NJAPHERD Conference

Last week, I attended the New Jersey Alliance for Health and Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (NJAPHERD) annual conference. I had not attended this conference for 14 years, and felt that it was time to get re-inspired and involved on a local level again.

This conference was so inspiring and motivating. There were over 800 Health and PE Educators that attended from New Jersey. It was the most attended conference they have had. The keynote speaker, Christine Brennan, spoke to a standing room only crowd of intent listening physical educators.

The conference ran from Sunday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon, from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon. Every hour during the conference there were over 8 sessions being offered. I attended over 12 sessions in the time I was there, and each session provided me with hope and inspiration in my field of study. To witness the passion and message that different instructors, teachers, organizations, and vendors provided was truly motivating. Some of the sessions I attended involved marketing our discipline, nutrition and PE technology, HPV lessons, Adventure game activities, and dance, dance, revolution lessons. There were so many sessions that I wanted to attend, but could not because they were running at the same time as the ones I felt were most applicable to my district.

The conference has rejuvenated me, and provided some long lost hope that I can make a difference in what I am teaching. Whether people acknowledge that my discipline is one of the most important subjects or not, I realize that I need to continue fighting for what I believe. I take my job seriously because I realize the importance and positive affect it can have on our youth. I am glad that I attended this conference and I look forward to implementing what I have learned, and going back next year to attain more knowledge, rejuvenation, and hope.

What I Found Out...

Well, it sure has been a while since I have posted. Somehow my life got so busy that I wasn't even checking my own blog site.
Anyway, I thought I would just jot some information down regarding my heart rate monitor experience.
I invited faculty members to wear an exercise heart rate monitor during the the work day. I had thirty teachers sign up. They were very enthusiastic. I only have 15 monitors so I ran the testing on two dates. Mixed in with the teachers I had one Vice Principal and a school secretary.
All of the candidates filled out their pulse as many times during the day as possible. They also recorded when they felt stressed, told me the activity they were doing at the time of the pulse check, and if they had any caffeine. The results were interesting, and the teachers were fascinated with what they learned about themselves. Most teachers hovered around 78 beats per minute. There were a couple of outliers though. One of the teachers realized that her heart rate was really high during the day. She followed up with her general practitioner and she found out there is something going on with her heart (it is speeding up at random times during the day). She is having more tests done and will let me know exactly what is going on. Many of the other teachers realized that they need to bring exercise back into their lives. Over 10 of the candidates involved have joined a gym and or hired personal trainers. They told me that wearing the heart rate monitor gave them incentive to "get moving" again, and that it made them realize that they were not happy with the way their readings came out.
I also gave each participant a two-page document on what all the readings meant, and what different things they can do with a heart rate monitor. Two of the teachers went out and bought their own monitors for their new exercise regime.
So, in summary, I am really glad that I did this experiment! It was a lot of fun for me, and I was really glad to see the high interest level. I am also glad that this experiment has motivated a handful of people to take matters into their own hands and re-start an exercise program. I also am very thankful that the one teacher whose heart rate was really high went to a professional and found out why her heart rate was abnormally high.
All in all, it turned out great. Thanks to all those who participated!!


Image Credit: www.recipestoday.com

Trial and Error

I am sorry it is taking so much time to get the results regarding the Heart Rate Monitors experiment. Part of the problem is that during the original "trial" experiment, I discovered an "error" on my part. I realized, after the fact, that the data taken needs a baseline which to compare it to. I forgot to incorporate a baseline comparison number. So, after the students took their heart rates, I had to go back and get each students Resting Heart Rate (RHR). The RHR is what the "test-taking" heart rates will be compared to.
I have also involved another teacher in getting the comparative results back, since I am unfamiliar with this area. One of the math teachers, Jim Jarrell, is having his AP Calculus class try to find any correlating data from our experiment.

