Whole Child Education

We know that students do better in school when they are emotionally and physically healthy. They miss fewer classes, are less likely to engage in risky or antisocial behavior, concentrate more, and achieve higher test scores. Physical education (PE) programs not only improve physical fitness, but they can also benefit students by improving skill development, reinforcing self-discipline, supporting academic achievement, reducing stress, strengthening peer relationships, improving self-confidence and self-esteem, and teaching goal setting.

Glen Edwards Middle School (GEMS) in Lincoln, Calif., a suburb of Sacramento, emphasizes personal growth and development with transfer value to leisure time activity in its PE program. According to the GEMS website, "The program enhances mental, physical, and ethical growth and develops social interaction skills as well as fitness and motor skills. A feeling of respect for the mind and body and confidence in one's ability to function effectively is a prime goal of our program. Individuals who feel good about themselves are more at ease in whatever they try to do."

In this video, GEMS students test their skills on a ropes course, building confidence, trust, and team spirit—all while having fun!

According to the California Content Standards in Physical Education,

Physical education is an integral part of the education program for all students. It teaches students how their bodies move and how to perform a variety of physical activities. Students learn the health-related benefits of regular physical activity and the skills to adopt a physically active, healthy lifestyle. The discipline also provides learning experiences that meet the developmental needs of students. With high-quality physical education instruction, students become confident, independent, self-controlled, and resilient; develop positive social skills; set and strive for personal, achievable goals; learn to assume leadership; cooperate with others; accept responsibility for their own behavior; and, ultimately, improve their academic performance.

The model content standards provide opportunities for teachers to reinforce student learning in all areas of the curriculum. The standards link the content in physical education with content in English–language arts, science, mathematics, and history–social science, thereby establishing and emphasizing the many connections between the subjects.

The middle school content standards emphasize working cooperatively to achieve a common goal, meeting challenges, making decisions, and working as a team to solve problems. How does your school engage students through PE to learn these skills?

Join authors, educators, and differentiated instruction experts Carol Ann Tomlinson and Marcia Imbeau for a free webinar on their book, Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011, 4:00 p.m. ET
Register now!

The prospect of "managing" a classroom of young learners is daunting to most teachers at the outset of their careers. Over time, most teachers become at least somewhat more comfortable with "managing" students. Nonetheless, "classroom management" remains a key impediment to using differentiated instruction for many, if not most, teachers both veteran and novice. Use this webinar as a way of reflecting on your own classroom or classrooms in your school or district and to strengthen your understanding of what it means to be both leader and a manager in a setting designed to address the learning needs of all students in the classroom.

The webinar will explore three critical questions that may inhibit teacher confidence in establishing classrooms that are flexible enough to attend to the range of learning needs of students in those classrooms:

• What is the difference between leading students and managing them?
• What are some steps in effectively leading students?
• What are some strategies for managing the details required for effective and efficient differentiation?

Connect with Tomlinson on her website, and follow her on Twitter. Connect with Imbeau by e-mailing her at mimbeau@uark.edu.

You can find forthcoming and archived ASCD webinars at www.ascd.org/webinars.

Post submitted by Andrew Miller, an international consultant who works independently and for groups such as the Buck Institute for Education and Abeo School Change (formally known as the Small Schools Project). He has taught both online and in the brick-and-mortar setting, incorporating his core tenets of culturally responsive teaching, project-based learning, and game-based learning. Connect with Miller on Twitter @betamiller.

Physical education (PE) can be a place where relevant and authentic learning can occur. I think project-based learning (PBL) is one way to not only create this, but to also show others how valuable PE can be. When done well, PBL gives students a relevant and authentic task—a problem or challenge—that they, as a team and as individuals, must explore and solve. Instead of a project that is a curriculum add-on or completed at the end, the standards-based instruction is filtered through this authentic task, which creates a need to know in students. They see why they are learning what they are learning. The students learn and complete the project concurrently, continually revising and producing a product that they will present publicly.

