November 13, 2024 • 22 mins
This podcast episode delves into the evolution of physical education (PE) and health classes, highlighting a significant shift from traditional, rigorous activities to a more inclusive and skill-focused approach. David Owen engages with Elizabeth Godbee, the Supervisor of Health and Physical Education in Cobb Schools, who emphasizes the importance of teaching fundamental motor skills and adapting lessons to accommodate all students, regardless of their athletic abilities. The conversation explores how PE classes now aim to develop not just physical fitness but also life skills such as goal setting and decision-making, which can positively impact students' academic performance and mental health. Godbee also discusses the district's initiatives to encourage physical activity beyond school hours, including after-school programs and intramural sports, fostering a supportive environment for all students. Listeners will gain insights into the benefits of physical activity and the critical role it plays in holistic student development.
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The Cobb County School District
Takeaways:
- Physical education has evolved from a focus on competition to skills development, emphasizing comfort for all students.
- The impact of physical activity extends beyond fitness, influencing mental health and academic performance positively.
- Teachers adapt physical education assessments to allow individual growth rather than direct comparison among students.
- Parents play a crucial role in encouraging children to stay active outside of school hours.
- Incorporating movement into learning, such as academic movement strategies, enhances student engagement and retention.
- Extracurricular activities, like after-school sports and clubs, provide vital opportunities for physical engagement.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
A loud whistle, short shorts,and a lot of yelling are some of
my PTSD memories of pe. Whatabout you? How PE and health have
changed is this week's episodestarting right now. Hello and welcome
back to the Inside Scoop. I'mDavid Owen. You can watch this podcast
(00:22):
on YouTube or listen to it ona number of podcasting platforms
now, including iHeartpodcasts. Make sure you like, subscribe
and share it with yourfriends. Many of us either have fond
memories of PE and health orwe shudder at the thought. The way
things have been done might befine, but then again, there might
(00:43):
be a better way to educate uson the current state of classes in
PE and health is thesupervisor of Health and Physical
Education, Elizabeth Godbee.Elizabeth, welcome back.
Well, thank you for having me,David. It's such a pleasure to be
here.
It has been a minute.
Yes, it has.
The last time you were on wasJanuary of 2020.
(01:05):
Absolutely. Wow. That's.
And something else happenedjust a month or two later.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we won't go there.
Right? We won't.
So PE and health in Cobbcounty, what are, what are the main
goals of those classes? Wekind of have a feel for the kinds
(01:25):
of things that we do or did, Iguess would be appropriate in my
case. But what is the goal of.Let's just take PE for example.
Yeah, well, I'm glad youasked, David, because health and
PE has really changed. Andbefore it was, you know, just like
(01:46):
you were saying, the shortshorts, the yelling and the screaming.
I'm sorry to bring that up.
No, that's ok. But what we donow is really focus on the skill
of a sport or skill of anactivity, as opposed to just making
sure that you run until youpass out or anything like that. So
we don't do that here at ourdistrict and just focusing on motor
(02:12):
skills, hopping, skipping,jumping, knowing how to throw and
catch, and just thefundamental skills. So those students
who may not, you know, feelcomfortable with the athletic part,
you know, of the. Of the sportor the skill.
Sure.
They can. We can, like, kindof reduce it down to something that
(02:33):
they're comfortable with.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think alsothings have changed through the years,
and I remember being able tohave, like, neighborhood baseball
games, for example.
Right.
Well, for whatever reason, youknow, maybe there's not enough room
to do that. A lot of kids, youknow, maybe you're in apartments
or whatever and just don'thave those opportunities. So is PE
(02:55):
more or less anotheropportunity for that to happen?
Yeah, absolutely. And like yousaid, we met in 2020, the COVID happened.
And it's funny that you saythat, because we had to really adapt,
you know, because no one couldgo outside. And now, you know, we
had to create activities forstudents to be physically active
(03:19):
in the home. You know, sothere were lessons that our teachers
created, you know, to helpthem, like, ball up a. Like a piece
of paper and then they willthrow it in a trash can, you know,
just to formulate the, youknow, the shooting skills and then
also baseball, you know, justlearning how the formation and how
(03:39):
the. How to swing a bat. So weinstead of like, we're not swinging
bats and balls in the house,but we're just doing the mechanism
of swinging a bat in a ball, and.
