PE teachers meet and learn at PSU

  Friday, October 31, 2014 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

According to the 2014 U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, published by the National Physical Activity Plan Alliance, American kids get a D- in overall physical activity.

About 500 people who are dedicated to changing that unhappy statistic filled the PSU Student Recreation Center this week.

The annual convention of the Kansas Association of Heath, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KAHPERD) met at PSU where attendees chose from more than 65 workshops and sessions on a wide range of topics ranging from including technology in their PE classrooms to learning fun and interesting games to keep their students moving.

Scott Gorman, a professor in PSU’s Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation and an organizer for the convention, said the most important function of the convention is to share information.

“We want people to be teaching our children the latest and greatest information that’s available about health, wellness, nutrition,” Gorman said.

Cole Shewmake, an assistant professor in HHPR, taught one session on “Chinese jump rope,” an activity that involves a long string tied in a circle around the ankles of two players while a third jumps patterns around the strings.

Shewmake said it’s important to find new and creative ways to make old activities fun and “cool” for kids.

“When you get to middle and upper elementary school, the boys kind of see (regular jump rope) as a girls’ activity,” Shewmake said. “The third, fourth, fifth grade boys really like Chinese jump rope.”

As important as physical education is for the good health of students, it is also an integral part of the academic day, Shewmake said.

“PE is a very important subject for a kid developmentally,” Shewmake said. “There’s been a lot of research that shows that the more active we are, the better we learn things. When you can incorporate any kind of activity or movement into learning, that’s pretty important to the development of the child.”

That was a sentiment echoed by Dustin Parks, a PE teacher at Claude Hyuck Elementary School in Kansas City, Kan. Hyuck said he believed that students need physical activity if they’re going to do well on the increasing number of tests they’re expected to take.

He said many PE teachers are concerned that as schools work to meet the demands placed on them, the importance of regular physical education may be overlooked.

“PE teachers are worried that they’re going to overlook the fact that if you’re not physically active, you’re not mentally active. You’re going to lose the ability to think and process information,” Parks said.

He said he was excited to take back some of the new tricks and techniques back to his own classrooms.

“It’s about trying to find ways to change the old and make it new,” Parks said. “You have to have something that grabs (the kids’) attention,” Parks said. “We don’t get them for a whole lot during the week so we have to make sure it’s exciting for the time we have them.”

He said it was also inspirational to be around so many other PE teachers.

“It’s nice to see how many people are excited about what I teach, besides just me,” Parks said.