In my visits to classrooms across the country, I have seen some great projects that teachers have created and implemented. I am continually inspired and amazed by what they create. We "steal" from each other and use each other's ideas in our own classrooms. In this spirit of stealing, here is an example of a PE PBL project filtered through the "Seven Essential Elements of Project-Based Learning," a framework for inquiry shared by my Buck Institute for Education colleagues John Larner and John R. Mergendoller in a recent Educational Leadership article. Steal this project and use it in your classroom!

1. Need to Know

A group of high school students were presented with a letter from the local middle school principal. The letter asked them to create the best exercise program for the middle school students. They were asked to create sample PE units for the teachers and students and present their ideas to a panel of teachers, administrators, and other experts. They were also required to create, through their own participation and physical activity, data that proved physical exercise was occurring.

What a task to ask of high school students, and they had a lot of questions! What is a good PE unit? What do middle students like to do in PE? What are the goals of PE? These were all questions generated by the students. They had to engage in research, both online and in person, in order to accomplish this authentic task and present it to a real audience.

2. A Driving Question

For this project, students were trying to answer the question, How can we create the best exercise program for middle school students? All the work was geared toward this question. Students were reminded of the question in their daily lessons. It helped them answer the question, Why are you doing this today? when administrators, teachers, and other stakeholders visited the classroom.

3. Student Voice and Choice

Students were allowed a variety of opportunities to choose how they wanted to show their learning, but they were still graded on the same standards and learning objectives. Traditionally, teachers dictate all parts of the assessment, rather than give students power of how they can show their learning. If students are given voice and choice, they are engaged and empowered to perform the task.

For this project, each group was allowed to choose its PE unit, whether it was focused on a racket sport, conditioning, or a combination. However, they had to prove that this unit would meet the needs of physical education, whether the needs were created by the PE teacher or to align with specific standards and learning targets. In addition to the group work, each student was required to create another engaging PE unit for middle school students, but showcase it in a format of each student's choice (for example, podcasts, videos, flyers, or demonstrations). This ensures accountability of the same learning targets for both the group and the individual.

4. 21st Century Skills

Students were engaged in two 21st century skills: collaboration and presentation. Unlike group work, which is activity based, they would work together to create something over a few weeks. Rather than one day, they would engage in collaboration like professionals in the workforce. These skills are valuable across disciplines and in the postgraduate world. Teachers trained students to do these skills well, whether in a team-building activity in PE class or help from the drama teacher in the art of presentation.

5. Inquiry and Innovation

Because the task is authentic and open-ended, students are constantly engaged in the inquiry process. They are finding and being armed by the teacher with the information they need to accomplish the task. Students are also creating something new. It is not simply a regurgitation of knowledge, but instead using that knowledge and newly created data to design an innovative PE unit.

6. Feedback and Revision

The students had to test-drive each other's units, which meant they were engaged in a variety of physical activities. However, they were also looking for feedback from their peers, from teachers, and from the middle school students. They learned that continuous improvement is possible, and that revision is a great thing to do.

7. A Publicly Presented Product

Students presented to a high-stakes audience, both for the individual and group products. They shared their data, demonstrated their units, engaged in persuasive rhetoric, and shared the stage with each other. After the presentations, there was a sense of relief as well as a sense of accomplishment. They had successfully completed a project that they would remember for the rest of high school. Not only that, but they came to their own understandings of many PE content standards, as well the importance and need for a physical education program.

I encourage physical educators to think about the possibilities with PBL. The project can be geared toward any standard and any audience. Its focus can be narrow or broad, and it can last anywhere from several days to several months. The payoff is engagement. Students will see the relevance for their learning in PE through the authentic task of a PBL project. You must give up power in order to empower your students; empower them in their physical education.

This year has seen a lot of debate, scrutiny, and op-eds on and around education. And physical education (PE) has not been absent from this debate. More often than not, it has been those education leaders or commentators who believe that we need to increase our emphasis on standardized testing who have led the criticism of PE, physical activity (PA), and even recess.

For example, Jay Mathews, an educational journalist from The Washington Post, wrote an article in December 2009 denouncing the worth of PE:

The bill's physical education requirements are its worst part—a nifty-sounding reform that many of the District's best principals and teachers will declare one of the dumbest ideas they ever heard.

