Leverage the expertise of physical educators

A story from Virginia

 

“As long as physical educators make themselves available as a resource and give other classroom teachers a great list of resources, classroom teachers are open to try anything. Increasingly, teachers grasp that these activities will not only give students quick movement breaks, but they will also help with behaviors and their cognitive abilities.”

Amy Riggio, Health and Physical Education Teacher
London County Public Schools

During the 2017-2018 school year, the Virginia Department of Health trained physical educators to serve as Chief Movement Officers (CMOs) that could more intentionally connect with other classroom teachers to promote classroom physical activity. According to Ron Malm, Chief Operating Officer of Focused Fitness, “We engaged physical educators to train other classroom teachers because their job is to organize chaos into movement.” Since this training, the CMOs in Loudoun County have built relationships with other teachers to increase physical activity in their classrooms.

Key Takeaways

Intentionally engage physical educators as champions – do not assume it will happen naturally. Prior to the CMO training, physical educators were rarely engaged in supporting classroom physical activity approaches. The training encouraged these new CMOs to initiate and foster collaborative between and share expertise and resources with classroom teachers. According to Amy Riggio, Health and Physical Education Teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools:

“…Previously [physical educators] shied away from offering help to other classroom teachers… But, we have the knowledge – we know the anatomical basis for movement…and the research behind what happens when someone sits for hours and hours a day. It takes [just] a little prompting to get [physical educators] pumped up and excited to get out and do this.”

Assess the immediate needs/interests of classroom teachers and meet them at their level. Classroom physical activity may not be the highest priority or interest for classroom teachers. In Loudon County, many classroom teachers were initially looking for appropriate recess and indoor recess activities. Trainers focused on addressing that request first. Over time, many of the suggested activities were eventually integrated into the classroom. As Ms. Riggio said:

“I found as I walked through the hallways [during class time], the kids would be up and dancing. And then, if we shared an activity in PE, they would say, ‘Oh, we do this in class all the time!’”

Classroom teachers were very willing to tap Loudoun County physical educators as resources to integrate physical activity into their lesson plans and teaching methods.  All it took was physical educators making themselves available as a resource to the classroom teachers. As Ms. Riggio reflected: “When you can give [other classroom teachers] the data and the information about the benefits of classroom physical activity and the easy ways to incorporate it so it’s a part of their daily routine, they surprisingly want more. The buy-in is there from the classroom teachers because they know how important it is.’”