The brain is actuallydeveloping. Typically middle school.
I'm thinking of middle schoolwhen I think of P.E. i mean, I know
(04:01):
that was that.
The torture part, but that was the.
Time that my therapistaddresses most often. Those T ball
teams, for example, where yousee the kids and they are hilarious
at times.
They are hilarious.
A kid just swinging the bat ata ball on the tee can have a huge
advantage in development ofeven including academics.
(04:24):
Oh, absolutely. So you havethe ball on the tee and then you
have the student or the kidswinging at the bat. And that helps
hand eye coordination. And thehand and eye coordination can roll
over to writing andhandwriting and having meat handwriting.
(04:47):
That's interesting.
Yes, because they're focusingon a smaller target.
Yeah, yeah. Interestingconnection. Well, see, you learn
stuff here. So.
Yes. So PE has really, reallychanged. You know, where it's not.
It's. So it's meaningfulbecause we really focus on the standards
because we know that thosestandards really helps the teacher
(05:08):
as well as the student.
And when you say thestandards, you're talking about like
the state requirements of whatto teach or the COB requirements.
Yeah, they are the state andCOB requirements.
Okay, so let's go a little bitdeeper on that. Okay. We're talking
about the benefits of thephysical activity and how they impact
academics in general. Whatother things are you seeing?
(05:30):
Yeah, so we have our nationaland state standards, and I am happy
to say that our districtreally focuses on the state standards
and our COB standards to makesure that there is strong efficacy,
you know, within our teachersas well as in our students. So we
mentioned standards, and whatour teachers do is that they really
(05:52):
focus on the verbs of thestandard. You know, I can through
learning targets, I can hop,skip, and jump, or I can swing a
manipulative like, such as abat or a tennis Racket, you know,
and when we learn or whenthose teachers teach those particular
(06:12):
standards, those students areable to learn the vocabulary, health
literacy, physical literacy,and then transfer that information,
you know, to their, to theactual activity.
We talk about physicalliteracy. What, what exactly are
we talking about?
When you.
(06:32):
Yes.
So you have different types.Let's talk about high school. Right.
You have your different typesof stretches. Isotonic, isometric.
Right. Okay. So if a teacheris teaching. That's part of the standard.
If they're teaching aboutisometric and isomet stretching,
then that particular studentwill learn that particular vocabulary.
(06:57):
And then, not knowingly, theymay say, hey, I want to get in sports
training, I want to be anathletic trainer. Because it's not
just in physical education,but it stretches out to careers that
has to do with isotonicstretching, isometric stretching,
and, you know, the differentvocabularies for health related fitness
(07:19):
and skill related fitness.
They can help us know whichtype of stretching to do so that
we don't get injured. Is thatkind of.
Absolutely. And so when you'resaying that that's the importance
of the teachers learning thestandards so they can teach the students
the proper form of stretching,you know, more education when it
(07:44):
comes to a exerciseprescription. So let me give you
an example.
Yes, please.
You will have a cross countryrunner. You wouldn't give the same
exercise prescription to across country runner as you would
give to a linebacker or widereceiver. Right. Because the different
stretches and the differentaerobic capacity. Aerobic exercise
(08:09):
is totally different for each student.
So different goals for eachstudent shape what you do.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Andthose goals transfer from the physical
education aspect and then alsothe health education aspect as well.
How can we encourage them tobe active after the bell rings, you
know, in the afternoon, itseems like there's this attraction
(08:31):
to screen time or even naps orwhatever. How can we as parents do
a better job of getting themoutside and getting some activity?
Oh, wow. I'm so glad you askedthat powerful question. So our district
does a very great job intomaking sure that students have after
(08:51):
school activities. So let megive you an example. Like elementary
schools, they have theopportunity to participate in after
school programs. They call it asp.
We used it tremendously.
It was very helpful. So thefocus on that was to make sure kids
are active after school. Andso they would get involved in different
(09:15):
sports activities, differentmoving activities, jump rope, they
even have dance in theelementary aspect of the after school
program. And then you haveyour middle school. Right. So the
parents are able to take theirstudents early to school so they
can participate inintramurals. And intramurals is like
a sidebar to club sports andthe major sports and what they do
(09:39):
in school in the morning inthe gym will have sports like basketball,
soccer, football. And thenthey also have recreational games
such as cornhole. And also.
