A change in phy ed classes at district elementary schools has students spending less time with a specialist, but more time being physically active in the actual classroom.
Recently, the number of hours per week that Forest Lake elementary students spend working directly with a physical education specialist has dropped. That change, however, doesn’t necessarily mean that kids are spending less time focusing on physical fitness.
“We have a history in Forest Lake where kids would only spend two days a week with an actual gym teacher,” said Jennifer Tolzmann, director of teaching and learning. “Somewhere along the line that changed when we decided to double up and send two classes to gym at the same time. That meant that most kids would see four gym periods a week.”
The plan saw two full classes attending gym together with the physical education teacher in control of the class and one of the classroom teachers helping to manage the group. The other classroom teacher would take a prep period. Weekly, each teacher would help manage a gym class two days and take a prep period during phy ed on the other two days.
“About four years ago, we started having discussions with our elementary principals about whether this plan was the best for the kids,” Tolzmann said. “The discussion revolved around safety in numbers. Even with two adults in the room, you can’t really keep 60-70 kids under control while also making sure that they are all engaged at the same level.”
It was decided that the Forest Lake elementary schools would revert back to the single class, two-days-a-week model. With this change, teachers were allowed more freedom within the classroom to give the kids a physical activity break if they felt it was warranted.
“If it happens to be a nice day and our teachers can see that the kids are restless, taking a break to spend some time outside is always allowed,” Columbus Elementary Principal Neal Fox said. “Sometimes kids just need a minute to get the wiggles out, and we encourage our staff to make time for that.”
Scandia Elementary Principal Julie Greiman said that her teachers appreciate the freedom to be able to take a break at their discretion.
“They like being in charge of choosing the best time for kids to take a break,” Greiman said. “They could not always do that when kids had gym four days a week. Now, they don’t feel guilty about taking that extra time.”
Specific activities for the students to engage in during the extra breaks are facilitated in part due to funding from Children’s Hospitals of Minnesota. The district was able to get a health teacher online program that comes equipped with GoNoodle, which provides video clips of professional and Olympic athletes guiding students through stretching exercises and other physical activities.
“There is no requirement by the state of Minnesota for a certain amount of physical activity time, but we try very hard to make sure that each of our kids gets what they need,” Tolzmann said. “Our philosophy is to educate the whole child.”