MAHPERD "Voices From The field"
In this podcast, you will hear from educators and professionals in the field sharing their insights and experiences in the HPE (Health Physical Education) and allied fields. I hope you find this podcast informative, and inspiring. Learn about best practices and tools that you can implement in your teaching practice. We want to know not only what you do, but also the action steps you took to get you where you are. The Status Quo is not in our vocabulary folks, my guests are leaders in the field who are taking action to make an impact in their respective fields. If you have any questions or would like to be a guest on the show email mahperdpodcast@gmail.com
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got" Henry Ford
MAHPERD "Voices From The field"
Health Education Leadership: From The Classroom to Director's Chair
From the basketball court to the classroom to district leadership, Jill Foley's journey embodies the vibrant, multifaceted world of health education. As MAHPERD'S president and Director of Comprehensive Health and Wellness for Revere Public Schools, Jill brings a refreshing perspective on what it means to truly support student wellbeing.
Jill's candid reflection on her unexpected career path reveals how one conversation with a mentor completely redirected her professional trajectory. After years in strength conditioning, she took a leap of faith into education—a decision that shaped her approach to teaching and leadership. Her decade in the middle school health classroom taught her the power of inclusivity, connection, and skills-based instruction, principles she now implements at the district level.
The podcast dives deep into Jill's innovative peer leadership program, where high school students receive specialized training before teaching middle schoolers about mental health and substance use. This approach transforms both the mentors and the younger students, creating authentic learning experiences that resonate far more deeply than traditional instruction.
When discussing program evaluation, Jill challenges conventional metrics, suggesting that true success in health education extends beyond classroom assessments. She advocates examining broader indicators like student well being surveys, nurse's office visits, and changes in behavior patterns. "Health is more than just the classroom, PE is more than just the classroom," she emphasizes, arguing that physical and health education are essential solutions to many challenges students face.
Her vision for the future includes state-level recognition of health and physical education as core curriculum components, with clear requirements for implementation. By leading with compelling data—like improved academic performance following physical activity—she believes educators can shift priorities and policies to better support the whole child.
Want to connect with other passionate health educators? Jill invites listeners to consider joining the MAHPERD, describing it as a manageable commitment with tremendous professional rewards.
Resources:
https://www.hpecollective.online/
Contact:
Reach out to jillherwig@gmail.com to continue the conversation about creating more comprehensive, effective health education for all students.
All right, hi everyone. Welcome to Voices from the Field, a MAHPERD podcast where we talk with educators in the field to hear about their perspectives and experiences. My name is Jake Bersin, advocacy Chair for MAHPERD , and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Jill Foley. Jill is the current president of MAHPERD and within her last few months of presidency before becoming Mayford's past president, she also simultaneously serves within the role of director of comprehensive health and wellness for Revere Public Schools, where she oversees the health, education, nursing and social work departments.
Jake:Prior to her director role, jill spent 10 amazing years in the middle school health ed classroom, where she has led instruction that always encompasses inclusivity, relationships and connections, alongside leading from a skills-based health education lens. This has transcended into her director role, still encompassing these essential components in order to serve and support the learning of the whole child. Outside of the professional world, jill is an avid reader, basketball fanatic, loves art, attending concerts and traveling, coinciding with her love for continuous learning and discovering new things, which explains her various career directions and focuses from art major to exercise, science to strength and conditioning, to education, ultimately framing all the work she is continuously engaging in within the fields of health and physical education. So glad to have you, jill, welcome.
Jill:Hi everyone, so excited to be here. Jake, I'm so pumped to start talking with you.
Jake:Awesome, awesome. So, before we get started, I'd like to ask this question of all the guests what's making you smile these days?
Jill:Ooh, what is making me smile, I would say, these days? Seeing UConn basketball win another national championship and even more so, I think, watching the videos that capture Gina Warhammer and Paige Becker's like coaching relationship, coach player relationship. It really makes me smile to embody like, just like pure athletics and just that, that real pure coach student relationship and student that's there to be a bigger person and really just enjoys the love of the game like I just that whole storyline that's been going on for the last like week or so is just really making me smile these days absolutely.
Jake:That's fantastic. So I take it you are better. Do you bet on the games or no?
