In an unfinished weight room at Lawrence South Junior High, 15 physical education students work out to the beat of a blasting radio. Some sit on workout balls in the middle of the room lifting dumbbells in synchronization to the pulse of the pop song. Others hop through multi-colored jump ropes, creating their own wild tempo of taps. The rest ride stationary bicycles, adding a whirring sound to the cacophony of noises.
Miranda Rohn, 13, an eighth-grader at South, is part of the crowd. Wearing her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and the standard black shorts, sneakers and white T-shirt with her name etched in permanent marker on the front, she laughs as she jumps through a green jump rope. Rohn is part of PE Plus!, an elective PE class started at Lawrence junior high schools this semester.
"I love PE. I really like going in the weight room, sitting on the workout balls, and jumping rope," she said.
Eighth and ninth-graders who want to take an extra semester of PE can choose PE Plus! as an elective. Before this class, students could take only one semester of PE for each of their three years of junior high school or be a PE teacher's aide if they wanted to take it for a year. Students must have received a "C" or better in their regular PE classes in order to take PE Plus!
David Lawrence, PE Plus! teacher at Lawrence South Junior High School, said he thought the class was a good idea.
"Adolescents need to move around. They're natural wigglers," he said.
Matt Grom, 14, a ninth-grader at South, also likes the class.
"Regular PE just wasn't enough," he said.
PE Plus! is different from regular PE classes because it gives the students more leadership opportunities. In his class, Lawrence picks different students to lead warm-up exercises every day. The leaders get to choose how many sit-ups, push-ups and other exercises their classmates have to do.
"Seventy-five percent of the time, they choose a number higher than I would," he said.
The class also promotes safety and stresses a higher level of physical fitness. Lawrence said the students do about 30 percent more exercises and running than in regular PE classes.
"I always say their attitudes ought to be about 30 percent better as well," he said.
Rohn agreed. She said another reason she liked the class was because everyone wanted to be there.
"We all have fun," she said. "No one says, 'I don't want to go to PE.'"
Julie Miller, PE teacher at Lawrence West Junior High School who originally proposed the class to the Board of Education, said she started the class in order to give kids more options for physical activity.
"Obviously the entire obesity problem has fitness on everyone's minds," she said.
A study conducted by the National Health Center for Statistics from 1999 to 2002 found that 16 percent of children aged 6 to 19 years old are overweight, compared with 11 percent from 1988 to 1994.
Mark Thompson, the
project director for the Kansas Coordinated School Health Program, said students in
junior high were at a critical age to remain active and to begin to appreciate
fitness activities. He thinks the new PE Plus! class will benefit students.
"We strongly support such
"out-of-the-box" thinking to increased students' activity levels," he said.
Scott Morgan, Lawrence Board of Education vice president, said that the class was also started because a lot of effort had been put in to the nutritional side of children's wellness, but not as much for physical fitness.
"We are still playing catch-up," he said.
Anne Hawks, curriculum specialist in science, health and physical education for Lawrence Public Schools, said the new class did not affect funding for the schools. Schools didn't need to hire any new teachers because PE classes can be combined and taught at the same time.
"That's the great thing about PE," she said.
Emma Oury, 12, a seventh-grader at South taking a regular PE class, sat on the side of the track watching Lawrence's PE Plus! class. She said she plans on taking PE Plus! next year.
"I like PE more than sitting in a classroom," she said.
David Lawrence's class finished off the day with a game of touch football. The students ran around the field in a blur of green and white jerseys, the football flying through the air in between Lawrence's high-pitched whistle blows. After about 20 minutes, Lawrence blew one final long whistle.
"Let's bring it on in," he said.
Leave a comment