HILLSBOROUGH: PE classes moving from sports to fitness

By Eileen Oldfield, Staff Writer
   Physical education classes at Hillsborough schools have students taking on all kinds of activities — even though many don’t look like the gym classes of yesterday.
   High school students scale the school’s indoor rock-climbing wall, middle school students run for 40 minutes under the guise of a simple tag game, and Auten Road Intermediate School and elementary school students practice Pilates and dance principles — the classes are anything but a stereotypical gym class.
   The activities build on concepts Board of Education member David Lin noted at the board’s Jan. 12 meeting when he mentioned a New York Times article on efforts at several Long Island High schools to shift from sports and skills mastery toward activities that attempt to hook kids on fitness.
   Published Jan. 8 and titled “Moving From Team Sports to Lifelong Fitness,” the changes included adding dance classes, Yoga, Pilates and biking — all efforts to address childhood obesity problems.
   Several board members requested copies of the article, desiring more information on the Long Island schools’ programs, and asking whether the lifetime fitness goals could be incorporated into Hillsborough’s physical education classes.
   But the district’s classes already cover many of the principles, though teachers often balance nutrition lessons, team building skills and the all-important task: hiding exercise so it’s fun.
   Frequently, teachers use what seem like idle games to get kids moving.
   ”It’s running for 40 minutes, and they (the students) love it,” Middle School physical education teacher Scott Rourke said of the Flag-Tag game students play during class. “It’s camouflaged exercise. We have to make it fun because they can associate sports and exercise with a bad experience if it’s not fun.”
   But physical education teachers often face a multi-faceted challenge when they teach. Often, the teachers need to break through established eating habits, focus on making exercise less of a chore, work with time constraints and get parents involved.
   ”We’re trying to change behaviors they learned in second through fifth grade,” said James McFarland, a physical education at Hillsborough High School.
   The high school’s curriculum allows students to choose an activity for their physical education class though all students are required to take a marking period of health, and freshman and sophomore students must take an additional predetermined course.
   Freshmen take a basic fitness and conditioning course; sophomores take an introductory rock-climbing course using the school’s climbing wall. Other elective courses include aerobic dance, recreational games like badminton, additional climbing classes, team sports, electives combining aerobic activities with other offerings and a specialized strength and conditioning circuit.
   The high school offers an eight-week community fitness class to Auten Road Intermediate School and Hillsborough Middle School students also, Mr. McFarland said. Parents pay a $95 fee for students to attend. The high school’s coaches demonstrate proper weight machine techniques and exercises to increase students’ fitness.
   The courses, though optional, build on what time constraints often limit during a normal school day.
   ”You don’t have enough time, necessarily, in school to get them fit,” Mr. Rourke said. “If we can get them hooked on something early on, that’s a link … the biggest challenge is linking to that child who isn’t interested in exercise.”
   ”When they’re 30 or 40, are they going to still be active?” said Rich Rosenblum, a second of Hillsborough Middle School’s eight physical education teachers. “When they get to the high school, you don’t want them to be sedentary.”
   At the middle school, where students have physical education every day, teachers use a personal fitness challenge to guide students through a basic workout. The classes do incorporate team sports, which help students build interpersonal skills, a task which is harder to learn as children get older. Teachers also focus on planning a workout routine students can complete at home.
   Called the Personal Fitness Challenge, the students learn a new exercise each week, whether it’s a warm-up, cardiovascular activity or a stretch. Also, the students complete homework during the weekend, recording the exercise they do and establishing long- and short-term goals.
   ”Some of the kids don’t have a fitness program so they can develop a basic fitness routine (through the challenge),” Mr. Rourke said. “The key is bringing the tools home and doing it on your own.”
   It’s using the tools available to parents as well, Mr. Rosenblum and Mr. McFarland said. The district’s MealTracker system, which uses swipe cards instead of cash to buy school lunch, lets parents see the food their children purchase for school lunch and the options available — another method of enforcing healthy eating habits.
   ”The meal tracker really allows them to see what children are eating,” Mr. Rosenblum said. “It really enables us to discuss what choices they’re making.”
   At Auten Road Intermediate School, the school’s physical education classes focus on being active every day and developing team skills, teacher Sylvia Scozzari said. Students’ warm-up workouts include Pilates and, in addition to their other activities, play both team sports and cooperative games during class.
   ”Team sports and cooperative games are very important at that age because they’re learning how to talk to each other and interact with each other,” Ms. Scozzari said, noting the skills learned through the games become harder to learn as students get older.
   ”In health and physical education, it has to be a joint effort,” Ms. Scozzari added. “It has to be between us and the parents.”
   For teachers who see students just two days a week, as in the district’s elementary schools, teachers grapple with making PE fun and incorporating movement.
   ”I think, if anyone would come into our physical education classes, we are geared toward lifetime fitness,” said Laura Wynkoop, a Hillsborough Elementary School physical education teacher. “I do think that, unfortunately, our society being so fast, people don’t sit down and eat that well-balanced meal . . . I really think our diet is not what it used to be because of our lifestyles.”
   Ms. Wynkoop’s classes typically begin with a warm-up, which can be as simple as a tag game or as specific as doing a certain movement to music.
   Students may learn a skill supporting a sports activity, however, the activity also emphasizes movement, Ms. Wynkoop said. A United Way grant allowed the school to create a mini-weight room last year, adding to the school’s physical education program.
   ”I think Hillsborough’s on the right track with getting our kids fit,” Ms. Wynkoop said. “One of the key components is we need the parents to be involved.”