Jill:no, I watch. My husband sometimes bet on games. He'll ask me my advice and I stay out of it. But yeah, I'm not a better. I am definitely not a better. I just like to watch there you go.
Jake:So um what inspired you? To pursue a career in your field.
Jill:Oh boy, it really started with. I'm going to give a shout out to Gary Nyan, who I believe he's still a practicum supervisor at Salem State. Gary Nyan was the director of health and physical education for Danvers Public Schools, helping to support their PEP grant at the time, good Lord, probably like 15, 16 years ago now, maybe even longer, and I just happened to be in strength and conditioning and my dad worked with Gary as a facilities manager at the high school and they were building a new gym, a new weight room, and my dad said to Gary like hey, my daughter's in that field, why don't you talk to her? She may know some things about how to set up a gym. So I came in and Gary and I just got talking because I'm a talker, as Jake you know and we were just like kind of like going back and forth with ideas not just about the gym but like kids and health, and he like just looked at me and said, would you ever think about being a physical educator? And I was like, oh, I don't know, I'm in this field right now. I'm not too sure.
Jill:And that kind of like opened the door and then just through the year or so that I was working as a strength and conditioning coach, one of my colleagues had gotten an educator job, a PE job in Everett and it really just made me start thinking about just I love the kids, I love training the high school and college athletes and kind of just went from there and I decided I took, I really swung for the fences and left my job and at strength for strength industry and became a substitute for Gary and Damers Public Schools, um, and just went from there. So it really just kind of it was a conversation and my father always kept on saying that I should go into teaching and I always told him no, no, no, and then, yeah, my father was right.
Jake:You know who you are. So Gary Nihan. And he said he's still practicing, he's still teaching.
Jill:He is not, so he's retired. He supervises educators going into the field in their practicums.
Jake:Okay, so he's in a more of a leadership role.
Jill:Yes, oh, a hundred percent, yep.
Jake:Fantastic, what a great story.
Jill:Yeah.
Jake:So, talking about PD, just changing gears a little bit, you were recently at Shape Baltimore and, as a lot of health and PE teachers were, what were some of the highlights for you, or do you have any big takeaways that you took from that conference, because it's one of the bigger ones that we have?
Jill:so yeah, I would say honestly, I just it's. It's such a great way I find every time I either it's either the Maybird convention, it's shape conventions, any type of PD that I go to it just it kind of like fills your bucket again, it like refills you and rejuvenate you. Um, it is definitely exhausting three days at shape Baltimore just going from the thing to the thing to the thing. Came home and I was exhausted but it's just. It's such a great event to like connect with people, new people, people you haven't seen in forever and just like talk all the things you're passionate about and people you haven't seen in forever, and just like talk all things you're passionate about. And you get to explore different topics and things.
Jill:And I think at Shape Baltimore this year, the biggest takeaways for me were I think it was very evident that Shape also aligns with a lot of our state framework messaging from DESE. They're really focused on right now inclusivity, being just trauma-informed with how you're you're teaching your kiddos and really trying to get to know your kiddos and build relationships to give them the best educational experience that they can have. Um, I went to a lot of great um sessions on inclusive and um ways of nutrition. That's like a big kind of hot topic right now is being inclusive in the way that you teach nutrition so that it doesn't really manifest negative behaviors in kiddos, and trying to get away from that good and bad terminology.
Jill:New York is doing amazing work. Portland public schools are doing amazing work. New York city, I should say. They presented on like just the curriculums that they've developed, which are excellent, and then also, too, I saw some great presentations from like emily zian and some of her colleagues about culturally responsive practices in the health ed classroom. To andy milne was presenting with um sarah gh I can't. I apologize, I don't her last name, but they were just referring to her as Sarah GH.
Jake:I've seen her name. Yeah, it's interesting Last name, I know. I know exactly who you're talking about.
Jill:Amazing human. They were just promoting, they were talking about in their session, how to incorporate wellness, the dimensions of wellness, into all of your instruction. So it's just. It's just a cool like just a great time to connect with people, see people you haven't seen in a while and just get to experience the things that you also want to experience by looking at, I mean, the, the session list is so comprehensive. I couldn't even go to all the things I wanted to go to, um, so, but it was wonderful. And baltimore was fun. We got to go to a baseball game definitely not fenway park, I'll tell you, though with with the crowd, but it was cool and we got to see the Red Sox play the Orioles.
