Thursday, February 3, 2011

Modeling, Modeling, Modeling

I know this stuff. I teach this stuff. I preach this stuff. Every now and then I practice this stuff. We call it modeling, practice what you preach, walk your talk. I believe I model health pretty well but I realized just the other day that if kids don't see me modeling then it doesn't really matter. Being healthy is just another adult mystery.

The administration at Wishram School decided years ago to have a 45 minute lunch instead of the usual half hour rationed out to most teachers. In most schools lunch is a half hour. For teachers it looks more like 5-10 minutes of rushed food. They stay after class to talk to students, run off copies, grade papers, meet with principals and any all "other duties as assigned." By law and union contract they have a duty free lunch but it seldom works out this way. The extra fifteen minutes at Wishram is luxurious by comparison. I like that extra time because it gives me both time to eat and do a little yoga or go for a 15-20 minute walk.

Generally I walk a loop around the town (it's a very small town). Sometimes I can convince another teacher to walk with me but usually it's alone. Now that's it's warmer with hints of spring in the air the pull of the outdoors is even stronger.I was dressed and ready to go when the superintendent asked my to cover the elementary lunch recess. Argh!. I am nothing if not obsessive about exercise. I envisioned the pounds piling on if I missed one day of exercise.

It was too cold for outside recess so the small gym was crowded with kids from age 4-12. I found I could just as easily monitor all of the children by walking laps around the gym as I could by standing on the sidelines. So I began  fast walking. Another teacher joined me. Of course this made kids curious. This school was small enough that most of them had either been in one of my educational classes or groups. A strange wave started forming.We became  curious pied pipers. Children began following. Several began walking backwards in front of us. Some just joined us. We walked and talked. It was so easy that I kicked myself for not figuring it sooner. The aha was like an ape discovering fire.

The gym was full of basketballs, nerf footballs and hula hoops. But by fifth or sixth grade many kids sit on the bleachers and talk....practicing to become adults I guess. The younger ones still run all over the place. By the simple act of modeling  fast walking we upped the play quotient. I am notorious for stealing or trying to steal basketballs from kids when they're dribbling. When I get a ball I throw it and say "fetch" in a playful way. They love the challenge and revel in the victory of keeping the ball away from me.My fast walk became punctuated by short heartbeat elevating bursts of energy as one after another dared my steal their basketball.

It was the most fun I had had on a walk in a long time. The interruptions of ball stealing and throwing footballs to kids changed recess for just a little bit. Too often and many times by necessity adults watch kids play. I changed the dynamic just a little that day. It was easier in fact to keep on eye on everything that was happening gym because I gained a complete circular perspective every few minutes.

In my struggles to get kids and staff to get on the health bandwagon I too often look for complex solutions and elaborate programs and "best practices." There are still miles to go before I sleep. Food programs are still underfunded. And there's the omnipresent foes of too much TV, video games, tobacco and junk food but that day I found one small thing that worked. Semper fi



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