PE teacher Kelly Nordlund reviews a student's heart rate report after a class.
Teachers Choose IHT Heart Rate Monitors for the Immediate Feedback to Students
Teachers love the immediate delivery of data because it improves their ability to objectively assess each student. Students soak up the information because it is specific to them: their performance isn’t viewed relative to the other students in the class whose fitness level or athleticism may vary significantly from their own.
“It’s good, immediate feedback for the kids and it’s heart-rate specific to them,” Kelly Nordlund, PE Teacher at Glen Crest Middle School (Ill.), said. “Regardless of your fitness level, your target heart rate zone is tailored to you. If you are an elite soccer player, you can be zipping around our field and barely get into the yellow zone. But that’s because your cardiovascular fitness is crazy good and you can sustain what you’re doing.”
Nordlund talks with students constantly about the feedback and the significance of what people of all ages can learn from technology such as a heart rate monitor. Using the same type of technology that their parents use when they work out is invaluable.
“We try to relate the value of this to the kids,” she said. “Their parents spend thousands of dollars a year going to health clubs and classes and working out, and you are getting it for free in your school day. We are really trying to change the picture of PE. I want to hit home with them how important their health is, the lifelong aspect of this. That’s what I’m really hoping they take away from our classes – the importance of getting active and staying active.”
Many students already understand heart rate monitors and even wear watches that have fitness functions. The difference between those devices and IHT’s heart rate monitor, which was built specifically for educational environments, is the data delivery. Teachers don’t have to wonder if students will seek out workout data for themselves. Knowing the student has the same information enables the teacher to provide personalized instruction vital in large group training and motivates students to get active and fit.
“I see students all day who have their own monitor,” Australian PE teacher Shane Stubbs said. “I say ‘hands up if you’ve ever looked at the dashboard on the app or on that website?’ Then I ask, ‘how many of you know what it means?’ None of them do.”
Teaching Students to Understand, Then Seek, Key Metrics
But the more students look at the reports that come from their IHT heart rate monitors, the more they’ll be conditioned to seek out information they consider key. For teachers helping students develop the exercise habits that lead to a healthy, active lifestyle that information starts with minutes of MVPA and working toward Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
“The kids having this technology so young is very exciting,” Fort Lupton Middle School health teacher Lindsay Yost said. “They’ll be able to take that knowledge and use it as an adult.”
Today’s students may not be using IHT heart rate monitors as adults, but they’re getting primers on how to use heart rate technology to help them stay healthy as adults. More than just closing the exercise ring on their Apple watch, they’ll look inside the activity they chose to get them there.
“Whether they are trying to run a 5K or cycling or doing triathlons or playing a pickup basketball game, whatever it may be, as an adult, having the knowledge and the desire to know how a heart rate monitor works will be a huge skill set that they can carry on with them,” Yost concluded.
Boost Student Wellness with IHT ZONE heart rate monitors:
