October 2006
Move This Way: Outstanding P.E. Programs Teach Lifelong Fitness for Every Child
We hear it often. Americans – despite our collective obsession with weight-loss and physical appearance and our unlimited access to health clubs, gyms, parks and public playfields – are becoming heavier, less physically active and, as a result, less healthy. The latest data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that 30 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 and older are obese, and that 16 percent of children ages 6-19 (more than 9 million young people) are considered overweight, with the percentage of obesity among children tripling since 1980. According to the CDC, these rates have been continually rising over the last 20 years.
Medical studies consistently link physical fitness with decreased risks for heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, low self-esteem and depression, and yet, according to statistics from the U.S. Surgeon General, more than 60 percent of American adults exercise only sporadically, and 25 percent are not active at all. Even more alarming is the fact that almost 50 percent of American youth ages 12-21 do not exercise regularly.
While Washington state residents are in line with these health statistics, we are fortunate in the Puget Sound area to have a number of outstanding physical education programs that attempt to buck the national trend by instilling in students as young as kindergarten a passion and commitment to physical movement and fitness. Across the board, these programs, and more specifically, the instructors, stand out in their focus on the individual child. They strive to create an environment that allows each student to feel successful and excited about his own body’s ability to move.
The acronym P.H.Y.S.I.C.A.L. – developed by long-time local physical education specialists Susan and Bud Turner – clearly captures the basics of a quality physical education program:
P – Planned, purposeful lesson designs
H – High expectations for ALL students
Y - Youth-oriented curriculums
S – Safe learning environments
I – Individual successes every day
C – Caring adults
A – Academic concepts through movement
L – Leadership opportunities
The following local P.E. teachers incorporate these principles in their classes and can serve as examples for teachers and parents in evaluating their own schools’ physical education classes.
Not the Same Old P.E.
Susan Turner’s physical education program at Sanislo Elementary School in southwest Seattle levels the playing field for all students by incorporating non-traditional and gender-neutral activities. “I want to make my classroom creative – I want those kids to look in the gym and say ‘WOW,’” says Turner. Juggling, street tumbling, unicycling, rope-skipping, diabolo (sometimes called Chinese yo-yo), roller-skating, archery, spider-walking and capoeira (a Brazilian martial arts) are all common fare at Sanislo.
“I still teach the major sports,” says Turner; “it’s just that my approach is different.” She strives to have every child active and participating in the game. “How are you going to develop skills if you are always waiting for a turn?” she asks.
Turner also doesn’t let a child give up. She de-emphasizes winning and focuses her students on beating their own prior scores. Turner instigated a club card system - students earn stickers for scoring 85 percent or better on various fitness tests, including national achievement tests. For instance, in juggling, the standard is to juggle three objects 50 times. Consistently, Sanislo has the highest average among Seattle public schools for fitness scores, despite being in a demographically and culturally diverse environment where kids are often dealing with difficult outside pressures
Turner’s philosophy on physical education evolved slowly. In 1969, after graduating from Seattle University, both Turners were in their first teaching jobs. The two taught what they knew – competitive games and sports. However, they observed that many children, even kindergarteners, were leaving class dejected, feeling as if they had failed.
“We realized the traditional approach wasn’t working,” says Bud Turner, who was the coordinator of Seattle Schools K-12 Health and Physical Education Department for 24 years and is currently the coordinator for K-12 Pedagogy for the Department of Physical Education and Exercise Science at Seattle Pacific University. “We needed to do something unique.”
Their individualized, success-oriented approach gradually led to the formation of a performing arts group called SCATS (Sanislo Columbia Acrobatic Teams). Originally made up of school children from Sanislo and from Columbia Elementary School in Rainier Valley, SCATS has provided Seattle kids a creative outlet for more than 30 years. The group has performed at Seahawk and Sonics games, the Puyallup Fair and hundreds of schools around the Puget Sound.