Jake:So oh, there you go. I think I actually saw some pictures of that on social media yes, yeah that's awesome.
Jill:Yeah, a lot of our like I know, a lot of our Maybird board members and things that went to shape were at the game, and even some of our other Maybird members were at the game as well, so it it was great.
Jake:That's really cool. Yeah, anytime, I think we, as educators, we're looking to get some actionable steps we can take away from the conference and then implement in our practice or share with others. So it sounds like that's what you did, so that's fantastic.
Jill:Yeah, like a lot, lots of notes, lots of things.
Jake:Awesome. So, jill, you're a director now for comprehensive health and wellness. That's a unique role, going from a teacher to this role, so can you shed some light on what? What are some what's like your day-to-day look like? What are some things you do that that you didn't do, or some some highlights that you have that you can share?
Jill:I actually got this question asked to me by a bunch of eighth graders the other day for a civics action project. My role now overseeing I think it's a very unique role. I know I've talked to a few directors in the district or in the state that have a similar role than me, but it's very few and far. Between Overseeing the nursing, social work and health ed departments, no day is really the same. It's my third year in this role. So some days, like the last few weeks, or I should say the last week or so, I've been really diving in with our grading practices coach on really really outlining and framing our K through 12 scope and sequence for curriculum so that our health educators can now just go and start creating proficiency language for assessments.
Jill:To like some days I'm even like playing nurse or, like I should say, supporting a nursing office when we're short staffed. So it's really. It encompasses everything from I'm I'm, really I'm. The collaboration with community partners, collaboration with building principals, collaboration with other directors is happening simultaneously, like I'll have meetings with the Department of Public Health for the city trying to figure out how to allocate some state funding that they've received for substance abuse prevention strategies with our teenagers to coordinating with my building principals ways that our social workers are supporting our students and trying to align the department vision with their visions as a school. It's really all it's, it's all over the place. It's. It's a big job that some days it's kind of like you just kind of get the thing, you do the thing and you're moving on to the next thing and so but I, I mean, I do love it. There's days that are just hard, but at the same time I think I'm a problem solver.
Jake:And.
Jill:I love to figure out systems and fix systems, and this is, I mean this, is it? All three departments really haven't had guidance in a few years, so it's kind of also really really realigning our visions to DESE'S vision and our district visions and things like that.
Jake:Okay, that makes sense. So it sounds like there's definitely a lot of different folks that are coming to the table. Talk about these decisions that ultimately impact the students. You mentioned, I think, something about a grading coach. I haven't heard that term before. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Jill:Yeah. So I mean, I I'm really lucky to work in Revere. I feel like Revere is we've always been pretty progressive with the way of things. Like a lot of the times districts will say, oh, we're working on this, and I'm like, oh, we've been doing that for two years.
Jill:We've been doing that for two years. So in our district we have a bunch of different coaching roles. We have instructional coaches for math and ELA, like a lot of similar districts do. We've taken it a little bit further over the last few years. We've added a civics instructional coach and a science instructional coach for the secondary level. We also have c2c's. It's a colleague to colleague program where for two or three years an educator can come out of the classroom and be an instructional coach and it's kind of like the next step from a mentor.
Jill:Teachers can be recommended or teachers can just choose to work with the C2C for the year on establishing some kind of goal and improving their practice in some way. So we have a C2C at the secondary level, the elementary level, a deeper learning C2C and an SEL C2C and then comes into play at the high school level through the transition to competency-based slash, standards-based grading over the last five or six years. There is a grading practices coach at the high school who has been doing an immense amount of work with each department trying to establish standards, the way that we are assessing standards to. Even this year he has developed a system in our current grading system in power school that will utilize competency-based grading entry to actually appropriately calculate a gpa and an overall grade for a student, because at the high school level we found that just giving a student an approaching grade or competent grade like using just our regular language and not have a number associated with it has some college issues.
Jill:Like colleges are like nope, we need a gpa, nope, we need to see an extra grade so he is.