At the moment, D.C. students from kindergarten through 8th grade have two P.E. periods a week of 45 minutes each. High-schoolers need just a semester and a half of a similar P.E. regime to graduate. The new bill would require every public school student in kindergarten through 5th grade to have 150 minutes of P.E. (30 minutes a day). Sixth- through 8th-graders would be required to take 225 minutes (45 a day).

Why is this a bad idea? Because, as Mathews puts it, it would reduce time—or rather not allow more time to be dedicated—for academics, saying "I know we haven't finished that chapter yet, kids, but hey, it's time for push-ups." Previously, Mathews had followed a similar vein regarding recess where he stated that he "realize[s] most people don't know how poisonous recess can be for urban schools with severe academic needs...."

This year Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City's public schools, appeared on the The View. When the conversation turned to the issue of merit pay for teachers, he said, "I have to pay math teachers and science teachers the same as I pay my physical education teachers," a statement that, in context, suggested that math and science teachers should earn more than PE teachers.

Many education leaders spoke out against Klein's comments and in defense of PE and PA, including Paul Roetert, CEO of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance:

We believe, and scientific research supports, that educating the "whole child" is vital to a child's overall academic success. Studies have shown that regular physical activity improves academic performance. The solution to improving our nation's public education system is not to pit one teacher against another by claiming that one is more important than the other, and should thus earn more. The solution is creating an environment that motivates all teachers to be the best they can be, that honors and rewards our outstanding teachers, that improves the status of the teaching profession, and that acknowledges that academic success is built from achievement in all subjects, including physical education.

Charles Basch, a guest on this month's Whole Child Podcast on PE, Recess, and Beyond: The Implications of Movement, outlines many of the beneficial links of PA and health to academic achievement in his outstanding publication Healthier Students Are Better Learners:

If children can't see well, if their eyes do not integrate properly with their brain and motor systems, they will have difficulty acquiring the basic and essential academic skills associated with reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics. If their ability to concentrate, use memory, and make decisions is impeded by ill-nourishment or sedentary lifestyle, if they are distracted by negative feelings, it will be more difficult for them to learn and succeed in school. If their relationships at school with peers and teachers are negative, they will be less likely to be connected with and engaged in school, and therefore less motivated and able to learn. If they are not in school, because of uncontrolled asthma or because they are afraid to travel to or from school, they will miss teaching and learning opportunities. If they drop out, perhaps because they are failing or faltering; or because they are socialized to believe that, even if they complete school, there will be no better opportunities; or because they associate with peers who do not value school; or because they become pregnant and there are no resources in place that enable them to complete school while pregnant and after they have a newborn, it is not likely that they can succeed. If they cannot focus attention and succeed socially, it is unlikely that they will succeed academically. (p. 77)

And, as Basch stated on the podcast, "If you see the goal of schools as trying to help young people grow and develop as healthy people, as well as educated people, then paying attention to physical activity as well as other dimensions of health is an important part of that overall development."

So why do we need PE, PA, and even recess? Is it just about giving students a break from academics? Is it just about developing fitter kids who can then do better on standardized testing? Or are PE and PA key to developing us as whole individuals—socially, emotionally, mentally, and physically as well as cognitively?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion works to improve health and well-being by developing and promoting dietary guidance that links scientific research to the nutrition needs of consumers. MyPyramid, the educational tool that replaced the Food Guide Pyramid in 2005, includes guidelines on finding a balance between food and physical activity.

"Physical activity and nutrition work together for better health. Being active increases the amount of calories burned. As people age their metabolism slows, so maintaining energy balance requires moving more and eating less," advises MyPyramid. It is recommended that children and teenagers should have a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day.

But a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that as children grow older they are becoming less active, and many do not meet the recommended guidelines. Researchers believe factors such as increased traffic, neighborhoods with fewer parks, and cuts in school recess have an effect. The concern is the potential for childhood obesity and a host of health problems children could possibly face into adulthood if the trend is not reversed.

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that children and teenagers get the physical activity they need?

News

Survey: Only 23 Percent Want Feds to Set Child Nutrition Standards: A Rasmussen Reports survey of U.S. adults found that 23 percent said the federal government should set nutritional standards for public schools, while 31 percent said they want parent-teacher groups to do it and 17 percent said it should be left to state governments. Data showed that 53 percent of adults said they followed reports about the childhood-nutrition law at least somewhat closely.

