Here at College of the Canyons, faculty must fulfill their FLEX requirement, ensuring that they engage in professional development activities equivalent to the time they spend in class.
This includes wellness activities and the development of new instructional materials. So what did the faculty choose to do? Pickleball.
“So Pickleballs has gotten more popular, so quite a few of us just decided to try out the game and play. And then we decided, why don’t we do it as a professional development, we call it flex at the college,” said David Michaels, a Science & Engineering Instructor.
Although attendance varies weekly, each professor who can attend enjoys these two set hours of play.
“We all cheer each other on. It’s a good stress reliever. We’re outside. We’re getting exercise, and I think people need that. And this is non-pressure, you know,” said Cindy Schwanke, a Chef Instructor.
“You get to meet your colleagues and new people. And I think it’s always a good thing to have physical activity and exercise,” Michaels.
While these professors use the campus’s tennis courts with their nets and improvised lines, they hope to get an actual pickleball court soon and are looking to “serve” up more fun.
“We have, you know, we’re playing on tennis courts, but we’ve got lines that are fading away from chalk and tape,”
“If the college wanted to have a pickleball court and maybe a class or something of that sort, I have no doubt the enrollment for that would fill up many sections, and then hopefully that can lead to having designated pickleball courts, painted lines,” said Michaels.