Jill:He's a brilliant human being. He's also a wonderful person just to collaborate with his wife, is an instructional coach in the district as well, in the la, and it's phenomenal um so that we have actually been working together to he like him and I have been bouncing like here's the standard, what part of the skill is actually the standard? Assessing how, what are the sub skills like? We are taking all different things from like rmc health polly and sarah bennis's work is frameworks and melding them together to really make an authentic rear public schools, k through 12 scope and sequence guide for our health educators that was actually my follow-up question was is this, is this for k to 12 or just high school?
Jake:but you just mentioned you just said it was k to 12, so that's really.
Jill:That's really something that's awesome yeah, it's a lot, but we've been like jamming. Like the last before shape. Before I headed to shape, we had one session where it was about two hours and he's like all right, I think we need another two hours and we should be good that two hour was turned into four hours and that four hours only got us the high school 10th grade course aligned. He's like, oh, my god, I'm like, well, when I come back, let's just schedule. So we've literally been like three, four hours at a whack, just like kind of going at it.
Jill:It's been that's I love that stuff. That's like my favorite stuff. So like and to be able to like go back and forth and like he's apologized to me multiple times saying like I'm so sorry if I'm telling you you're wrong or I'm so sorry I'm. I'm like no, no, no. I'm like this is collaboration. I'm like you are not insulting me in any way, you're checking my thinking, I'm checking your thinking. So it's been a great collaborative experience that like it's like probably the most authentic experience I've had over in probably the like last year or so of really like throwing things at the wall and telling each other nope, yes, no.
Jake:And hearing each other's perspectives, because you know, we all think differently and we all bring different things. So that's great. That sounds like a really interesting position and a great opportunity for you in the in your district. So kudos to you for doing that. Just switching gears a little bit in regards to health education in general, how do we ensure that it's a safe and brave space for everybody? That includes, you know, ell learners, students with special needs, everyone, everyone and everyone.
Jill:I think it's all with the framing of how people lead. I think our district already has that vision already that every student belongs following the DESE vision. But I think me personally it's really embodying that every day and modeling that for my staff. Modeling that for the kiddos I don't care who the kid is, I am going to treat them like a human being. I'm going to say hi to them in the hallway, I'm going to talk to them in the hallway. I don't care if you just suspended yesterday, I don't care if you said something mean to me the day before I'm going to. I'm that's, that's gone. I'm going to say hi to you and I'm going to treat you with respect and, I think, modeling it for everyone.
Jill:I've also spent a lot of time trying to make sure pretty much our whole entire department of career changers transitioning into different things there's a few people that have gone to school for PE or health, but it's not the majority so really taking and investing some of our professional development time in PD that's so focused on inclusive, responsive teaching. We also I also help organize our new teacher orientations and I've been able to support our new support staff through new teacher orientation and we've had some sessions really focused around trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices and like really just framing those things for teachers and even in day-to-day discussions. If I have an individual that's saying to me like you know this kid or that person really trying to reframe their thinking into okay, so what does that student need? That behavior means something.
Jill:What is going on? Let's unpack what that is and let's figure out what that kiddo needs to be successful in that classroom. Are they not showing up? Are they coming in but they're putting their heads down or really asking those questions of like what is going on? What does that child need in the moment? What do they need in that day? What can we do to support that While also holding high expectations? Also, it's not a free pass. It's trying to figure out, okay, what does that child need to get them to do the thing that we want them to do in the class that day and be successful?
Jake:I agree it has to be a balance. I mean, you take that inquisitive mindset of, like you said, what they need, what can I do? But what can they do to be successful? And how can we hold them accountable too, because ultimately, I mean, they're not going to, we're not going to be around forever, right, they're going to have to be, they're going to have to be successful without us. So I love that approach.
Jill:I literally just said that to someone the other day. They were really passionate and they were trying to tell me it was one of our counselors was like well, I think I really do a great job building a relationship with a kiddo and engaging in talk therapy, one-on-one. And I said to this person I was like you know, well, we also have to think of it this way. You're not going to be around for this kiddo every single year, so how do we get them, how do you build the capacity for them to be successful on their own? Is it bringing them into a small group together and building those skills with a bunch of other kids that have like things going on?
