Educate new classroom teachers on classroom physical activity

A story from Utah

Every year, Davis County School District in Utah welcomes approximately 200 new K-12 teachers. We spoke with Tim Best, Director of Healthy Lifestyles for Davis County School District, to learn more about how he educates these new teachers on the importance of classroom physical activity.

Key Takeaways

Articulate the benefits of classroom physical activity to classroom teachers. Mr. Best observed that many classroom teachers had very little exposure to the benefits of classroom physical activity in their pre-service education courses:

“They don’t get that in their pedagogy or in their teacher preparation courses… [Pre-service education courses] don’t really teach the teachers about what physical activity can do for their classes.”

Mr. Best remedies that quickly once a teacher starts work in Davis County School District, articulating how physical activity can benefit students and the classroom climate during their orientation:

“I get to speak to why physical activity – even brief bouts of activity – are great for their students and what it can do not only for their learning but for classroom management, engagement, and on task behavior.”

Identify topic areas that will resonate with classroom teachers. Mr. Best focuses on a few key topic areas to provide a “CliffsNotes version” of classroom physical activity for the classroom teachers he educates.  He provides the rationale for classroom physical activity and then runs through activities that can get students up and moving, especially during long class times.

“A lot of our junior high and high schools have 90 minute blocks. They’ll soon find out it’s hard to keep those [junior high and high school students] engaged for those 90 minutes.”

Show, don’t tell. Mr. Best shared a strategy for illustrating the benefits of classroom physical activity.  During his professional development with classroom teachers, he often requests a time slot at the end of the day, when they are the drowsiest, tired of sitting all day, and ready to go home.  He then puts on good music and gets them moving for a few minutes. He ends the activity by asking them how they feel and relates it to how students feel when they get short physical activity breaks throughout a long day of learning.

Share easy-to-implement activities. Mr. Best created a calendar of easy activities to implement every day of the month.  These calendars include ideas like “throw an ice cube on the sidewalk and do an exercise until it melts.”

“They can just look at the calendar, post it on their wall, and say ‘today this is what we’re going to do.’”