Exercise in the Classroom

"In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection." - Plato

A couple of years ago, I was creating a health project for my students and stumbled upon a TED talk and book by Dr. John J. Ratey. His TED talk, titled Run, Jump, Learn! How Exercise Can Transform Our Schools, speaks about the importance of including physical activity in our classes not only for fitness, but also to "turn on our brains," as he puts it.

As a teacher, I love anything that helps turn on the brains of students so that they are best able to learn.  After watching his TED talk and ordering and reading his book, I've now brought exercise to my classroom every day. My classes watch his TED talk and they are fully aware of why they are exercising and how it helps them. Below is a quotation from Dr. Ratey's book that explains how exercise improves learning.

"First, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus." 

- Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

Breaking up a perfectly planned lesson to exercise can be disruptive. In the few years that I have been making time for it I have found that I actually end up with more time in the end. My students will complete about five to ten minutes of vigorous exercise for every 45 minutes of learning time. If they exercise, I find their focus is improved and there are rarely any behaviour issues. If they do not have time for exercise, I find they get sluggish, distracted, and there are many more behaviour issues. I am very thankful for the research that Dr. Ratey completed, and that I took time to read his book, watch his TED talk and change how I manage my class.

Below are a few of the ways I incorporate exercise into my daily schedule.

Running

At the beginning of the year I take my students on a run to show them the route they will take whenever I send them for runs. Their route is around 800 metres long and includes one lap of our track. I like to make sure that I have a perch on the route that allows me to see where they are at all times and also lets me see my open side door. This way I can be ready to help injured students, catch rascals trying to get out of running the full distance, and make sure no one walks into our class and takes off with valuables while we are gone.

Seven Minute Workout

This is a free app that I found and use probably every other day. In the rainy and cold months we probably use it daily. I teach the students all of the exercises in the full body workout and then I will pull up the app on my phone, hook it up to my speakers, press play, and they follow along. They love it and ask for it all the time!

Muscular Exercises

If the young ones are getting wiggly, I will often put up a few quick exercises like a thirty second plank, a few jumping jacks, push ups and a wall sit. Then they head back to whatever they were doing with a bit more focus then they had before.

Quick Exercises for Between Activities: 

- Wall sits
- Planks (prone and sides)
- Push-ups
- Crunches
- Sit-ups
- Jumping jacks
- Lunges
- Squats
- V-sit
- Triceps dip
- Step-ups (on chairs)
- Mountain climbers

Hopefully these are some helpful ideas for you to try out! One new thing I'm planning on trying out next week is introducing skipping stations for exercises. Once I test it out, I'll let you know if it works.

Heart Rate

If you love having the exercises added into your class, try using my new lesson called Happy Hearts along with your exercise! It is a fun way to introduce students to the health benefits of heart rate tracking. They will spend time calculating their max, resting, and reserve heart rates. They will then track their heart rate once a week and watch it improve as they continue to exercise and get into better shape throughout the year. Hope you enjoy it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Happy-Hearts-A-Lesson-on-Heart-Rate-4110821