Do you stretch for that?
Yes, you can stretch for.
Some of us would need to.
There's a method, you know,there is a method of stretching for
(10:00):
Cornhole as well. And then dance.
I think we've gone off therails just a little bit.
Dance.
Sorry.
No worries. Dance and jumprope and things like that, you know,
so we want to offer a varietyfor students. So it's not just for
the athletic students, but youknow, those non athletes that just
want to keep themselves movingand then get their blood pumping
(10:23):
for the day. For middle schooland then, of course, high school,
we have those athletes. So theathletic programs in the. Sometimes
the exercises are in themorning and then the actual sports
are in the afternoon. But Iwant to tag on a little bit about
the parents and how theparents can help their students.
(10:43):
Right. So participating inactivities in the house, you know,
maybe dance activities on, youknow, social media, that's appropriate
for the students that can getthem moving. And then what they learn
in the physical educationclass, they can actually share that
with their parents and maybethe parents can also participate.
(11:06):
Well, right.
Again, it goes back to thestretches. So I think you really.
As long as the parents stretchand make sure that their muscles
are limber enough toparticipate. Absolutely.
So not every kid comes to thePE class at the same development
level, right?
Absolutely.
(11:27):
Some kids, you're like, wow,that's a sixth grader. I've never
seen a sixth grader with abeard. And then other kids are like,
you know, very much not. Theyare a little slower to progress in
their growth spurts. So howdoes a PE teacher differentiate between
(11:48):
those two students? I mean, ifyou've got a requirement for a student
to do X number of push ups, doyou adjust that per student or how
do they handle that differentiation?
That is awesome, David. Thankyou for asking. We do have a fitness
assessment that is mandated bythe state. And what the teachers
(12:10):
do from K through 12, mostlyfor 4th through 12th, is that we
have fitness assessments thatthe students practice on. Curl ups,
push ups. And you like those.
Again, I'm having flashbacks.
Okay, Right. And then there'sa cardiovascular or a cardiorespiratory
(12:34):
assessment called the pacer.I'm not sure if you heard of that.
Yeah, I think I Have one of mykids was complaining heavily about.
Heavily about the pacer. Andthen the other option is the mile,
and that's the fitnessassessment. So it's more of an individual
assessment. And it's notreally comparing students to students,
but it's comparing thatparticular student to how well they
(12:56):
perform in that particularassessment. And then I want to add
on, as far as the athleticpart is concerned or the sports part
is concerned, whether it'selementary, middle and high, our
teachers are very savvy inunderstanding flexible grouping.
And what that is, is that theywould place their students in maybe
(13:17):
the beginning or theintermediate in advance.
Okay. The student is competingwith, against themselves, basically
looking at gains. Is that afair way?
They're looking at theirgains. And then that information
is given to their parents sothe parents can actually see their
gains as well. And it'spersonal. No one ever sees their
(13:38):
scores and what have you. Weplace them in different groups based
on their ability level. Andthe reason for that is just to give
an example, like how many ofyou do not know a sport? We'll ask
the kid the particular sportor activity, and they'll raise their
hand. We'll put them in agroup. How many of you are familiar
with the sport? A little bitand maybe have parents participate
(14:01):
in that sport or activity.Then you have another group that.
That'll raise your hand. Thatwould be the intermediate. And then
your advanced group would bethe ones who may do club ball or
actually, you know, in anathletic sport for high school. And
they would be put in the advance.
Right. And they've been in itsince kindergarten. Right.
They're the pros, you know,and, you.
Know, to be fair, I mean,there. There are parents who are
(14:23):
really good at keeping theirkids engaged and that sort of thing.
Absolutely.
So that's kudos to them fordoing that. So I know that in some
other classes like math orscience, they might collaborate with
another set of courses likemaybe literature or English or what
(14:45):
have you. Maybe there's anassignment and they insist that,
for example, writing a sciencereport would use proper grammar and
punctuation and so forth. Thatcross. Is that called cross curricular?
Yes, it is.
Okay, so is that crosscurricular thing done in physical
(15:09):
ed and health with otherdisciplines, or is that kind of not
even a part of the picture?