The Turners’ unorthodox methods have made lifetime movers out of generations of students – both budding athletes and those who would be lost in a traditional P.E. setting. “It’s been my passion,” says Susan Turner, who retired this year after 36 years. “The kids know when you’re passionate and respond.”
Rock On, Play Hard
Alan Tepper, the physical education specialist at North Bend Elementary since 1979, also relies on less traditional activities to engage and educate his students. “We (as instructors) really have a great responsibility to offer students a myriad of activities, so that when they leave elementary school, they have a huge menu from which to choose,” Tepper says. “P.E. can and should support things they love to do outside school.”
Not surprisingly, being so close to the Cascades, Tepper’s gym is equipped with a massive climbing wall, built through local grants. His students begin the school year climbing for the first six weeks. Tepper brings the wall out again in January for the kids to burn off some energy, and again at the end of the school year.
According to Tepper, all sports require a degree of the following elements: endurance, fitness, strength, aerobics and static vs. dynamic balance challenges. Tepper tries to incorporate these skills into his lessons – giving the kids body control challenges, taking off and landing activities, and games that develop foot, hand and eye control. His kids play numerous fitness games and ride scooters and unicycles to practice their riding and balance skills.
Tepper acknowledges that despite an evolving philosophy about movement and fitness, children and their families often get locked into what the media tells us are the most important sports, and this is limiting, if not damaging. “Every child, regardless of ability level, can participate in P.E.,” says Tepper. “But if you only focus on the traditional sports, many of the same group of children will (consistently) feel like failures.” Tepper keeps his gym open before school for tumbling and rope skipping, and has a noontime sports program. After school, the gym is open to unicyclers.
He started the Panther Pride Unicycle Team (a.k.a. the North Bend Unicycle Club), which, like SCATS, performs at half-time shows for local sports events and at various schools around the country. The team brought 251 awards back from the 2006 North American Unicycle Championships in Memphis, Tenn. early this summer, and a group of its performers participated in UNICON – the World Championships of Unicycling – in Switzerland, earning 32 medals.
Anybody who has the desire and motivation can participate in the North Bend Unicycling Club. The sport requires intense internal focus and balance, while also demanding that riders are aware of those around them. Tepper’s youngest unicycler, GracieLu, is 4 years old, and her 3-year old brother Gavin is clamoring to begin. GracieLu and Gavin’s mother, Erin Wyrsch, was part of Tepper’s unicycling team in the 1980s and returned two years ago with her entire family. Her husband performs, as does her 11-year-old son Omri and her 6-year-old Bailey.
Tepper credits the North Bend community for its support. He also asserts that he is not special – that there are a lot of good educators out there re-thinking how to reach every kid. “As a P.E. teacher, I’m not looking for all children to get sports scholarships or become professional athletes,” says Tepper, “but I am looking for all children to become healthy active adults who participate in life.”
Try Something New
Cheryl Parks has been the P.E. specialist at Lawton Elementary School in Seattle’s Magnolia area for more than 12 years. She emulates the Turners and Tepper in basing her program on the success-oriented model. “I try to expose kids to as much (variety) as possible,” says Parks. Activities may include rock-climbing, rope skipping, juggling, yoga or unicycling. Parks also uses pogo sticks, wooden spools, walking wheels and monkey bikes in her classes. During summer school, she offers other activities, such as swimming, hiking and volleyball.
“Most kids are not natural athletes,” says Parks. “The key is for everyone to find his or her niche.”
Parks, growing up in West Seattle in the 1970s, herself benefited from this approach. She entered first grade at Sanislo, where Bud and Susan Turners’ SCATS teams were getting off the ground. SCATS taught Parks to set goals and inspired her to be active. “It was a natural part of living in that area,” says Parks. “We wanted every opportunity to perform … we wanted to do it all.”
According to Parks, many kids don’t like activities with a lot of rules and give up under the competitive stress of traditional games. More individualized activities, ones that incorporate traditional skills but are less directly competitive, can eliminate this stress. “If I can teach the skills they’ll need to do any activity,” says Parks, “…and build a foundation, I’ve found that when they leave school they have the knowledge to keep doing what they’re doing and experience different things.”
