Looking back on my PE classes when I was in elementary and middle school, I can clearly remember the week of fitness testing. Most of my classmates moaned in anger as we were told it was time to run the mile or be tested on how many pull-ups or sit-ups we could do....but not me! I was excited for the challenge and to see where I stood against my fellow classmates. I can remember being test from first grade almost ever year until I graduated high school. Here in the school district I teach in, there is no fitness challenge in any of the schools. My school year starts in two days and I have been toying with the idea of starting a new tradition by implementing a physical fitness testing program this year. With this new idea, many questions popped into mind:
When would I find time to test the students?
How many times a year do I need to test my students?
How much will it cost to buy the equipment I need?
How can I keep track of the students' progress?
Will the other schools in the district be willing to add physical fitness testing to their curriculum?
I spent a lot of time this summer on websites trying to decide which one was right for my school district. I have focused most of my research on "The President's Challenge"and "Fitnessgram", which I will explain to you in my next post. As you follow my blog, I hope you can help me with ideas on how to implement one of these programs into my school. I look forward to hearing about your school and what works for your PE program.
Fitness testing is a great thing and I think that every school should be required to do it. I hope that I can help you in some way with your decision as my school does fitness testing and has done for several years. Look forward to the rest of your blog
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteWhen I taught elementary physical education in San Antonio, TX in the 1980s we annually took the FYT (Fit Youth Today) test. Our results were handed in to the school administration and our school was compared with the other 63 schools in the district.
We had daily PE for 45 each day, so we had plenty of opportunity to prepare the kids.
I've used both the Fitnessgram and the President's Challenge. this should be interesting. Thanks for the invite!
ReplyDeleteMy PE classes last 75 minutes every day for 10 weeks straight, and then they rotate on to a different class and I don't see them again. This makes it hard for me to test all the students at the beginning of the year, but I have worked it out with the other teachers to test them before the middle of October, and the same thing in the spring.
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