The seventh grade students at our rural Eastern North Carolina school are focused on getting to and through college.
They are excited to grow their knowledge, and to develop the skills necessary to be successful later in life.
They work with urgency and grit to reach their goals, and they truly understand that their work and learning is never done. They are eager to make a difference in their lives, the lives of their families, and in their community as a whole.
My Project
Recently, our students have begun to explore ways in which they can get fit and healthy. One of the big ideas they developed was for our seventh grade team to become more active on a daily basis. In order to meet the need that our students voiced to us, we as a school team worked it into the schedule so that seventh grade students can have sixty-minutes of activity each day, through our Let's Move! period and gym.
Students recognized the need for accountability when being physically active, so they dreamed up the idea of using fitness partners and pedometers.
Through this system, every student in the seventh grade would have a fitness partner, with whom they will share a pedometer, and track their fitness progress. Because our students rotate their classes together, eat lunch together, and use the restroom at the same times, each pair of fitness partners will have essentially the same number of steps taken per day while at our middle school. Partners will take turns wearing the pedometers, and will track their steps taken, distance traveled, and calories burned together.
This project is truly important because it will ensure that students are encouraged to be more active and that they are held accountable for doing so. Collecting quantitative data will help students to strive for greater physical activity and success, and having a partner will help students to get the push and encouragement they need to sustain their new, more active lifestyle.
More than a third of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Kilgallen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
