In the Zone Issue 1 / Fall 2020
Moving Forward Mindfully The importance of health. moves. minds.® in the era of COVID-19 KRYSTAL FORSYTH Physical Education Teacher, French Road Elementary School (Rochester, NY)
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sychoneuroimmunology — “the study of the effect of the mind on health and resistance to disease” — has been my favorite word since I learned about it in grad school. The word is as valuable as it is long, and no matter what grade level or subject I am teaching, I present the idea of psychoneuroimmunology to help students understand the full effect that one’s perspective has on their life and health. For example, when asked how your day went you might respond in two very different ways depending on whether you focus on the peaks or the valleys. If you focus on the peaks you might say, “I woke up before the alarm, had a great workout, and didn’t run into any traffic on the way to school.” But if you focus on the valleys that might become “I forgot to charge my phone, I dropped my badge somewhere in the hallway, and I forgot to cancel my appointment.” I’m not saying we should ignore the valleys and push them away, because we understand the ramifications of bottling up negative energy. Imagine a young child dealing with their own valleys and not knowing what to do when their valleys become overwhelming. Just as we need to sort through our feelings and manage them, we need to teach our students and children how to do the same. The idea itself is not new, but the idea of SHAPE America’s health. moves. minds. program is new — and it could not have come at a better time. The program is designed to inspire healthy habits and teach kids to thrive physically and emotionally.
Third graders at French Road Elementary learned SEL skills in physical education class through the health. moves. minds. program.
The health. moves. minds. program can be adapted for distance learning! Here is a video of one @HOME activity.
TEACHING SEL SKILLS SHAPE America’s health. moves. minds. program offers lessons and activities that teach kids to thrive physically and emotionally — and includes flexible fundraising options to help you make the biggest impact in your school and community. You can share your success with health. moves. minds. — and bring national attention to your school — by contributing to In the Zone! If interested, email healthmovesminds@shapeamerica.org.
We can all imagine how necessary social and emotional learning will be in the 2020-2021 school year. You may have students who are upset because their best friend attends school on opposite days as them or because their family decided on remote-only learning and they are isolated from (continued on page 4)
Learn more and register at healthmovesminds.org
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fundraising focus How to Host a Virtual Fundraiser
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s we begin a new school year during the coronavirus crisis, students are facing more challenges than ever — and their social and emotional health is of utmost importance. The health. moves. minds. program gives you the tools to teach vital SEL skills to your students — and raise much-needed funds for your school’s HPE program. Now is the time to start planning your SEL-based virtual fundraiser. You can even choose to “pay it forward” and donate a portion of the proceeds to a local charity! Get started today by following these 7 steps: 1 Sign up online at healthmovesminds.org with our
easy-to-use fundraising platform and set a goal. Decide where you want funds to go.
2 Determine your virtual celebratory event (see examples below) and schedule a health. moves. minds. day. 3 Customize your school’s fundraising page. Send out
parent announcements and share with students. (Use our templates!)
4 Share on social media by connecting to your Facebook
Fundraiser!
5 Implement your educational activities virtually as best fits
your schedule. Check out our Virtual Ed Resource Guide. Encourage students to choose a daily challenge and pledge to complete one every day of your fundraiser.
6 Celebrate all the amazing work your school has done
on your health. moves. minds. day! Invite parents to join your virtual activity.
7 Wrap up your event! Thank and congratulate students
and staff by email and on your fundraising page. Expect your Gopher gift card and any earned incentives approximately four weeks after completing your event!
VIRTUAL EVENT IDEAS During times of physical distancing and at-home learning, these virtual celebratory events are a fun way to keep up school spirit while incorporating essential SEL skills:
• Mind & Body @ Home Field Day or Family Night Plan a health. moves. minds. field day event in the comfort of your own home! Check out some activities, tips and tricks for organizing a Mind & Body-themed field day that families can do at home. Rainy or cold weather? Activities can be done inside! You can also make this a Zoom family night and use the stations as group activities!
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• Virtual Race Challenge Keep students active and have them set personal movement goals in this “virtual race” event. Share out progress and accomplishments on your team fundraising page or through weekly Zoom calls.
• Virtual Stress Relief Dance-a-Thon Host a virtual dance-a-thon for students and the school community to promote physical activity through dance as a tool to relieve stress. Just set up a time for everyone to log on to your school’s preferred video chat platform and turn the music up!
• Virtual Zen Night Host a family night where students and their families engage in mindfulness activities such as meditation, Better Breathing, yoga, etc., while playing calm music.
• Send a Kind Message Day/Week Have students write kind messages to other students, teachers, friends or family members and post on the team’s fundraising page. Share your favorite messages with your class each day. This can be a stand-alone activity or incorporated into another event.
