Summer is a great time to spend the day playing outside with friends. Get a group of together and throw around a football, baseball or a frisbee at your neighborhood park.

1. Vitamin D – Summer means there will be plenty of sunshine around and if you are someone who sits indoors all the time then you are probably deficient in vitamin D. Go fill up your tank with tons of great vitamin D by spending summer in the great outdoors. Vitamin D can help in numerous ways: strengthens bones, strengthens immune system, decreases depression, prevents disease, and even increases lifespan.

2. Physical fitness – The best time of year to pick up a new sport is summer time. Get out and start jogging, swimming, playing football in the park, or anything that gets your body moving. The small effort to be active this season will pay huge dividends for your health, weight, and how you feel overall.

3. Personal relationships – All of your friends are heading outdoors for the summer. It is the perfect time of year to rekindle relationships and build new ones by going out socializing. Group sports, camping, and beach-going are just a few ways to spend some quality time with friends under the sun.

4. Baseball season – America’s pastime is back in full swing, and what better way to spend time outdoors than supporting your home team and going to a live game. Turn that TV off, call some friends, and head down to your local ballpark where you can appreciate both your team and the amazing summer weather at the same time.

5. Vacation time – Whether you have been saving up that one week or have several weeks of vacation time ready to use, this summer is a perfect excuse to use it. Take a week off and head to some mountains where you can enjoy hiking, fishing, and biking. If you are looking to relax, spend your vacation on the coast. Better yet, sign up for a 10k or half/full marathon you have always wanted to do and take your vacation around that event.

6. Beaches and lakes are warm – The water is warming up and the sun is heating up the sand which means it is time to head to the nearest water. It can be a fun lake nearby or the beautiful beaches of San Diego. Both are a fun place to hang out in the summer. You will be happy you got yourself out of the house when you are waterskiing or surfing with all of your friends.

7. Better sleep – Getting outdoors and exercising or just being active will help burn some energy that will then result in a better night’s sleep once you are back home. It has been proven that people who spend more time outdoors sleep much more soundly than people who sit inside all day.

8. Increased oxygenation – Breathing in the fresh air actually has health benefits. When you spend time outdoors, it increases your body’s oxygenation and therefore your blood circulation. Better blood circulation results in more energy and increased mental awareness. So if you want to think more clearly, go outside and get some more blood pumping into your brain.

9. Relieve stress from the winter – A lot of people have been cooped up indoors throughout the winter and even spring time. Stress builds up and depression sinks in when you have been in a dark house for too long. When you go outside and take a breath of fresh air you will instantly feel less stress and have a happier outlook on the day.

10. Improved eyesight – Staring at a computer or TV takes a toll on your eyes and you can reverse those effects by spending time outdoors. When your eyes can focus on a large landscape instead of a small screen, it reduces their nearsightedness which is why most people need glasses.

Using technology in physical education can be a powerful motivational and evaluative tool.  Don’t miss our upcoming webinar “Integrating Technology: Authentic Assessment in Physical Education” if you want to learn how to incorporate authentic assessment using pedometers, heart rate monitors and iPads to measure student progress.

Attendees will learn:

• Benefits of using technology in physical education
• Examples of technology currently being used in schools
• Sample assessments for measuring student progress
• Where to look for funding to add technology to your program

When: Wednesday, October 13th at 3pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern

Who: Grades PreK-12 teachers and administrators, PE specialists, after school and early childhood teachers and staff

Duration: 45 minutes

Cost: Free!

Registration: Click Here to register

What can parents and families do? Here are a few ideas:

Provide Opportunities for Activity

• Enroll their children in after school sports, classes or recreational activities
• Expose them to a variety of physical activities
• Identify ways to be active around your home or neighborhood

Encourage Healthy Eating Habits

• Provide healthy snacks
• Prepare meals with food from all of the food groups
• Cook with your children

Be a Role Model

• Be active regularly — and invite your child to join you
• Reduce your own television and computer time
• Cook more and eat out less

Monitor Screen Time

• Limit the time spent each day using computers, video games and television
• Avoid eating in front of the television
• Provide alternate activities for children to enjoy

Advocate for a Healthier School

• Daily physical education taught by qualified, credentialed physical educators — hopefully SPARK trained!
• Healthier school lunches in all school environments (cafeteria, a la carte line, student body sales, etc.)
• Using non-food related items for fundraisers and rewards

The SPARK research study was designed to pilot our programs and research their effectiveness with elementary schools. Intervention schools were provided curriculum, equipment, and materials in addition to staff development to implement the programs. The desired outcomes of the project were to increase student physical activity levels, health knowledge and improve health behaviors. For teachers and staff the focus was to increase the quality and quantity of nutrition, health and physical education levels as well as improving their own health.

Although the results of the research project won’t be released until this fall, one of the intervention schools has used this opportunity as a springboard to making some significant additions to their school. Locust Grove Elementary has recently partnered with two local hospitals to fund a full-time nutrition education teacher and provide a weekly class for all K-5 students. In addition to adding a nutrition component to their curriculum, they have created a Minds in Motion Lab for physical activity where students will spend 10 minutes a day going through different stations to improve their coordination, motor skill development, balance, and rhythm. The goal of this program is to increase the quantity of physical activity as well as to prepare the brain for learning. Locust Grove also has several policies now in place to support the healthy school environment. The two most significant policies state that all teachers must provide 20 minutes of physical activity every day, and food is not allowed in classrooms for classroom celebrations or to be used as a reward for students.