More States Are Allowing PE Waivers or Substitutions: The number of states that allow students to substitute extracurricular activities or otherwise opt out of physical education has increased since 2006 from 27 to 32, data show. One physical education professor says a push for students to take more academic courses and districts' efforts to save money are behind the trend, which occurs amid greater worry about childhood obesity.

Better Grades May Mean Better Health: Findings from a study published in the December Journal of Health and Social Behavior support already existing evidence that links higher student achievement with long-term health. The study shows that not only is there a correlation between greater educational attainment and physical well-being, but also that a higher level of academic performance proved to be a significant factor as well. Read more.

Resources

Promising District Practices: Are you looking for strategies that schools and districts across the United States are using to effectively address school health? The National School Boards Association's (NSBA) Promising District Practices website shares success stories addressing a wide range of school health–related policies and practices in a practical and easily accessible way.

Enhancing Student Learning by Supporting a Coordinated Approach to Health: Whole Child Partners NSBA and the American School Health Association (ASHA), with ASHA's Council for Administrative Support for School Health, have developed parallel documents to help school boards and administrators enhance student learning by supporting a coordinated approach to health. The documents can be used to communicate how school board and administrator support for a coordinated approach to health contributes to academic achievement and why and how school leaders should have a coordinated approach to the health of students.

Youth Substance Use Interventions: Where Do They Fit Into a School's Mission? This report addresses differences between use and abuse and briefly summarizes some major issues and data relevant to substance use and treatment of abuse and dependency. It also highlights the importance of adopting a broad perspective in understanding the causes of substance problems seen at schools.

Take Action

Reducing Risk Behaviors by Promoting Positive Youth Development: The National Institutes of Health is offering grants to institutions and organizations that "propose to enhance our understanding of effective positive youth development programs and the mechanisms responsible for positive health and developmental outcomes." Award amounts vary and eligible applicants are public or state controlled or private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) IRS status; for-profit organizations; and various other organizations, including non-U.S. entities. Deadline: February 5, 2011.

School Employee Wellness Awards Program: The Directors of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE)is now accepting applications for the 2010–11 School Employee Wellness Awards Program that recognizes schools and school districts that implement school employee wellness programs. Monetary awards will be granted in the amounts of $250 (bronze), $500 (silver), and $1,000 (gold) to be reinvested in their employee wellness programs. Review an archived webinar from DHPE that further explains the grant application process. Application materials must be postmarked by February 1, 2011.

Get Green With Planet Connect: Interested in integrating environmental health awareness into your school? Planet Connect announces the 2011 Get Green Video Contest. In partnership with the Leaders of Environmental Action Films, the Get Green Video Contest is asking U.S. high school students to make a 30–120 second video that shows how everyday actions impact the ocean. Deadline: February 23, 2011.

Healthy School Communities is a worldwide ASCD effort to promote the integration of health and learning and the benefits of school-community collaboration. It is part of a large, multiyear plan to shift public dialogue about education from a narrow, curriculum-centric and accountability system focus to a whole child approach that encompasses all factors required for successful student outcomes. Visit the Healthy School Communities group on ASCD EDge and share everything from ideas and solutions to common concerns.

This article has been reposted with permission from Whole Child Partner SPARK. SPARK is a research-based organization that disseminates evidence-based physical education, after school, early childhood, and coordinated school health programs to teachers and recreation leaders serving Pre-K through 12th grade students worldwide. Visit www.sparkpe.org for more information and additional blog posts.

In February of this year, First Lady Michelle Obama presented her ambitious Let’s Move campaign to battle the terrifying childhood obesity epidemic. Lady Obama was inspired not only from her family and children’s lifestyle, but also by some startling obesity statistics that have been gathered by medical researchers over the past thirty years.

A child is considered obese if their BMI (Body Mass Index) is 30 or higher, and this BMI level in anyone, especially children has the potential to cause very severe health issues. Recent studies using DEXA scanning devices show that this number is probably much higher than originally thought. There is no better time to solve the obesity issues among America’s children, and the adults of every generation.

• Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years. In 1980, the obesity rate of 6-11 year olds was 6.5%, in 2008 had tripled to 19.6%. For toddlers and preschoolers aged 2-5, the obesity levels have risen from 5% to 12.4% in the same amount of time.

(Image Source)

• If both parents are overweight, a child’s likelihood of being overweight is increased by 60-80%. The chance of an obese child growing into an obese adult is about 70%. Children perceive the number one immediate issue of being overweight is social discrimination, as reported by overweight children. This has the ability to prevent them from exercising with other children, which leads to antisocial and depressive tendencies, as well as lifetime psychological effects.

• There are a number of serious health conditions that arise from obesity, especially when a person’s joints and arteries are being challenged at such a young age. Some of the main illnesses that become incredibly more likely to occur due to childhood obesity include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, gall bladder disease and asthma.

(Image Source)

1. Heart Disease: One of the biggest killers in America today, heart disease prevention is very important in early life. Obese children that grow to obese adults carry the increased risks of heart disease with them.
2. Type 2 Diabetes: Also known as adult-onset diabetes, the two main causes of this disease are related to an unhealthy lifestyle: lack of physical exercise, and obesity. Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 does not generally have a genetic cause.
3. Arthritis: While most arthritic patients are older, obese children can develop this disorder due to excessive weight and pressure on growing joints and bones.
4. Asthma: Obesity often affects lung capacity, which can create dangerous and disconcerting asthma attacks.

• The cost of obesity is high. Not only are there lifelong health issues to consider, but those who are obese pay an average 30% more in health costs, and 77% more in medication costs. It requires more foods that are high in “empty” calories to provide energy, and larger meals in general are much more expensive.

Reasons Behind the Numbers

Many studies on current lifestyles have drawn a number of conclusions. It is generally accepted that a combination of poor lifestyle choices has greatly contributed to these disturbing numbers.

1. Kids are eating more empty calories than ever before. Rather than healthy fruits and veggies and nutritious snacks and lunches, parents are serving processed snacks and various forms of high fructose corn syrup. Schools do not generally provide healthy food options, and kids with meal assistance plans have no choice but to consume unhealthy food items. Even kids with options often have an array of processed snacks, fried foods, sweets and sodas to purchase, and very few healthy options.
2. Forms of entertainment have drastically changed. Just a few decades ago, kids spent the majority of their time playing outside with other kids from their neighborhood, or with their siblings in the backyard. Now they spend their time playing video games, watching television, and sitting in front of their computers.
3. Physical education budgets in many school districts have taken huge hits. Programs such as the No Child Left Behind Act have begun to engulf exercise and activity time such as PE and recess. Low budgets have led to fewer teachers and less equipment for gym class and after school physical activities. Many schools now have to charge nominal fees for the students to participate in school sports. The less fortunate cannot afford these fees and are forced to opt out. The old strenuous and fun PE games for adolescents are being replaced by less-stimulating games that do not require the active involvement of all participants.
4. Today’s children spend much more time in cars than ever before. They are much less likely to walk to school, the bus stop, or the park. They don’t bike a few miles to get to the pool in the summer, and they don’t jog to the local ballpark. Parents no longer walk their kids to their friends’ houses anymore, but rather drive them a few blocks away due to time constraints or safety reasons.

(Image Source)

News

Schools Prepare for Likely Implementation of Child-Nutrition Law: Some Colorado schools are preparing to implement the new Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act, which is expected to be signed into law by President Barack Obama. If approved, the law will increase the free-lunch subsidy for schools that improve nutrition standards. Some people are concerned the additional funding may not be enough for schools to meet the bill's goals, and restricting unhealthy items typically sold in school vending machines could affect schools' fund-raising.

Read more »

Download Podcast Now [Right-Click to Save]

Join us throughout December and January as we explore why physical activity and physical education (PA & PE) are critical to educating the whole child. We'll examine the research about the need for PA & PE; explore some of the recent criticism; examine the relationship between PA & PE and academic achievement, engagement, and social and emotional health and learning; and consider how physical activity can be expanded across the day.