Well, I'm glad you asked that,David. We actually assist in that
area by doing a strategycalled academic movement. So our
department has had theopportunity to talk to principals
(15:30):
and counselors and as well asteachers and really help Them find
a different strategy in orderto help students learn and embrace
a particular concept. So anexample would be, let's say, if they
were studying for a particularassessment. And so what we'll do
(15:51):
is let's say if it's true,false, the teacher would ask a question.
And if it's true, the studentswould do jumping jacks. Right. If
it's false, they would do likeelbow to knee raises.
That is hilarious.
Yeah, it's hilarious, but it'ssuper cool because they're not sitting
in their seats. And then it'ssomething different. Instead of just
(16:12):
raising their hand, they areactually moving their bodies in order
for them to retain thatinformation after.
The PE classes have alreadybeen done, you know, no more need
for the credits. How canparents encourage their students,
their kids, to get out thereand stay physically active?
Well, that is a powerfulquestion because that's the goal
(16:37):
of the health and physicaleducation program, is to make sure
that from the K through 12learning and the health and physical
education aspect is that theytake the skills that they learn through
health and physical educationand make that a reality in their
life. And so the way we hopethat at that time, parents won't
(17:00):
have to remind their studentsor their children to exercise and
things as such. But it's veryimportant that for health, for an
example, we teach decisionmaking and goal setting, and we teach
that throughout the years ofthe student, you know, at the Cobb
(17:22):
County School district. And soit's very important that the student
learn goal setting and settinggoals and then also making good decisions.
Now, if they learn how to setgoals in school. Right. And making
good decisions, we hope, andthat's the goal, to be able to set
goals in life and then makegood decisions after they graduate
(17:44):
from high school.
Okay, all right, so what aboutthe. And this is maybe a curveball
question, so if you don't havean answer, that's fine. But sometimes
parents will withhold beingable to participate in a team sport
until those grades come up,for example, kind of thing. Is that.
(18:06):
Is that still a valid approachor should a parent maybe consider,
well, maybe that's an outletthey need to get their grades up.
They just need to get a betterbalance, maybe on time management
or something like that.
I highly encourage parents notto take their kids out of the sport
(18:27):
because not only does it helpto help the team win, but the social
skills and the camaraderiethat the child builds within that
particular sport is so muchmore important than taking them out.
Because when you take themout, then they're left to do things
(18:50):
that they, the parent reallymight not want them to do. And then
also there needs to be abalance. Right. You know, so the
parent, excuse me, the studentshould have, you know, their outlet
with the sport or some othertype of activity. Let's, you know,
not even just physicaleducation, but it could be another
(19:10):
outlet activity as well asdoing the academic part. So if the
parent and the child can havelike a conversation and have that
balance of why it's importantand what some strategies that they
can do to build those gradesup, that would be much more effective
than just, you know, pullingthem out of a sport.
(19:31):
And that can also, you tell meif this is accurate or just folklore
from the Internet or whatever.Doesn't the physical activity release,
like, you know, chemicals thatcan help a student do better, focus
better?
Those chemicals, call themneurotransmitters. And then when
(19:51):
those neurotransmitters arefired up and those endorphins, the
happy hormones, once they'reincreased, it helps the mental health,
the stress level of thestudent. And so what we have to understand
is that not only, you know, wewant the student to be fit, but we
want them to decrease theirstress levels. Right. And so getting
(20:12):
involved in the sport, gettinginvolved in fitness assessment, fitness
activity, and just moving thebody around has substantial gain
in the mental health and thestress levels of students.
And reducing the stress alwaysbenefits the academic side.
Absolutely.
Makes perfect sense. Okay, sofinal question for you as a bonus
(20:33):
round.
Okay.
Is marching band a sport?
Marching band is a sport.
Oh, we're out of time. I'm sorry.
That was fun. That was.Marching band is a sport because
they are outside for hours marching.
(20:57):
I don't disagree. It's such athird rail question. I had to throw
it out.
Wait, I do want to share that.We are three time national champions
for the Kids Heart Challenge.
The Kids Heart Challenge. Interesting.
Yeah. So, yeah, for all thatfor the entire district. And so we
(21:18):
were able to raise funds andalso support the health and well
being of our students for theAmerican Heart Association. So we.