Jill:because, that's one little element, but how are we actually like? Are you almost like being like, be reflective and think about, like, are we enabling in some way? Like, are you actually like giving them what they need so that they're getting out of the classroom more because they don't want to be in there? So, literally, that was a conversation we had and you just maybe think it too. I relationship and trying to figure out what are those things that that kiddo needs in the moment. Is something needs to be modified? Does something need to be changed a little bit? Instead of that kid's having a rough day, are we looking at the worksheet that we gave them and we're asking them to answer 10 questions the whole class? Well, maybe that kiddo, you come over and you're like, if you can get me three of these questions right now, pick three, we're good. Like you know, you're still holding that line of like you're trying to figure out what they need, but also like I'm not just letting you slide.
Jake:Right. Well, like you said, as you build that relationship, you'll know the student and you know you can modify or adapt what's necessary in order to make them successful.
Jill:Yeah, or even too, just now.
Jake:you know what they like, so like, oh, when you're planning a lesson.
Jill:You know what things to infuse into a lesson to get that kiddo cooked or get those kids that are similar, so it's gonna motivate it a little bit, right?
Jake:yeah, yeah, absolutely so. What's an initiative or program that you're you started at your school? I'm sure there's many, um, but can you highlight maybe one that you're you started or have been part of specifically in your district?
Jill:I would say it's actually one. Ironically, I'm going to present it to our school committee on Tuesday. It's really it's something I'm kind of proud of. It's taken. It's taken a collaborative effort, with some outside funding and resources that are helping me run it. Um, the person that is majorly involved in this is actually used to be a health ed teacher in our district.
Jill:For the first two years I was in this role as a director and then she decided to take this job with mass general hospital. So we I I was thinking of this idea three years ago when I came into the role and I was kind of fleshing it out with the person prior that was thinking of this idea three years ago when I came into the role, and I was kind of fleshing it out with the person prior that was overseeing this grant, and I said I remember when I was a kiddo, when I was in elementary school, we had some high school students that would come down and talk to us about things like drugs and saying no and all those things, and I thought it was. I thought those kids were the coolest kids. I thought it's like. I was like I want to be that girl. I want to be like you, just like you felt, like you were like, oh, these kids are so cool and I will eat, I will live and breathe, and like, believe everything they're saying to me.
Jill:And we were talking about it and I said I would really like to get a peer leadership group established at the high school that could do the same exact thing push into a middle school classroom or push into an elementary classroom and give some kind of lesson or have some kind of engagement or talk regarding some topic, whatever that identified topic is and this year, with some transitions and things like that, we were able to get this up and running and we were able to and I shouldn't say week, cause this was literally a principal, the guidance department, mgh and myself that all like there was so many key players in this we were able to start a student internship. That happened fourth period, first semester. Students could apply to be a part of the internship and they, through this grant, we're actually able to get paid to be a part of the internship and they, through this grant, were actually able to get paid to be a part of this internship Wow.
Jill:This internship encapsulated them being trained in certain things. So they got trained in teen mental health first aid. They got trained in this HOPE curriculum. They got trained in a bunch of different items that would strengthen themselves as a leader, and then they also sat down as a group. So there were seven I believe there were seven to start first semester. We're up to 15 this semester.
Jill:Five students decided to stay on for a second semester and we got a few more students for this one. But they sat down as a peer group and just said, like what are some things that our middle school students we wish we knew as middle school students and what could we talk about with them? And they created two push-in lessons or they actually created two for social media and mental health and two related to substance use that they pushed into one of our middle schools and actually gave those lessons and taught those lessons, and they consulted with me, of course, like I was like all right, well, well, let me. We need to talk about what these lessons look like. And I shared with them best practices of how to teach and engage students, but also some best practices when we're talking about substance use, especially in the classroom. Right? So they have semester one. They pushed into these middle school eighth grade and sixth grade health classes a few times so they each had like about like four visits in certain classes and then this semester with more students we're continuing that model at that middle school and then the other middle school, one of our other middle schools. The students that are returning for this semester are pushing into those classrooms fourth period daily.
