Topeka USD 501 teachers give glimpse at what PE will look like

Nick Gardner, a physical education teacher at Quincy Elementary School, knows his classes will look different this year.

As with all other aspects of school operations this year, PE classes in Topeka Unified School District 501 schools are seeing modifications. Concerns about shared equipment or putting children in close contact sports have put a stop to a lot of traditional PE activities this coming school year.

Gardner and Alyx Nash, leadership studies coordinator at Topeka West High School and lead high school PE coordinator for the district, said physical education teachers have been concerned that the pandemic may be taking both a mental and physical toll on students.

“Now, it’s more important than ever, PE has become important for kids not only for their physical health, but their mental health,” Gardner said. “With the stay-at-home orders, you weren’t allowed to move around as much as you used to. Topeka Public Schools has valued our students getting PE time, and that shows the importance of movement and the kids getting a break from the classroom, or just seeing a different teacher.”

But the district’s PE teachers are confident that their lesson plans will keep students safe while helping them get back on track for healthy lifestyles.

Masks will be required in for all activities, Nash said, unless masks would somehow keep students from completing their PE activities. In that case, teachers would implement enhanced social distancing and keep students 10 feet apart, rather than the 6 feet recommended in most other school situations.

Exact lessons will vary from classroom to classroom and building to building, but Gardner and Nash said the district’s teachers are working on a comprehensive plan and guidelines for in-person PE classes once the district enters Phase 2 of its reopening plan.

The district will open in Phase 1 — or completely online learning — on Sept. 9 before moving to full-time, in-person operations at the elementary schools and hybrid learning with split classes of students at the middle and high schools. Hybrid and completely remote learning options will still be available to parents if they choose.

At the elementary schools

Elementary school PE classes tend to focus more on basic physical skills, Gardner said, at least compared to middle and high school classes. That is why it has been easier for elementary school PE teachers to craft lesson plans that will focus on individual movements and fundamentals rather than more complicated movements. For example, a lesson on soccer could focus instead on individual dribbling techniques rather than on playing an actual game of soccer.

As the year goes on, Gardner said, class formats might have to evolve, and students might have to come inside for indoor lessons using online tools and activities.

With gyms possibly in use as regular classrooms as part of Topeka USD 501’s micro classroom learning model, teachers will have to be creative with how they use building space, and Gardner said teachers will look to schedule outdoor activities whenever possible.

Middle, high schools

Under the hybrid learning model for the secondary schools, half of a class’s students will be on campus for in-person learning two days a week, while the other half will complete classes online, with one completely virtual day each week the two halves switching once per week.

That will pose a challenge for PE teachers as they look to cater to students in both learning formats, Nash said. But just like the elementary school teachers, Nash said, middle and high school teachers have been creative in how they adapt their lesson plans.

For in-person activities, teachers are more limited by the amount of equipment they might have, Nash said, since the goal is to make sure students can each have their own piece of equipment and don’t have to share until the equipment can be disinfected between classes. The teacher’s solution to that, though, is to run multiple lesson units — such as basketball shooting or soccer dribbling — concurrently to allow more students to use more equipment.

For students learning from home, the district will soon publish an online resource and application that will host several lessons and skills students can practice at home. Nash said the goal will be to allow students the ability to challenge themselves while keeping activities manageable.

“It still allows the teacher control of what the unit and instruction is, but it also turns the instruction into the students’ hands,” she said. “Hopefully, this will allow for a little more engagement in remote settings, while still getting practice with the team, dual and lifetime activities they like to do so much in the classrooms.”

Another consideration in high schools is how to use the locker rooms. Nash said only certain classes — such as the weights and conditioning classes — will use the lockers, while other PE classes will likely just have students wear their regular clothes for the classes. Teachers will likewise plan activities that don’t involve too much sweat, Nash said.

Preparing to go remote

When the pandemic forced schools to shutter for in-person learning last spring, elementary PE teachers were quick to adapt their lessons for the vastly more limited distance learning formats, Gardner said. Teachers recorded short five to seven-minute videos of themselves demonstrating various exercise techniques and skills for students to practice at home.

Gardner said teachers became creative in how they taught to allow all children to participate, regardless of what materials they had at home. Exercises included such activities as nature walks, where children were asked to find something that started with the same letter as their names, or rolling up balls of socks to toss and catch. He said he imagined teachers would use that same creativity this semester should classes have to move to a remote format.

For the middle and high schoolers, Nash said, teachers will work with students to keep track of completed activities on fitness logs, in addition to working with students using an online service called Flipgrid.

“Within those fitness logs, we’ve integrated different types of our fitness testing,” Nash said. “So students are completing their fitness testing with how many sit-ups they can do, how many pushups they can do, or how quick their mile (run) is. Those are all things we’d track in person, and we can still track those in a remote setting.”

As Nash looked toward the coming school year, she said she is excited to have students back and that PE classes would go a long way toward boosting their health and spirits amid the pandemic.

“There’s so much social-emotional work that goes in physical activities, physical education and physical health,” she said. “We can work on self awareness, social awareness and decision making. As we consider what the curriculum will look like this fall compared to last spring, we’re looking to promote students’ overall health and activity, looking at the whole body movement to engage them and really allow students to open back up and be active, and not sit on their couch.”