This episode of the Whole Child Podcast starts our PA & PE conversation with moderator Sean Slade, director of ASCD Healthy School Communities, and guests

• Charles Basch, Richard March Hoe Professor of Health Education at Columbia University, who shares research that confirms healthier students are better learners.
• Charlene Burgeson, executive director of the National Association of Sport and Physical Education (a whole child partner) and Let's Move in School, who discusses ways that schools and communities can support physical activity throughout the day.
• George Svejda, a physical education teacher at Sargent Shriver Elementary, in Montgomery County, Md., who talks about his experience developing students not only physically but also cognitively, socially, and emotionally.

Have you seen a decrease in physical activity and physical education in your school and community? What is the effect on young people in your life?

Post submitted by Elizabeth M. Peterson, a fourth grade teacher, host of The Inspired Classroom, and author of Inspired by Listening: Actively Listening to Music While Teaching Your Curriculum. Connect with Peterson on Twitter @eliza_peterson and @inspired_clsrm.

Educators need to do more than teach; they need to create experiences for their students. Experiences are what make learning come alive. Let's face it, experiences are what life is made of and what we need to emphasize in our classrooms if we are to teach the whole child. The arts provide a wonderful way to bring experiences into your teaching.

Creating, acting, playing, listening, performing, molding, dancing: these are all ways to bring the arts into your teaching and when you take the time to stop and really focus on these, you are allowing your students to share in an experience and amazing things can happen in your classroom.

There are two main ways to allow for experiences in your teaching: teacher-led and student-led. Both are effective, both are important, and both need to live in harmony with one another to truly have a well rounded curriculum.

Teacher-Led Experiences

It's important for teachers to lead students through the creative process through art making. This is one way students learn: FROM us. We may assign a project, teach a process or skill, or create a time for students to share in collaborative creation.

When I was a novice teacher, experimenting with art integration, I focused on what I loved—music. I allowed time during our day to listen to music together. This method of music integration through listening experiences is something I still do with my students every day. It's an enjoyable time for us to share ideas about the music and discuss our interpretations of it. I ask my students guiding questions that will help them to listen more carefully and enjoy the experience more with each listening. From time to time, these shared experiences are used to enrich other parts of our curriculum. For example, if we are about to write some poetry or a narrative, we could use the music we are listening to as inspiration.

Another example of a teacher-led experience would be to accompany a book review with a piece of artwork. This artwork should not just be a simple picture that is tagged on at the end of the paper, but a well thought-out illustration. A clear purpose would be given to the assignment, for example, "The main character in the story has conflicting feelings. You are going to draw an illustration of how the character feels at some point in the story. You may use any medium you desire as long as your illustration is flat and fits on this size paper." Then ample time needs to be given so that students can really work on and edit their work. There is also the opportunity to draw attention to students' use of color, design, and setting and to emphasize the importance of details in their work.

With teacher-led experiences, you are exposing students to new things and rounding them out as individuals. My students become well-versed in Beethoven and Glenn Miller, they also become comfortable splattering a little paint. This may mean that some of them are working out of their comfort zone. That's OK! Allowing for this time and giving students these experiences is what students will remember and take with them for years to come.

Student-Led Experiences

Think of the times when students are asked to express their learning through a medium they choose. Maybe they want to create a paper-mache relief map for geography, perform a skit to retell a story, or write a song about erosion. These types of experiences are student-led, giving students a chance to explore something they choose.

I have had students come up to me and express an interest in putting on a play about Martin Luther King Jr. The topic and the art form were interests for this group of girls. My job wasn’t to provide them with a script and a plan, instead it was to give them the space, time, and encouragement they needed.

Sometimes it can be hard to allow students to take the reigns or to give that extra attention or time to stop and listen to their ideas, but we have to do it. Our job is to foster their curiosity and creativity and allowing them to take the lead on their learning every so often is a must!

Student-led experiences allow the students to explore what they know, learn what they are comfortable with, and give them a chance to challenge themselves as creative beings. We can't possibly be experts on all our students. We need to empower them with the trust that they will do what is right for them from time to time.

It's with a balance of teacher- and student-led experiences that a students' whole self is nourished. In what ways do you create these experiences for your students?