Jill:So we're kind of now we're experimenting with what is a more effective model. Is it more effective and more impactful if some high school students are continuously in a classroom working with students, or is like a guest, like kind of push in thing, a little bit more impactful? Because it's not like we're kind of messing, we're kind of seeing what will flow or like. So I'm really super proud of it. It's something um, we're actually somebody in another district, um, who's also a community member in Revere Um, it's gotten them thinking about. Can we utilize the similar model for peer to peer support when it comes to substance use in general? So some of our peers that are really struggling with not dabbling or trying but now have like really started to engage? Are there some kind of peer-to-peer opportunities that we can create that support a kiddo and making better decisions in building their skills and hopefully helping them stop doing what they're doing.
Jake:Sounds like a really unique program especially if it's kind of a peer-to-peer it's not the adult to peer and the two models you talked about I assume there's going to be some data that's collected and then analyzed and saying, well, okay, here are the positives to this and here are the things that really worked well, and here are some things that we can even do better.
Jill:So yeah, no, that's. I think that's the whole thing and we're hopefully, hopefully. I know there's shifts with funding at federal level, state level, even there has been a merger with mass general hospital and um women. So there's a lot of changes, but we're hoping that we can continue to do this.
Jill:The grant itself, um, we still have three more years with it, so okay, so that's a decent amount of time yes, yes, so we're gonna do a lot in three years yes, and then we also have some city funding, um, that we might be able to utilize to through the department of public health for the other peer-to-peer model that we're exploring.
Jake:So interesting yeah if our listeners want to find out more about this, is this something that you could? Any resources you can share? Can I link something in the show notes or we can talk offline. But it's, you know, think about it. Just because they're the listeners always think about how, what they can do, this sounds like a great program. Um, you know, at some point, if you have any ideas or resources, just feel free to let me know and I'll I'll post them or link them, but yeah, I think honestly, like if anybody wanted to reach out and talk to me about, like, how we got it started, I think the main thing is just identifying, like just the plant, like it's, it's really homegrown and it's honestly the funding for it.
Jill:You only need a teacher or someone to facilitate the internship. And we were just lucky to have funding that we were going to pay the kids, and then we have the funding to to pay for, like the teen, mental health first aid.
Jill:We're actually going to be in housing some of that next year, hopefully with the grant that we receive, so we'll have people that are trained to be facilitators, in that that we can just train our kiddos and have them do the thing. So yeah, but I mean it's really homegrown, so it's not really anything. There's no really resources.
Jake:I mean there's curriculum I could share out there that they're utilizing and things, so and every, every district's different, as we know, so you know they might need different things. So, okay, shifting gears a little bit, jill, tell us a little bit more about your role as mayford president. Um, this year you've done, you've done a lot through the conferences and conventions and different things. But tell the listener, someone who's, who's not familiar with mayford, like, what are some things, some highlights that you've done specifically?
Jill:um, I would say the biggest highlight this year. I feel like I've I honestly, personally I'm very hard on myself and I feel like that I haven't done the. I'm like I have to do everything to the nth degree and I feel like my role as Mayford president, I feel like for, on my standard, has been like seven par, which everybody else is like you're doing great and I'm like no, for I feel like I want to do more, but I just think time and just the nature of my other job it makes it I can't. I can't do everything at the end.
Jake:You can't be everywhere at once.
Jill:Exactly so. But I think, as president, the biggest thing is the is the convention. Every year, it's really just trying to promote the convention. I think, being a board member, I promote anybody to come out and be a board member because really, what it is it's just you're. You're another voice, you're a fresh voice in the association and can bring whatever new ideas to the table you have.
Jill:I know I have various educational backgrounds. I've dabbled in so many things. I have, like, a marketing background. So I feel like what I've brought to the table our conversations with Maria, our executive director, regarding, like, website design, the website layout, the ways that we can promote certain things, creating new promotional materials, even if it's just posters and things at the convention but that's, I think, the biggest piece of just being a MAPRE president or a board member is just you're somebody else that can bring ideas and there's never a no, like I feel like there's never a no with our association. It's everything is let's, let's hear it, let's talk about it, let's see where it fits and where it could work.