When does that happen?
So it happens throughout theyear. So each school does it, like
in different times.
Okay.
But typically it would be inFebruary, but some do it even earlier.
(21:40):
So we're trying to four peak.So. Okay, so we want to be, you know,
national champions for fouryears in a row. So we've been national
champions for threeconsecutive years in a row.
Elizabeth, thank you so muchfor coming in. You've shared some
really good insights for us.And did you find a helpful nugget
or two from this episode. Besure to subscribe so you won't miss
(22:02):
out on the next one. Also,maybe share it on your social media
or share it with a friend.That's always helpful. Thank you
for listening to this episodeof the Inside Scoop, a podcast produced
by the Cobb County School.
A loud whistle, short shorts,and a lot of yelling are some of
my PTSD memories of pe. Whatabout you? How PE and health have
changed is this week's episodestarting right now. Hello and welcome
back to the Inside Scoop. I'mDavid Owen. You can watch this podcast
(00:22):
on YouTube or listen to it ona number of podcasting platforms
now, including iHeartpodcasts. Make sure you like, subscribe
and share it with yourfriends. Many of us either have fond
memories of PE and health orwe shudder at the thought. The way
things have been done might befine, but then again, there might
(00:43):
be a better way to educate uson the current state of classes in
PE and health is thesupervisor of Health and Physical
Education, Elizabeth Godbee.Elizabeth, welcome back.
Well, thank you for having me,David. It's such a pleasure to be
here.
It has been a minute.
Yes, it has.
The last time you were on wasJanuary of 2020.
(01:05):
Absolutely. Wow. That's.
And something else happenedjust a month or two later.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we won't go there.
Right? We won't.
So PE and health in Cobbcounty, what are, what are the main
goals of those classes? Wekind of have a feel for the kinds
(01:25):
of things that we do or did, Iguess would be appropriate in my
case. But what is the goal of.Let's just take PE for example.
Yeah, well, I'm glad youasked, David, because health and
PE has really changed. Andbefore it was, you know, just like
(01:46):
you were saying, the shortshorts, the yelling and the screaming.
I'm sorry to bring that up.
No, that's ok. But what we donow is really focus on the skill
of a sport or skill of anactivity, as opposed to just making
sure that you run until youpass out or anything like that. So
we don't do that here at ourdistrict and just focusing on motor
(02:12):
skills, hopping, skipping,jumping, knowing how to throw and
catch, and just thefundamental skills. So those students
who may not, you know, feelcomfortable with the athletic part,
you know, of the. Of the sportor the skill.
Sure.
They can. We can, like, kindof reduce it down to something that
(02:33):
they're comfortable with.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think alsothings have changed through the years,
and I remember being able tohave, like, neighborhood baseball
games, for example.
Right.
Well, for whatever reason, youknow, maybe there's not enough room
to do that. A lot of kids, youknow, maybe you're in apartments
or whatever and just don'thave those opportunities. So is PE
(02:55):
more or less anotheropportunity for that to happen?
Yeah, absolutely. And like yousaid, we met in 2020, the COVID happened.
And it's funny that you saythat, because we had to really adapt,
you know, because no one couldgo outside. And now, you know, we
had to create activities forstudents to be physically active
(03:19):
in the home. You know, sothere were lessons that our teachers
created, you know, to helpthem, like, ball up a. Like a piece
of paper and then they willthrow it in a trash can, you know,
just to formulate the, youknow, the shooting skills and then
also baseball, you know, justlearning how the formation and how
(03:39):
the. How to swing a bat. So weinstead of like, we're not swinging
bats and balls in the house,but we're just doing the mechanism
of swinging a bat in a ball, and.
The brain is actuallydeveloping. Typically middle school.
I'm thinking of middle schoolwhen I think of P.E. i mean, I know
(04:01):
that was that.
The torture part, but that was the.
Time that my therapistaddresses most often. Those T ball
teams, for example, where yousee the kids and they are hilarious
at times.
They are hilarious.
A kid just swinging the bat ata ball on the tee can have a huge
advantage in development ofeven including academics.
(04:24):
Oh, absolutely. So you havethe ball on the tee and then you
have the student or the kidswinging at the bat. And that helps
hand eye coordination. And thehand and eye coordination can roll
over to writing andhandwriting and having meat handwriting.