Making these types of changes requires a commitment not only from the administration to pass the policies and fund the programs, but from the school staff to implement the policies and from the parents to support the changes. Would you like to improve your school environment using the Coordinated School Health Model? Give us a call at SPARK to find out where to start!

-Jeff Mushkin
Project Specialist/Trainer

It’s mid-summer and although we’re not trying to get you back to school too soon, we do want you to be prepared when the time comes. So, we’ve added the first of our new iPad features for a handful of 3-6 Instructional Units. Check out our new Dynamic Rubrics and Class Roster templates.

Each Rubric and Roster template is given in XLS format and has been designed to look great and function well on iPad and laptops alike. Currently, we’ve posted these tools in the following units (3-6 Instructional Media Library): Aerobic Games, Chasing & Fleeing, Group Fitness, and Racquets & Paddles.

Here’s the quick-tips version on how they work:
(Numbers App is required for iPad)

1. Visit SPARKfamily.org and download a Dynamic Rubric and Class Roster.
2. Open the files in Microsoft Excel or Apple Numbers.
3. Type student names into the Class Roster for quick cut-and-paste into each rubric. See tabs along the bottom of the spreadsheet for 8 separate classes.
4. Save the rubric in an organized Rubrics folder.
5. After names are entered into your rubric, connect iPad, select your iPad device in iTunes and select the Apps tab.
6. Click on the Numbers App, then click “Add…” below the Numbers Documents listing.
7. Choose the rubric you’d like to work with and click open.
8. Sync your iPad and you’re ready to work!

Look for detailed iPad tutorials this Fall in the SPARKfamily .org Resource Center.

Enjoy the rest of the summer. We’re looking forward to serving you in the 2010-11 school year!

Aaron Hart
Development Director
SPARKfamily.org

One disturbing piece of information continues to hamper physical education successfully moving forward. The terms “physical activity” and “physical education” are often used interchangeably, yet they differ in important ways. Understanding the difference between the two is critical to understanding why both contribute to the development of healthy, active children. Think of this: Physical Activity is a behavior. Physical Education (PE) is a core subject area with a curriculum that includes physical activity.

Here is NASPE’s definition of physical activity vs. physical education: http://tinyurl.com/27j2pcv

To those of us at SPARK, and certainly to the researchers, active classes is a hallmark of quality Physical Education. A PE class in which students are standing or sitting most of the time cannot be a good PE class. PE is about teaching through the physical. The goal is to teach movement skills, teamwork, and positive social interactions, as well as improve fitness and promote the joy of movement by getting students active. Right?

What are your thoughts??

-Kymm Ballard, Ed.D

Forty-three years ago this week (1966) I received my first degree, a Bachelors of Physical Education. I had mastered a very excellent program, and I had wonderful teachers. They ensured that I was physically fit, physically skilled, current academically on exercise physiology, kinesiology, and other subjects, and that I had practice and feedback on managing and instructing students. I was ready for my first job as a high school teacher and coach, and I did well at it.

My teacher preparation program taught me nothing at all about promoting physical activity or changing human behavior (Skinner was still being entertained by rodents in his laboratory). But that was OK because it was the sixties and sedentary living was not yet a problem. There were no global obesity and diabetes crises and the term diabesity had not yet been coined. I was not at all concerned with getting my students active outside the gym, because they did this automatically. Most walked to school, many did physical labor at home, and the only screen time to worry about was during fly season in the summer.

In my current job as a researcher I spend more time observing what happens in gyms than directing what goes on there. Teachers are still doing pretty much what I did over 40 years ago, although they now face much larger classes and more disruptive students. I find most are pretty well prepared. Unfortunately their preparation has been aimed primarily at facing the challenges that I encountered long ago, not the challenges of today.

In a scientific study using direct observation we found that PE teachers in six states spent only about 20 seconds of each class prompting or encouraging their middle school students to be active outside of class (McKenzie et al., 2006). In addition at AAHPERD this spring, I conducted a very unscientific poll of physical educators and teacher educators. Of the over 40 higher education institutions represented, only two offered current physical education majors courses in behavior analysis/behavior modification and none provided coursework in social marketing.

Even when offered daily, PE provides only a small proportion of the 60 minutes per day recommended by health authorities. According to NASPE Standard 3, a physically educated person “participates regularly in physical activity.” PE teachers cannot help students meet this objective unless they have been prepared to promote physical activity beyond their gym walls. It is time for PETE (Physical Education Teacher Education) programs to become unstuck from the sixties. In the interim, it is up to district staff development programs to help teachers acquire the new skills that are needed to assist students to avoid a lifetime of sedentary living.

References:

McKenzie, T. L. (2007). The preparation of physical educators: A public health perspective. Quest, 59, 346-357.

McKenzie, T. L., Catellier, D. J., Conway, T., Lytle, L. A., Grieser, M., Webber, L. A., Pratt, C. A, & Elder, J. P. (2006). Girls’ activity levels and lesson contexts during middle school PE: TAAG baseline. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 38(7), 1229-1235.