In the meantime, I have decided to take this experiment a step further. Mike Gregory, the Principal at Mohawk Avenue School, suggested having staff members wear the Heart-Rate Monitors during their work day. Teachers go through various levels of stress during the school day, and I am hoping to see this represented in the fluctuation of their heart rates. I am hoping I can get twelve teachers to volunteer for this experiment. I will have each teacher record their own RHR, and then the day they wear the monitors I will have them try to record two times a period, during the nine-period day. I am also going to have them record the subject and material they are covering, and they are going to let me know if this was a teacher-centered lesson or student-centered lesson. Each teacher will also record their "mood", and any "excitable" moments, which will indicate why the heart rate decreases or increases. There are a lot of variables in this experiment and it should cause a variety of fluctuation with each teachers heart rate. I am looking forward to the teachers' experience and any correlations that are discovered.

Image Credit: www.istockphoto.com

Travel

create your own personalized map of the USA

I came across this website for the second time this year, and thought I would add it to my blog. I know it is not Health and PE related, but I think a great part of learning occurs when you are able to travel. I believe when you travel you see so many things including people, nature, and cultures. You learn by listening to different people, dialects, stories, and the history in the area. The experience gained by traveling is something that is difficult to match in a classroom, and therefore, I wanted to recognize this aspect. Above are the states that I have visited, I hope to get to them all someday, and revisit so many that I have already been to. I have been fortunate enough to travel to 34 out of the 50 states and I believe being able to travel has helped me expand my knowledge and education in so many different ways. Traveling reminds me that we are all connected in some way.

Smoking PSA

I just wanted to follow up on my last blog regarding Public Service Announcements or PSA's. I just completed my first project last night, and wanted to put it up on my blog. It is longer than I would have liked (1:34 seconds), but would love to hear any input on the video.
My plan is to have my students' create their own PSA's during their Health marking period, and have them post them to my wiki page. I will keep all posted as to how this goes.
The following PSA is on Smoking:

Public Service Announcements

I have been taking a Professional Development Class with David Gorecki, called Digital Storytelling. David, our school districts' Elementary Technology Teacher, has helped me design a project in the class that I am going to have my students also do in their upcoming third marking period Health classes. The students are going to create a Public Service Announcement (PSA). Each student will select a provided topic, such as, drugs, alcohol, high blood pressure, or cardiovascular disease, to name a few. They will then use a program called Photostory 3 to create their one-minute PSA. The process to create this project has been really fun to do, and can drive a point home using visual media. Each of the students will then present their PSA to the class once completed.
The class has taught me a great way to bring a different type of technology into my classroom, and I am very excited to see how my students' projects turn out.

Keep it Beating

I just wanted to add to the topic that Angela Delucia-Davis had talked about in her blog from last week. Angela, welcomed my idea of putting heart-rate monitors on students during a stressful situation i.e. a test. We put this offer to task last Thursday.

Ten of her students showed up in my office at 7 am to put on their heart-rate monitors. They were excited to start their day, and their heart-rates' demonstrated this. I gave the students a sheet to record their heart-rates during their English test and to record throughout the day. I had them record two times during each period. Jim Jarrell, Angela and I are going to compile the data, and Jim's AP calculus class is going to analyze the data and give us some feedback on the the heart-rate information collected.

The really cool part about this experiment is throughout the day other students' got "wind" of what we were doing and wanted to be a part of it. So, Miss. April Wisniewski's, third period Intermediate Algebra class gladly volunteered to wear the monitors for their test they were taking on Friday. After their test they wanted to then wear them the rest of the day also. The students were equally as excited to be a part of the experiment. As the students turned in their monitors at the end of the day, they each told me how it made their day more interesting and they were really into monitoring their heart-rates. Some of the students' recorded their beats per minute many more times than I had requested, and really liked to see the recovery of their heart-rate after walking from class to class, or how it dropped or raised during an exciting moment in class.

For me as a Health and PE teacher, it was really fun to do a cross-curriculum lesson with Angela, and April. It added a really exciting part to my day and to our students' days. It was very motivating to watch the students throughout the day as they wore their monitors, and see their interest level perk-up when it came to the beats of their heart.