(04:47):
That's interesting.
Yes, because they're focusingon a smaller target.
Yeah, yeah. Interestingconnection. Well, see, you learn
stuff here. So.
Yes. So PE has really, reallychanged. You know, where it's not.
It's. So it's meaningfulbecause we really focus on the standards
because we know that thosestandards really helps the teacher
(05:08):
as well as the student.
And when you say thestandards, you're talking about like
the state requirements of whatto teach or the COB requirements.
Yeah, they are the state andCOB requirements.
Okay, so let's go a little bitdeeper on that. Okay. We're talking
about the benefits of thephysical activity and how they impact
academics in general. Whatother things are you seeing?
(05:30):
Yeah, so we have our nationaland state standards, and I am happy
to say that our districtreally focuses on the state standards
and our COB standards to makesure that there is strong efficacy,
you know, within our teachersas well as in our students. So we
mentioned standards, and whatour teachers do is that they really
(05:52):
focus on the verbs of thestandard. You know, I can through
learning targets, I can hop,skip, and jump, or I can swing a
manipulative like, such as abat or a tennis Racket, you know,
and when we learn or whenthose teachers teach those particular
(06:12):
standards, those students areable to learn the vocabulary, health
literacy, physical literacy,and then transfer that information,
you know, to their, to theactual activity.
We talk about physicalliteracy. What, what exactly are
we talking about?
When you.
(06:32):
Yes.
So you have different types.Let's talk about high school. Right.
You have your different typesof stretches. Isotonic, isometric.
Right. Okay. So if a teacheris teaching. That's part of the standard.
If they're teaching aboutisometric and isomet stretching,
then that particular studentwill learn that particular vocabulary.
(06:57):
And then, not knowingly, theymay say, hey, I want to get in sports
training, I want to be anathletic trainer. Because it's not
just in physical education,but it stretches out to careers that
has to do with isotonicstretching, isometric stretching,
and, you know, the differentvocabularies for health related fitness
(07:19):
and skill related fitness.
They can help us know whichtype of stretching to do so that
we don't get injured. Is thatkind of.
Absolutely. And so when you'resaying that that's the importance
of the teachers learning thestandards so they can teach the students
the proper form of stretching,you know, more education when it
(07:44):
comes to a exerciseprescription. So let me give you
an example.
Yes, please.
You will have a cross countryrunner. You wouldn't give the same
exercise prescription to across country runner as you would
give to a linebacker or widereceiver. Right. Because the different
stretches and the differentaerobic capacity. Aerobic exercise
(08:09):
is totally different for each student.
So different goals for eachstudent shape what you do.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Andthose goals transfer from the physical
education aspect and then alsothe health education aspect as well.
How can we encourage them tobe active after the bell rings, you
know, in the afternoon, itseems like there's this attraction
(08:31):
to screen time or even naps orwhatever. How can we as parents do
a better job of getting themoutside and getting some activity?
Oh, wow. I'm so glad you askedthat powerful question. So our district
does a very great job intomaking sure that students have after
(08:51):
school activities. So let megive you an example. Like elementary
schools, they have theopportunity to participate in after
school programs. They call it asp.
We used it tremendously.
It was very helpful. So thefocus on that was to make sure kids
are active after school. Andso they would get involved in different
(09:15):
sports activities, differentmoving activities, jump rope, they
even have dance in theelementary aspect of the after school
program. And then you haveyour middle school. Right. So the
parents are able to take theirstudents early to school so they
can participate inintramurals. And intramurals is like
a sidebar to club sports andthe major sports and what they do
(09:39):
in school in the morning inthe gym will have sports like basketball,
soccer, football. And thenthey also have recreational games
such as cornhole. And also.
Do you stretch for that?
Yes, you can stretch for.
Some of us would need to.
There's a method, you know,there is a method of stretching for
(10:00):
Cornhole as well. And then dance.
I think we've gone off therails just a little bit.
Dance.
Sorry.
No worries. Dance and jumprope and things like that, you know,
so we want to offer a varietyfor students. So it's not just for
the athletic students, but youknow, those non athletes that just
want to keep themselves movingand then get their blood pumping
(10:23):
for the day. For middle schooland then, of course, high school,
we have those athletes. So theathletic programs in the. Sometimes
the exercises are in themorning and then the actual sports
are in the afternoon. But Iwant to tag on a little bit about
the parents and how theparents can help their students.
