The Lakeshore Foundation is an organization aimed instilling lifelong wellness in people with disabilities and those with chronic health conditions through a variety of means. The organization provides its members opportunities both within their Birmingham, Alabama facility and out in their respective communities to learn and practice physical activities, sports, and recreational activities. I had the chance to interview two people directly involved in the Lakeshore Foundation. Beth Curry is the Chief Program Officer and works with the physical activity programs. Beth earned her Masters of Physical Therapy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1984 before pursuing a career in healthcare. The other interviewee is Lisa Hillborn, who serves as the director or recreation and athletics.

For this episode of What’s New in APE, I was able to interview two of my undergraduate students (John Nagel & Landon Kilmesh) who recently completed the introduction to APE course that I teach at the University of Northern Iowa. This was also my first semester teaching the introduction to APE course at the University of Northern Iowa, as well as it was the first semester that we had a service learning component on campus, where our

undergraduate physical education students were able to teach physical education to students with disabilities at the university. During this episode we were all able to reflect on the introduction to APE course, discuss how this class helped to prepare them to teach physical education to students with disabilities, and how working with students with disabilities helps to change our perceptions on life and ourselves.

Hello! This episode of What’s New in APE is a second recording from the 47th Annual National Adapted Physical Education Conference (NAPEC). The conference was held November 8-10, 2018 in San Diego, California. It is put on by the California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD), who advocates for healthy lifestyles for all. As an annual conference, overarching themes for the weekend change from year to year. The 2018 theme was inclusion, and featured a variety of speakers that addressed the theme in light of numerous APE topics.

The main topic discussed in this episode is the history of NAPEC, what it has accomplished since its’ inception, and the future of NAPEC. The guests on this episode include Marci Pope (Lecturer at California State University-Chico), Rebecca Lytle (Professor at California State University-Chico), Barry Lavay (Professor at California State University - Long Beach), Kathy Russell (School Administrator at Los Angeles Unified Schools), and Joanie Verderber (Retired APE professor). In addition, at the end of the episode, the panel took questions from the audience about NAPEC and related items.

If you would like to learn more about NAPEC, visit their website at: https://www.cahperd.org/Public/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=2018NAPEC

NAPEC’s parent organization, the California Association for Health, Physical Education,

Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD), also has various information and resources for PE teachers, and can be found at: https://www.cahperd.org/Public/Home/Public/Default.aspx?hkey=f7e5386d-b157-46d1-8b67-0e161a1feec0

If you want to hear more from the 2018 NAPEC, check out the previous episode: The power of connectedness as educators and the state of Adapted Physical Education: NAPEC Keynote

Please share this podcast and blog with anyone who you think may benefit from learning more about APE. Thank you for continuing to listen and support What’s New in APE!

This is a very different podcast, as it was recorded at the 47th National Adapted Physical Education Conference in San Diego as a Keynote Speech. Scott McNamara begins by discussing how we can use our own platforms to connect with one another and promote our field. In addition, we had a panel discussion with Dr. Beth Foster (California State Polytechnic University, Ponoma), Dr. Rebecca Lytle (California State University in Chico) , Chris Ahrens (APE Teacher in San Diego), & Ann Griffin (APE Consultant for Grantwood AEA. We had a discussion about the current state of APE and inclusion.

This podcast focuses on the APENS - the Adapted Physical Education National Standards. The purpose of APENS is to define standards for APE teachers. Adapted physical educators can take the APENS exam, which is based off of the 15 standards, to become certified adapted physical education. This allows us schools and other education stakeholders (e.g., teachers, parents) to understand who is qualified to teach APE with the special skills and insights needed to properly teach physical education to students with disabilities.

This podcast features a panel of 3 guests, including the founder of APENS Dr. Luke Kelly from the University of Virginia; Dr. Tim Davis from SUNY Cortland who currently runs the day to day operations of APENS; and Toni Bader, an APE teacher for the Seattle School District that is passionate about ensuring that APE teachers are qualified to teacher students with disabilities.

This is also the first podcast recorded using new podcasting equipment, so also take note of the improved sound quality!

Check out a brand new episode of What's New in APE! This post/podcast focuses on my experience of going through the dissertation process and the investigation I conducted for my dissertation. Within this short podcast episode I discuss how I chose my dissertation topic and what it meant for me to complete my PhD program. Also, make sure to check out the blog post as there is a link to the dissertation defense presentation and a link to a free webinar I recently conducted with a focus on APE and assistive technology for the Center on Assistive Technology and Disability (CTD).

In this episode, I had an in-depth conversation about the need for APE teaching endorsements at the state and national level with Dr. Suzanna Dillon, an APE professor and my dissertation adviser at Texas Woman's University and Toni Bader, a APE teacher for the Seattle School District. In this podcast, we discussed some of the experiences and successes that the panelist have had in advocating for the need for an APE endorsement at local, state, and national levels.

This episode is the second part of a two part series that focuses on NCPHAD: Building Healthy Communities, which is a public health practice and resource center on health promotion for people with disabilities. NCPHAD has a multitude of resources for all types of adapted physical activity professionals, including APE teachers. For this episode we were able to do a in-person interview with two staff members at NCPHAD. The two interviewees were Dr. Jim Rimmer, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the director of the UAB-Lakeshore Foundation Research Collaborative and Director of NCPHAD; and Alex Martinez, the Expert Inclusion Specialist for NCPHAD. My hopes from this episode are to share resources from NCPHAD to my listeners/readers, please go to their website to see all of the resources that they offer! This episode focuses specifically on (a) whether people with disabilities can be healthy, (b) archiving adaptions in our field (grades), and (c) how we can use research in our field and how we can help researchers.

This episode specifically focused on NCPHAD: Building Healthy Communities, which is a public health practice and resource center on health promotion for people with disabilities. NCPHAD has a multitude of resources for all types of adapted physical activity professionals, including APE teachers. For this episode we were able to do a in-person interview with two staff members at NCPHAD. The two interviewees were Dr. Jim Rimmer, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the director of the UAB-Lakeshore Foundation Research Collaborative and Director of NCPHAD; and Alex Martinez, the Expert Inclusion Specialist for NCPHAD. My hopes from this episode are to share resources from NCPHAD to my listeners/readers, please go to their website to see all of the resources that they offer!

This podcast is part one of a two part episode. Part one focuses specifically on (a) what NCPHAD is and how it came to be, (b) how to navigate their website, and (c) some of the different resources they have available and how they developed them.

In this part 2 episode, I continued my in-depth conversation with Dr. Monica Lepore, an APE professor at the West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lepore recently was given a sabbatical to go around the country to examine different practicums (college courses that give college students the opportunity to work with students with disabilities). She took this journey to find out the status of the different programs out there and how we can attempt to assist all APE practicum programs to be as strong as possible. Dr. Lepore was able to travel to 8 APE practicums within the last few months, and joined us on the podcast to share her findings and reflect on her experience. This podcast is part two of a two part episode. Part two focuses specifically on (a) the key points that make practicums successful, (b) the idea of volunteerism and how it relates to APE, and (c) we discuss the realities of housing our practicum experiences within a segregated APE setting, rather than in a more inclusive setting.