Wild Child: Students Learning the Importance of Movement

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Recently, my observer came to pull a student aside to ask her about our daily lesson. The student was very polite made wonderful connections regarding health, fitness, and our activities. After a quick moment of silence, the student fired, "Can I go back to the game now?" Students love to move.

We are the first campus of a charter school that helps minority and low income students become college-ready.

Mostly our staff work to bring students' reading and math scores up to a nationally ranked level, however, in our physical education department, we are faced with fighting even larger challenges of cultural obesity and chronic motor development deficits. We hold our students to high expectations in and out of the classroom. We commit to several community service days each semester frequently involving bringing what we learn in the classroom out to the rest of the world. "Sitting is the new smoking," has become a catchphrase around our campus. We are working overtime to provide students with ways to enjoy fitness. Our middle school students and families are informing us that they are enjoying PE for the first time ever.

My Project

In PE, we move like wild people. Teachers say they come to class smelling like wild people but become much more tame after PE. There is no denying it, the majority of our wild students like to through things. To keep them from throwing things in the hallways and classrooms, we need to give them opportunities to throw, slam, sprint, jump, tag, chase, crawl, and go wild in an appropriate safe setting. The requested sandbells are a student favorite because they can be slammed, tossed, jumped on, carried, and slid across the floor without the danger of hard medicine balls. Also, the varying weight allows for differentiated choices among the students. The dodgeballs selected are another favorite. No one sits out in our games. Instead, when struck by a student-friendly, sting-free dodgeball students complete a set of given exercises then rejoin the game. No scars, no marks to show... unless you count increased fitness.

The more students move, the better the brain works.

It also creates stress relief. Special neural activity occurs when we smile at another person. Smiles are contagious. The equipment we are requesting allows us to have smaller groups and more games happening simultaneously so that more students can engage each other more frequently during PE. When all students are held accountable to the curriculum, we all get healthier - mentally, emotionally, AND physically.