(10:43):
Right. So participating inactivities in the house, you know,
maybe dance activities on, youknow, social media, that's appropriate
for the students that can getthem moving. And then what they learn
in the physical educationclass, they can actually share that
with their parents and maybethe parents can also participate.
(11:06):
Well, right.
Again, it goes back to thestretches. So I think you really.
As long as the parents stretchand make sure that their muscles
are limber enough toparticipate. Absolutely.
So not every kid comes to thePE class at the same development
level, right?
Absolutely.
(11:27):
Some kids, you're like, wow,that's a sixth grader. I've never
seen a sixth grader with abeard. And then other kids are like,
you know, very much not. Theyare a little slower to progress in
their growth spurts. So howdoes a PE teacher differentiate between
(11:48):
those two students? I mean, ifyou've got a requirement for a student
to do X number of push ups, doyou adjust that per student or how
do they handle that differentiation?
That is awesome, David. Thankyou for asking. We do have a fitness
assessment that is mandated bythe state. And what the teachers
(12:10):
do from K through 12, mostlyfor 4th through 12th, is that we
have fitness assessments thatthe students practice on. Curl ups,
push ups. And you like those.
Again, I'm having flashbacks.
Okay, Right. And then there'sa cardiovascular or a cardiorespiratory
(12:34):
assessment called the pacer.I'm not sure if you heard of that.
Yeah, I think I Have one of mykids was complaining heavily about.
Heavily about the pacer. Andthen the other option is the mile,
and that's the fitnessassessment. So it's more of an individual
assessment. And it's notreally comparing students to students,
but it's comparing thatparticular student to how well they
(12:56):
perform in that particularassessment. And then I want to add
on, as far as the athleticpart is concerned or the sports part
is concerned, whether it'selementary, middle and high, our
teachers are very savvy inunderstanding flexible grouping.
And what that is, is that theywould place their students in maybe
(13:17):
the beginning or theintermediate in advance.
Okay. The student is competingwith, against themselves, basically
looking at gains. Is that afair way?
They're looking at theirgains. And then that information
is given to their parents sothe parents can actually see their
gains as well. And it'spersonal. No one ever sees their
(13:38):
scores and what have you. Weplace them in different groups based
on their ability level. Andthe reason for that is just to give
an example, like how many ofyou do not know a sport? We'll ask
the kid the particular sportor activity, and they'll raise their
hand. We'll put them in agroup. How many of you are familiar
with the sport? A little bitand maybe have parents participate
(14:01):
in that sport or activity.Then you have another group that.
That'll raise your hand. Thatwould be the intermediate. And then
your advanced group would bethe ones who may do club ball or
actually, you know, in anathletic sport for high school. And
they would be put in the advance.
Right. And they've been in itsince kindergarten. Right.
They're the pros, you know,and, you.
Know, to be fair, I mean,there. There are parents who are
(14:23):
really good at keeping theirkids engaged and that sort of thing.
Absolutely.
So that's kudos to them fordoing that. So I know that in some
other classes like math orscience, they might collaborate with
another set of courses likemaybe literature or English or what
(14:45):
have you. Maybe there's anassignment and they insist that,
for example, writing a sciencereport would use proper grammar and
punctuation and so forth. Thatcross. Is that called cross curricular?
Yes, it is.
Okay, so is that crosscurricular thing done in physical
(15:09):
ed and health with otherdisciplines, or is that kind of not
even a part of the picture?
Well, I'm glad you asked that,David. We actually assist in that
area by doing a strategycalled academic movement. So our
department has had theopportunity to talk to principals
(15:30):
and counselors and as well asteachers and really help Them find
a different strategy in orderto help students learn and embrace
a particular concept. So anexample would be, let's say, if they
were studying for a particularassessment. And so what we'll do
(15:51):
is let's say if it's true,false, the teacher would ask a question.
And if it's true, the studentswould do jumping jacks. Right. If
it's false, they would do likeelbow to knee raises.
That is hilarious.
Yeah, it's hilarious, but it'ssuper cool because they're not sitting
in their seats. And then it'ssomething different. Instead of just
(16:12):
raising their hand, they areactually moving their bodies in order
for them to retain thatinformation after.
