Connecting School and Home Experiences

When I was young I was fascinated by sports and athletic achievements in sport. I remember watching Micheal Jordan win his last of his second three-peat of NBA Finals in 1998, his mastery of his craft was amazing to watch.  I remember following and occasionally tuning into the Tour de France in the early 2000's watching Lance Armstrong, who at the time was a personal hero, overcome numerous obstacles, including cancer and doping allegations to win seven straight titles. Unfortunately that story doesn't end with the same admiration and applause it started with. Even so, these and other athletic achievements, such as my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers winning two Super Bowls in the past decade, have fueled my passion for learning how the human body functions and how to optimize, within the rules, the ability of the body. The areas of health and physical education gives me the opportunity to continue studying these interests and share my knowledge with students to help them live healthier, more active, hopefully longer lives. 

Though I love sports, i realize it is not the only route to improve physical fitness and health. Even some of the top athletes make poor health choices. Micheal Jordan drinks alcohol, and smokes cigars. Lance Armstrong eventually came out and admitted to blood doping. These, of course, are only two examples. When I think about this I wonder how different the makeup of the sport universe might be if these issues didn't exist. I realize as long sports are played competitively, there will be those that try to bend or break the rules to get an advantage. Others will just make choices that negatively affect their health.  With this knowledge I want to try to educate future students on methods to optimize their health though good choices in food, proper decision making and personal fitness, and find joy in physical activity itself and be happy with themselves. I want to be able to properly communicate the dangerous of  poor choices in order to hopefully improve the health of the population.

Introduction Blog

My name is A.J. Bixler, I am the oldest of 6 children and always had a passion for teaching and helping others. This stems from helping teach my younger siblings growing up and other children around us. One of my greatest passions is sports and physical activity. I have always been a fairly competitive person wanted to do my best and raise the level of those around me to their highest level as well. This is the reason I decided to pursue a dual major in physical education, and health education. I  have always found the dynamic of a team to be an exciting experience. The challenge of taking several individuals, with different skills and strengths, and piecing them together to produce an efficient unit able to work together toward a common goal is fun. In addition to sports and physical activity, I also enjoy watching movies and reading books. I feel growing your mind is just as important to overall health and strengthening the body. If you not willing to put in the effort on all fronts you are letting yourself down. To me physical education and health is about trying to make yourself better one day at a time. It is showing yourself you care about your body and mind and want to extend you life, in the form of healthy choices such as being physically active, proper nutrition, and staying away from harmful substances, in order to continue enjoying living your life. It is a personal choice to do the right things and I just want to help people understand the significance of the choices they are making. 

Growing up in a small town in Wyoming didn't provide much excitement for a young boy. Due to this I have to find my own excitement. My friends and I would ride our bikes all around looking for adventures. when We weren't in school we would spend most of our time until the sun set outside playing games. Even though I was a small child for my age as a pre-pubescent youth I wanted to prove I could hang with the other children and be competitive. I played little league baseball, junior football, and went swimming at the pool. The excitement of sports help pass the time for me in an enjoyable  and healthy setting.

 My current definition of literacy is a proficient understanding and/or ability in a specified area. In terms of health and physical education, i feel this relates in the form of knowing what choices and actions are health and execution of those choices, and competency of skills in various areas that help you to achieve higher goals. I feel even within the fields of health and P.E. you can have various levels of literacy dependent on the setting.