a substitute teacher ad read that may have come from somewhere real.

Ann Hagedorn’s A View from the Lobby makes an appearance. Summer PD plans get mapped out, and a preview of Episode 3 brings our first guest — with a twist.

Links in the show notes.

Say Something Project

A View from the Lobby: The Unseen Pulse of Pedagogy – #slowchathealth

Professional Development Opportunities

June 10-12 SHAPE Iowa Conference

June 24-25 SHAPE KY Conference

July 27-29 - Best Practices in Health and Physical Education Conference - Continuing Education and Outreach | UWSP