The PE classes have alreadybeen done, you know, no more need
for the credits. How canparents encourage their students,
their kids, to get out thereand stay physically active?
Well, that is a powerfulquestion because that's the goal
(16:37):
of the health and physicaleducation program, is to make sure
that from the K through 12learning and the health and physical
education aspect is that theytake the skills that they learn through
health and physical educationand make that a reality in their
life. And so the way we hopethat at that time, parents won't
(17:00):
have to remind their studentsor their children to exercise and
things as such. But it's veryimportant that for health, for an
example, we teach decisionmaking and goal setting, and we teach
that throughout the years ofthe student, you know, at the Cobb
(17:22):
County School district. And soit's very important that the student
learn goal setting and settinggoals and then also making good decisions.
Now, if they learn how to setgoals in school. Right. And making
good decisions, we hope, andthat's the goal, to be able to set
goals in life and then makegood decisions after they graduate
(17:44):
from high school.
Okay, all right, so what aboutthe. And this is maybe a curveball
question, so if you don't havean answer, that's fine. But sometimes
parents will withhold beingable to participate in a team sport
until those grades come up,for example, kind of thing. Is that.
(18:06):
Is that still a valid approachor should a parent maybe consider,
well, maybe that's an outletthey need to get their grades up.
They just need to get a betterbalance, maybe on time management
or something like that.
I highly encourage parents notto take their kids out of the sport
(18:27):
because not only does it helpto help the team win, but the social
skills and the camaraderiethat the child builds within that
particular sport is so muchmore important than taking them out.
Because when you take themout, then they're left to do things
(18:50):
that they, the parent reallymight not want them to do. And then
also there needs to be abalance. Right. You know, so the
parent, excuse me, the studentshould have, you know, their outlet
with the sport or some othertype of activity. Let's, you know,
not even just physicaleducation, but it could be another
(19:10):
outlet activity as well asdoing the academic part. So if the
parent and the child can havelike a conversation and have that
balance of why it's importantand what some strategies that they
can do to build those gradesup, that would be much more effective
than just, you know, pullingthem out of a sport.
(19:31):
And that can also, you tell meif this is accurate or just folklore
from the Internet or whatever.Doesn't the physical activity release,
like, you know, chemicals thatcan help a student do better, focus
better?
Those chemicals, call themneurotransmitters. And then when
(19:51):
those neurotransmitters arefired up and those endorphins, the
happy hormones, once they'reincreased, it helps the mental health,
the stress level of thestudent. And so what we have to understand
is that not only, you know, wewant the student to be fit, but we
want them to decrease theirstress levels. Right. And so getting
(20:12):
involved in the sport, gettinginvolved in fitness assessment, fitness
activity, and just moving thebody around has substantial gain
in the mental health and thestress levels of students.
And reducing the stress alwaysbenefits the academic side.
Absolutely.
Makes perfect sense. Okay, sofinal question for you as a bonus
(20:33):
round.
Okay.
Is marching band a sport?
Marching band is a sport.
Oh, we're out of time. I'm sorry.
That was fun. That was.Marching band is a sport because
they are outside for hours marching.
(20:57):
I don't disagree. It's such athird rail question. I had to throw
it out.
Wait, I do want to share that.We are three time national champions
for the Kids Heart Challenge.
The Kids Heart Challenge. Interesting.
Yeah. So, yeah, for all thatfor the entire district. And so we
(21:18):
were able to raise funds andalso support the health and well
being of our students for theAmerican Heart Association. So we.
When does that happen?
So it happens throughout theyear. So each school does it, like
in different times.
Okay.
But typically it would be inFebruary, but some do it even earlier.
(21:40):
So we're trying to four peak.So. Okay, so we want to be, you know,
national champions for fouryears in a row. So we've been national
champions for threeconsecutive years in a row.
Elizabeth, thank you so muchfor coming in. You've shared some
really good insights for us.And did you find a helpful nugget
or two from this episode. Besure to subscribe so you won't miss
(22:02):
out on the next one. Also,maybe share it on your social media
or share it with a friend.That's always helpful. Thank you
for listening to this episodeof the Inside Scoop, a podcast produced
by the Cobb County School.
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