heart rate training
/By IHT Spirit/ IHT Journal • IHT Spirit System • Personalized Learning/ • • /0 Comments

Heart Rate Training Personalizes PE for Students, Teachers Alike

Students Use Heart Rate Data to Sharpen Individual Skills; Reports Enable Teachers to Design Effective Lessons

Personalized feedback provided by PE heart rate training technology drives students to meet daily goals and enables teachers to develop lessons that motivate students to succeed.

Students wearing the IHT Zone wrist heart rate monitors during their PE class workouts have learned to exercise in the target heart rate zone. The heart rate monitors, working in tandem with the IHT Spirit System assessment software, help students learn that essential skill by: Read More

/By IHT Spirit/ Academic Readiness • Shared Content/ • • /0 Comments

ParticipAction report card fails Canadian kids, connecting academic success with fitness

Originally published June 24, 2018, in the Calgary Herald.

By Eva Ferguson

As ParticipAction releases yet another annual report card giving Canadian kids a failing grade for physical activity, experts say educators need to ramp up efforts to create more opportunities for exercise at school.

The report stresses the connection between exercise and school is becoming more important than ever, echoing a growing body of evidence showing physical health translates into brain health, mental health, and academic success. Read More

Social-Emotional Wellness
/By IHT Spirit/ IHT Journal • Social-Emotional Learning/ • /0 Comments

PE Students Pedal to Improved Social-Emotional Wellness Skills

Fitness Benefits of Cycling Programs Extend Beyond Riding at an Elevated Heart Rate by Encouraging Students to Work Together

Michigan physical education students used a new bicycling unit to improve their Social-Emotional Wellness strength by working together to reach their fitness goals.

“A lot of times in PE we get really focused on the physical part,” said Portage Central (Mich.) Middle School PE teacher John Dunlop. “We lose the affective and the emotional things. The emotional fitness that kids get out of it is as important as the physical fitness.” Read More

PE fundraiser
/By IHT Spirit/ Shared Content/ • • • /0 Comments

Ready, set, go: running step in step during PE fundraiser for technology

Originally published June 18, 2018 in the Murray Journal.

By Julie Slama

Liberty Elementary’s Carlos Nieto-Rosales set a goal — to be the first fourth-grader to cross the finish line at his school’s fun run.

In preparation, he not only ran with his class and trained through physical education, but he played soccer three times a week and found time to run around his neighborhood doing both sprints and some distance workouts he created himself.

“I don’t want to stop running,” he said. “I want to make my mom and dad proud.”  Read More

physical activity
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Implementing physical activity in schools is important for mental health

Originally published June 22, 2018 in Medical News Bulletin.

By Maor Bernshtein

A recent opinion article in JAMA Psychiatry discusses the mental health benefits of implementing regular physical activity in the educational system.

Physical exercise has long been known to be associated with significant improvements in individuals’ mental health and cognitive functioning. In fact, physical activity can reduce stress, improve depressive symptoms, and more. Late adolescence, including individuals who are 15 to 19 years old, is a period specifically characterized by increased stress and an increase in mental health problems, which are likely to persist and reach a peak in early adulthood. As such, physical activity is especially important during late adolescence. Read More