Working out step by step
Pedometers motivate Jewell Elementary students to stay active
By Sheila G. Miller / The Bulletin
Published: November 06. 2009 4:00AM PST
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Olivia Muno, 10, plays with a ball along with her fourth-grade classmates in physical education class Monday at Jewell Elementary. PE teacher Collin Brooks is trying to increase students' activity levels by using pedometers in class.
Photos by Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
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The days of dodgeball and steal the bacon may have passed, but physical education class is still a workout, at least at Jewell Elementary in Bend.
Collin Brooks, the school's PE teacher, has implemented a new program at the school that seeks to measure how much activity students are getting, and he's hopeful that by using the new program he'll be able to get his students into better shape.
That's why on Monday morning as a class of fourth-graders rushed into the gym, Brooks told them to grab pedometers and clip them to their pants.
Then it was time to start skipping.
For the next half hour, the students rarely stopped moving. They skipped and jogged, did jumping jacks and slid around the gym while music blared in the background.
The class moved quickly through a variety of activities, never giving students a chance to get bored. First, it was a game called follow the monkey, in which the kids did whatever activity their peer holding a plastic monkey chose. Then they moved onto a dice game, in which the students rolled a die and then did the corresponding activity. Sometimes they jogged in place; other times it was push-ups. Soon they moved to bouncing and setting balls in the air.
The pedometers were purchased through a $1,797 grant from the Education Foundation for Bend-La Pine Schools.
“The ultimate goal of the program is to educate students (about) the benefits of lifetime health and wellness,” Brooks said. “Pedometers (are) a great way for students to measure their steps, activity time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.”
More than that, Brooks hopes the information will help him improve his teaching and keep his kids working hard throughout class. By spring, when he conducts a post-test for each of the students, he hopes they will be engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for at least 60 percent of the class and engaged in activity time for at least 90 percent of the class.
“It helps me be checking to see what I teach through the year,” Brooks said. “I just try to keep my students really engaged.”
Brooks plans to use the pedometers at the start and again at the end of the year. They're also available to students during recess as part of a program called Safe Recess. The school has partnered with Central Oregon Community College, and students from the college are helping run recess games that will keep kids moving.
“We want to increase their physical activity and decrease (behavior) referrals that happen at recess,” Brooks said.
By the time the kids' half-hour gym class was over on Monday, many were breathing hard. Others had sweat glistening on their foreheads. Almost every one of them wore a smile.
And only at the end of class did Brooks explain why the students were wearing pedometers.
“It counts how many steps you take, how much exercise you've done,” he told the students as they crowded the center of the gym floor. “We're going to wear these throughout the year.”
He invited the fourth-graders to open their pedometers and see how many steps they'd recorded. Then he reminded the students that walking a mile was equal to about 2,000 steps.
The kids turned to one another to compare their step counts.
“I had 2,210,” said James Otto, 9, after class.
Aubrie Barnes, 9, had about 1,500.
“I like the games,” she said of her time in gym class.
Skyler Peterman, 9, said he preferred the push-ups.
“It's not really hard,” he said, explaining that he hadn't felt like he was exerting himself in gym class that day.
His pedometer, which had more than 2,000 steps on it, told a different story.
“It's kind of cool to know how many steps you take,” James said. “You can see how hard you're working.”
Sheila G. Miller can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.
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