Parks recommends that parents don’t get caught up in what society tells us our kids should be doing. “Talk with your child,” says Parks, “and try to find alternatives – give a list of options and say, “Let’s pick one and try.”
Tune Up the Body
Many Puget Sound P.E. specialists, including both Turners, have been locally and nationally recognized over the years for their commitment and dedication in motivating and challenging their students. Two of three 2006 Teachers of the Year honored by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) are from the Puget Sound area. Hazen High School teacher Lori S. Dunn from Renton is the 2006 National High School Teacher of the Year, and Port Angeles teacher Krista Winn is the 2006 National Elementary School Teacher of the Year. Both Dunn and Winn will share their expertise in workshops across the nation to help train and motivate physical education teachers.
Since 2001, Winn, who is the P.E. specialist at Hamilton Elementary in Port Angeles, has been part of a nine-member physical education task force for the state of Washington. The group helps design performance assessments and classroom toolkits to help students meet the state Essential Academic Learning requirements, and Winn helps train P.E. instructors to use the tools. Over the last five years, Winn has developed an elementary fitness and health curriculum that reflects both NASPE and Washington state standards. She calls it the Body Shop.
Winn’s Body Shop curriculum compares a student’s body with a car and is divided into four different departments: 1) the Engine Department, which teaches cardio-respiratory health, 2) the Fuel Station, which discusses nutrition and hydration, 3) the Parts Department, which covers the structure and function of the human body systems, and 4) the Maintenance Department, which focuses on skill development, fitness assessments and goal setting. Each year, she greets her new students wearing mechanic’s overalls and decorates her gym with Speed Limit and No Parking signs. The physical education specialists are the head mechanics who teach children how to care for the most important machine they will ever own.
Grades K-5 attend P.E. once a week, and on Mondays grades 1-5 attend a 45-minute circuit session dubbed “Muscle Mondays.” Winn has created six different fitness tubs that include task cards and equipment for 12 exercise/skill stations. The kids rotate around the different stations, which include activities such as juggling, bowling or playing volleyball. While the skills and exercises change, each station includes directions, a focus on a particular muscle or muscle group, and a fitness component. Students must keep track of their personal scores, take care of the equipment and cooperate with each other.
Winn also awards students “body bucks” for demonstrating good listening skills, following directions and showing good teamwork and positive sportsmanship. Once the class as a whole acquires enough body bucks, they can use them to purchase bones, muscles or guts to build a complete skeleton of Mrs. Winn in their classrooms.
Winn is a walking example for the kids of being active despite any physical limitations. She has had eight knee surgeries, her knees are full of metal, and she is currently awaiting knee replacements. Although she can’t participate in activities that need pivoting and she can no longer run or jump, she continues to be physically active by walking, swimming and biking. Her students see that despite her “disability,” she never gives up.
There are numerous other outstanding physical education teachers and programs around the Puget Sound area – Bagley Elementary near Green Lake, Dearborn Park Elementary in southeast Seattle and Kitsap Lake Elementary in Bremerton are among many that have received recognition. Collectively, all of these programs demonstrate what can happen when dedicated teachers bring their creativity, their commitment and their own love of movement into gym class, in order to teach children the benefits and joys of lifetime fitness.
Dana Thompson is a free-lance writer based on Bainbridge Island. She found the research on the above P.E. programs provocative and timely as her two children are just entering the world of P.E. and organized sports and activities.
Meeting State Requirements
Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) will include testing in the Essential Academic Learning Requirements for physical fitness, movement skills and knowledge of nutrition, safety and health. The assessments were voluntary beginning last school year, and so some schools may already be implementing them. To find out which skills will be required, call the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s School Health Programs at 360-725-6364 or visit www.k12.wa.us/curriculumInstruct/healthfitness.
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