PE circuit training
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PE Circuit Training Drives Lower Overall BMI at IDEA Schools

IDEA Public Schools Network’s Personalized Learning Program Improves Student Fitness Through Heart Rate Training

Working with the PE teachers throughout the IDEA Public Schools network, PE Curriculum Director Eren Kirksey enacted a plan to use PE circuit training lessons to lower the average Body Mass Index score of IDEA’s 44,000 students.

“Every PE class that you go to now has a [circuit-training] system in place,” Kirksey said. “We’re starting to see that employed categorically. In our highest performing classes, you’re going to see that the teacher has manipulated the environment to enable students to move more freely, which lets them get in their target heart rate zones quicker and stay there longer.” Read More

SEL
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PE Teacher’s Fitness Assessments Link SEL Mastery And Academics

Linking Social-Emotional Learning Competencies With Fitness Data, Physical Education Teacher Uses Assessment Program To Improve Students’ Overall Academic Performance

Bolstered by new software that simplifies data collection, a South Dakota teacher implemented a strategy to assess and improve her students’ Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) skills through her physical education program.

Cheryl Miller, a Personal Health and Wellness teacher, spearheaded an effort to add new heart rate monitors and assessment software to the Mitchell Middle School (Mitchell, SD) curriculum last year, but she wanted to do more than simply collect and analyze heart rate data as she’d done in the past. Miller spent part of last summer developing tools to help define the relationship between her students’ social and emotional development and their classroom performance. Read More

physical education
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Keeping the physical in physical education

Originally published Feb. 26, 2018 in the Richmond & Twickenham Times.

By Ciara Cannell, Ursuline High School

‘Intensive exercise improves the academic performance of teenagers, according to new research’ says the BBC, which is only one advantage of sport. The release of serotonin regulates mood and sleep patterns which is beneficial to a child’s life inside and outside of school.

The British Heart Foundation stated nearly a third of children in Britain are overweight or obese, yet 79 percent of parents with an overweight child do not recognise that they are. Attitudes towards sports in schools may need to change, or future generations could suffer the consequences. Read More