This month NASPE Executive Director, Charlene Burgeson shares information about this year's AAHPERD National Convention in Fort Worth, Texas.

If you haven't ever attended a national convention, at some time in your career you must. Getting together with several thousand of your colleagues from around the country is a wonderfully motivating experience. And if you are already planning to attend the convention, please stop by the pelinks4u booth (#710), introduce yourself, enter our daily prize drawings, get a business card laminated, and pick up some free promotional items. We'd love to meet you!

Steve Jefferies, Publisher
pelinks4u

Join the "PE Metrics Movement" at the AAHPERD National Convention

There are hundreds of reasons to attend the AAHPERD National Convention April 8-12 in Fort Worth, TX. You'll find cutting-edge sessions, themed socials, over 200 exhibitors, and networking opportunities with over 5,000 professionals.

But this is no ordinary convention. There's something really big rolling-out. It's called PE Metrics, and it's the future of physical education.

It's all about accountability for quality physical education by measuring student success. PE Metrics is a NASPE initiative providing scientifically-tested valid and reliable assessment tasks and rubrics for teachers, schools, districts, and states, to measure student achievement of the National Standards for Physical Education. PE Metrics will change the way physical education professionals do business, and how physical education is perceived and supported by policy makers.

Learning more about the PE Metrics movement is easy and fun. Look for MetricsMan when you enter the registration area in Fort Worth, attend the session on PE Metrics on Friday, April 11 from 10:15am-12:15pm, and be sure to stop by the NASPE Booth in the exhibit area to learn how to use the PE Metrics DVD.

Visit the AAHPERD Convention Bookstore to purchase your own copy of PE Metrics, which includes a manual, DVD, and CD Rom of printable assessments and rubrics.

Check out over 400 convention program sessions at: 2008 AAHPERD National Convention and Exposition (April 8 - 12, 2008), Ft. Worth, Tx. Also, go to the Special Events Form to learn about all the "extras" being offered by NASPE, including six workshops: Physical Best Specialist, Let's Get Moving: Physical Activity for Children Ages 3-5, Teaching Dance in Physical Education - Elementary, PIPEline Integrating Heart Rate Monitors and Pedometers in K-12 Physical Education, PIPEline Instructional Practices in K-12 Physical Education, and Creating a NASPE STARS "Program of Excellence" Portfolio. Sign up for recertification hours/CEUs or graduate credits. Don't miss the annual Secondary Physical Education Day (Thursday) and Elementary Physical Education Day (Friday).

Be sure to take advantage of discounted prices by registering before March 4. See you in Fort Worth!

On a final note, if you are a NASPE/AAHPERD member, please cast your vote for new NASPE officers for the Board of Directors. Three Board positions are open for 2008-2011: President-elect, Professional Services Coordinator, and Sport Coordinator. Online voting is easy: http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/template.cfm?template=elections_08.html. The deadline for submitting an online ballot is March 31. There will one final opportunity to vote at the NASPE General Session on Thursday, April 10 at the AAHPERD National Convention. New Board members will be announced at the NASPE Association Delegate Assembly on Friday, April 11.

Candidates for office are:

• President-elect: Steve Jefferies, Central Washington University and Steve Mitchell, Kent State University (OH) (See candidate bios below)
• Professional Services Coordinator: Leah Fiorentino, Armstrong Atlantic State University (GA) and Mary Jo Sariscsany, California State University - Northridge
• Sport Coordinator: Don Bales, Lowell High School (IN) and Jim Perry, La Quinta High School (CA)

All candidate bios available here: http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/template.cfm?template=elections_08.html

Charlene R. Burgeson
Executive Director
National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE)

2008 NASPE President-Elect Candidates
Dr. Steve Mitchell is a professor of Sport Pedagogy in the School of Exercise, Leisure and Sport at Kent State University. He has served as either an assistant, associate, or full professor at the Ohio school since 1992, and is currently the graduate program coordinator. Dr. Mitchell received his undergraduate degree with joint honors in Physical Education, Sport Science and History in 1981 from Loughborough University of Technology in England. He then received his Post-graduate Certificate in Education the following year from the same institution. He taught Physical Education and History at De Lisle Comprehensive School in England for the next six years, during which he earned his M.A. in Education Studies from Loughborough in 1988. He then came to the United States and completed his Ph.D. in 1992 from Syracuse University, during which he worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Health and Physical Education. He has over nine pieces of work published in the last five years, including two textbooks - Teaching sport concepts and skills: A tactical games approach and Sport foundations for elementary Physical Education: A tactical games approach. Additionally, Mitchell has made numerous presentations at both State AHPERD and the AAHPERD National Conventions. The 2005 winner of NASPE's PETE Honor Award, Dr. Mitchell is currently a member of the NCATE Board of Examiners. He also served five years as the Program Report Coordinator for Physical Education program reviews by NASPE and NCATE, and was the Chair of the NASPE/NCATE Task Force for revision of the Guidelines for Initial Preparation of Physical Education Teachers.		Dr. Steve Jefferies is the Chair of the Department of Health, Human Performance, & Nutrition at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. He has been a professor at Central Washington since 1986. In 1999, Jefferies was recognized as the University's Distinguished Professor of Public Service. In addition to teaching, he created and continues to direct summer physical education camps and an annual statewide workshop for physical education teachers. He is a PEP Grant consultant, and recently completed 8 years as a publicly elected school board director. In 2000, he helped to create one of the first online physical education Masters Degree programs in the country. Jefferies received his Physical Education Teaching Certificate from St. Lukes' College in Devon, England in 1973 and his B.Ed. the following year from the University of Exeter. He taught public school physical education before completing his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Oregon. Jefferies spent a year in the USSR studying the youth sports system, and after graduation helped to develop materials for the American Coaching Effectiveness Program. He has received numerous awards and appointments throughout his career. He twice served as Vice-President of PE for the Washington AHPERD. This past year he was elected the Washington AHPERD President and completed service as Chair of the Executive Committee for NASPE's Council on Physical Education for Children (COPEC). He received a NASPE Presidential Award in 2005, and has served on the NASPE Evidence-Based PE Committee and AAHPERD's Research Consortium Grant Committee. Dr. Jefferies is probably best known as creator and publisher of www.pelinks4u.org, the monthly online magazine for physical education professionals. He has written monthly online editorials for the past nine years, edited several books, and published over 25 journal articles. He created PE Today and Tomorrow a 15-tape video series, Assessing Learning in Physical Education: Motor Skills (VHS) and The NEW Physical Education: Promoting Healthy & Active Lifestyles (DVD). He has made over 70 professional presentations throughout the country. Working with NASPE, Dr. Jefferies created the NASPE-Forum and a national database of physical education faculty in higher education.