FUNDRAISING MADE EASY Based on teacher feedback, we launched a new fundraising platform that will make it easier than ever to raise money for your school. Here are just some of the improvements:
• Connect your fundraiser straight to Facebook!
• Access all the lessons, fundraising tips, and parent resources in one place, with one login.
• Ability to track offline donations.
• Fun badges that populate on your profile when you reach various milestones.
• Integration with FundRaise, our new fundraising app. Check out our getting started video to see how to create your team!
Learn more and register at healthmovesminds.org
s health and physical education teachers start the new school year, our health. moves. minds. coordinators are getting ready to shop! That’s right … they are planning what they will buy with the money earned last year through their health. moves. minds. fundraiser. All funds go back to the school in the form of a Gopher gift card, which can be used to buy HPE equipment, supplies and lots more! Whether you are teaching in person or virtually this year, you’ll find plenty to choose from. Below, teachers in Wyoming and Connecticut share how they plan to use their funds.
Making the Most of Your Resources at a Title I School Amanda Amtmanis Elementary HPE Teacher in Connecticut
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My primary objective with the health. moves. minds. program is educational. It has really been beneficial for my students and has had a positive impact on school culture. As a whole school experience, it normalizes talking about mental health, provides all students with health strategies, and makes it clear that it’s ok to ask for help when necessary. Because I’m the only PE teacher for two Title I schools, I place less emphasis on fundraising — partly because I am stretched thin and partly because our community doesn’t have deep financial resources. I view whatever we can raise as a bonus. It’s helpful as my budget dwindles more each year. Though our totals are never big, I like that there’s no minimum or cap (unlike other fundraising programs) — and 50% of what we raise comes back to us as a Gopher gift card.
How to Teach SEL Skills in Health and Physical Education — Even Through Distance Learning BY MICHELLE CARTER
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Quick Tips for Student Engagement
Briana Fuller & Annette Ice Elementary HPE Teachers in Wyoming
Last spring, prior to our health. moves. minds. events, each class made a Gopher “wish list.” Now that our events are complete, we will divide the money and each class will get to pick the playground equipment they want to order. This equipment will go to the recess bin for all students to enjoy. This has proved to be a great incentive for students and parents! Good luck this year!
The pandemic has illuminated the need for schools to consider students’ physical, mental, and social-emotional health above all else — and SHAPE America’s health. moves. minds.® program can help. The focus of the program is teaching social and emotional learning through a health and physical education lens. Health and physical education teachers can use the lessons and activities to give students tools and strategies for managing complex emotions and taking ownership of their own health and wellness. Teaching students these real-life skills now will not only help them cope with the effects and potential trauma of this pandemic but also have a positive impact on their physical and mental health for years to come. Read complete article on the SHAPE America Blog.
Learn more and register at healthmovesminds.org
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Moving Forward Mindfully (continued from page 1) the rest of the class. And, you may have students dealing with more serious family issues caused by the pandemic. The health. moves. minds. program can help you teach students the skills they need to manage the “valley” moments in their lives — during the pandemic and throughout life. We implemented the health. moves. minds. program at French Road Elementary School during the 2019-2020 school year. It fit seamlessly into our community’s mental health initiatives and social and emotional learning programs. As a teacher who is heavily involved with the district’s Partner in Restorative Initiative program, Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, and District Wellness Committee, I immediately saw the value of health. moves. minds. and knew the district would share in my enthusiasm to move forward with the program. We easily infused the elementary resources into our physical education curriculum. The Emoji Rating Scale and H.A.L.T.E.D. expressions — two of the many resources that use colorful pictures and easy-to-read language — helped our students learn how to use kind language and learn how to appropriately express and manage their emotions. When a student is triggered, we hope they’ll say “I’m angry and I need a break” instead of chasing the student who
triggered them around the gym with a floor hockey stick. We would then thank them for speaking up and discuss possible healthy solutions. These skills take practice, but when students are surrounded by health. moves. minds. resources that present healthy choices, they can comfortably practice having a growth mindset. Now more than ever, our health depends on having a positive perspective. My biggest hope is that when a child shows you they’re upset and could use a break to feel better, you’ll acknowledge them and support them with a strong confidence in how to do it. The health. moves. minds. program will give you those tools.
FLEXIBLE FUNDRAISING MAKES IT EASY TO GIVE BACK In their first year implementing the health. moves. minds. program, French Road Elementary raised over $30,000! The school selected the fundraising option that made it easy to “pay it forward” — resulting in a donation of more than $7,000 to their local charity of choice: Rochester’s Foodlink BackPack Program.
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Personal equipment packs and expert-written activities designed for teaching PE during challenging times! Purchase My PE Packs for your school with the funds raised during your health. moves. minds.® event!
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Learn more and register at healthmovesminds.org