P.E. class gets a makeover with a new emphasis on healthy eating, living.
In Spokane schools, goalies run in place. And students, after hooking up their heart monitors, eagerly jog or jump-rope.
Many of them are so excited to get moving, said Bainbridge High School health teacher Charisa Moore, that they don’t even bother going to the locker room to change clothes.
“They come to school with their shorts on,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
As part of a committee charged with overhauling the health and fitness curriculum at Bainbridge schools, Moore was among an island contingent that trekked to Spokane to see a fitness program that is widely regarded by educators as the state’s frontrunner.
The reputation, she said, is well-earned.
Every student, from fourth through 12th grade, is issued a heart monitor. Each must meet specific, measurable fitness goals – like elevating their heart rate to a certain level for a sustained period – to earn credit for that day’s class.
The topper is that every middle school and high school has a fitness center, where students riding stationary bikes watch televisions that beam only health-related programming.
“It’s like Island Fitness in their schools,” Moore said.
On Bainbridge Island, health clubs haven’t yet appeared on school campuses. But with a newly adopted health and fitness curriculum, Associate Superintendent Faith Chapel said the school district is making some healthy strides toward better health.
“We’re very excited to have a comprehensive plan for health and fitness,” she said, of curriculum approved last week by the school board. “Bainbridge schools have always had a good physical education program.
“We want to make sure we are working with kids at a young age so that they understand the importance of health and fitness and can monitor it.”
Teachers will use what they learned in Spokane, along with a multitude of other research, as part of the revamped curriculum to be introduced in stages beginning next fall.
Changes include new textbooks, videos and equipment designed to increase health-consciousness and healthy behavior in students that officials hope will endure into adulthood.
The changes span the entire K-12 spectrum, and are closely aligned with state and federal standards.
For grades K-8, “The Great Body Shop,” published by The Children’s Health Market, Inc., will be the staple health textbook.
The program covers topics including substance abuse prevention, social and emotional health and violence prevention.
Ninth graders will use an updated version of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill’s “Health and Wellness,” the same textbook used in that grade for several years.
Fitness curriculum for all grades will be anchored by Focused Fitness’ “Five for Life,” which uses books, videos and software to educate students about nutrition and exercise.
Part of the program requires students to establish base-line fitness levels and set exercise goals to work toward.
Equipment associated with the new curriculum will include individual heart monitors, exercise mats, cones, weights and informational posters.
The district plans to apply for grants in the future to pay for later improvements and new equipment as the program grows.
The committee, composed of teachers, administrators and parents, spent the past four years crafting the new curriculum. They looked for redundancies or gaps in instruction, weighed local data regarding risky behavior among teens and considered the age-appropriateness of different teaching materials, their report said.
Because of the fast-paced development of medical research, and because curriculum reviews typically happen in seven or eight year cycles, the committee sought materials that would be easy to update.
The current curriculum, said Ian Eisenhood, who teaches second grade at Wilkes Elementary School, isn’t nearly as adaptable as the new one.
“As a teacher, it comes down to what’s the best mode for me to transfer information to the students,” said Eisenhood, who also serves on the committee. “Some of the content we’re using now is sporadic and out of date.”
It also isn’t nearly as comprehensive as the new curriculum, which Moore said will better illustrate the important interactions between the different components of good health.
Traditional P.E. classes focus almost exclusively on fitness. Now, teachers will incorporate short lessons into physical activities, or have question and answer periods about the negative effects of substance abuse.
Committee members said the latter issue came up frequently in their discussions.
The most recent results from the Healthy Youth Survey – which measures the prevalence of risky behavior among Bainbridge students – show that local youths abuse drugs and alcohol more frequently and in greater numbers than students in most other Washington school districts.
Another contentious subject, HIV and AIDS education, also was a focus of the committee.
The state requires that students receive HIV/AIDS education every year between fifth- and 12th-grade. Still, results from the Healthy Youth Survey indicated that less than 30 percent of Bainbridge seniors received HIV/AIDS instruction during the last year.
“The new (HIV/AIDS) curriculum is similar to the old one in that much of the research it’s based on has not changed at all,” Chapel said. “The big change is that the materials, mainly the videos, are more current.”
The district each fall hosts an open house during which parents are shown the HIV/AIDS teaching materials. Parents then have the option to withhold their child from that portion of the class, though Chapel said only a “handful” do each year.
Moore said she understands the apprehension of some parents regarding HIV/AIDS education. Regarding the new curriculum in general, she’ excited to see the coming changes.
“We want kids early on to have a baseline understanding of what it means to be healthy,” she said.
“Media literacy is part of the program too because we want kids to be smart consumers. It’s about learning to manage yourself.”