Jill:So yeah, make it happen so and as MAPRE president, I mean it really is just supporting everybody else around you, supporting Maria with the work that she's doing at the executive director level, yeah, and just being like just being a presence, like just trying to promote the association and just just hear everybody and hear their ideas and like even for me just being an open, open ear and hearing people's ideas from all over the place that, hey, I think the association could do this or I think the association could do that and just bringing it back those ideas and kind of seeing what we can do.
Jill:So I think that's the biggest piece as a president is just hearing, hearing people's thoughts and trying to see if we can do things just all in all to improve the association and improve our member experience.
Jake:So, as we both know, the commitment is for a board member is monthly. We have these, we go to these, we meet at a meeting place and we talk for about an hour and a half. We have dinner, we talk about different topics, the agendas and whatnot. But some people might be a little bit on the shy side to to join. What would we say to them? What do you think we could say to those folks who we know have good ideas, we know would be able a good addition, but maybe they're like I don't have time, what could we? What are some things we could say?
Jill:I would honestly say it's not. It really isn't a lot of time for board member. I feel like it's we meet September, october, once a month for that few hours.
Jill:I mean, we try to keep a central location in Massachusetts, so it's pretty much everybody is the same kind of distance. I feel like, um, it's September, october, november is the convention, um, december we don't meet because of the holidays and we come back in january, february, march, april, may. We don't meet in the summer, so it's it's a really minimal commitment when it comes to the time for those board meetings. And then as an actual board member, there's just certain roles and asks you have throughout the year.
Jill:So, like, for when it's mainly convention, it's really what it is it's mainly and say, if you're part of the health ed division, like you're just being asked to, hey, who are some people that we can, we can try to recruit for the convention? Let's put, can you kind of reach out to these people? And then it's just a matter of hey, in the background, you're going to be a contact, point of contact for that person that's going to present and you're just going to share the information, you're going to collect the information. It's really it's not as much as people think, um, and it's just you're, you're another, like the more diversity we can get in our board age way, age range, experience wise, you have a different, you have different connections. So it's, and then that brings in more, more people, more people to the board, more people to present more, more new ideas. Um, so, and it is so, if you are elected, there is your, you're that board division.
Jill:So it could be health, health, elect your physical education recreation recreation and like so there's actually it's like a three-year term where you're incoming, you're're current and you're outgoing, but it's really it's just, it's a great time. And then, honestly, it's a time too as a board member like you, throwing out your ideas, like we would love the health division to create. Maybe there's another, there's a webinar that the health division wants to host for people, maybe there's one that adapted I know, like we have conferences for health ed, we have conferences for adaptive each year.
Jake:Like throwing just different ideas out there for those. So we have the leadership conference. It seems like. It seems like the association is. They're constantly doing something the golf tournament, the awards banquet, right.
Jill:I will say the golf tournament. I don't golf. I don't golf. I was on a golf team this year. We the most fun, like the most fun. So even like I think too as a board member, like our association is just fun, so it's like you just get to be around like fun people agreed it's just the energy is amazing, like the energy is outstanding.
Jill:So and I just say, like the golf tournament was so fun, so fun for saturday morning, when I'm super tired and I'm like, oh my, we laughed drove around in that golf cart. Like there's plenty of opportunities to volunteer at the golf tournament too. But this year, being on a team, I mean two people drove. I was not one of those people that were driving the ball from the tee, but like when it came to putting on the green, I was like I can do that there you go, there you go.
Jake:Yeah, it's a great experience. So yeah, you heard it, folks, let's, let's get more members, let's get more people involved. So it's really valuable to hear other people's insights. Um jill, switching gears once again. Just going back to health and pe in general, what do you, what do you think, some ways programs can be measured, or what do you think are some important metrics to measure a program? Now, this is kind of a really open-ended question and, uh, but take your time I mean it's hard.
Jill:I think andy milne said it best at one of his conferences is getting an. A in health is like we like getting a in health is okay, let's see where you're at in 80 years, you know like how do we really know?
Jill:that that these skills have been honed in, because these are things that, like, you're going to practice throughout the rest of your life, but I think, in as like measured within that classroom k-12 experience, I think some key factors to look into are, you know, different wire bit yrbs data that's a belonging data, like I think that if a kiddo is feeling good, feeling healthy and is physically active, you're going to see their mental health, you're going to see certain areas, just, they're going to report feeling more positive when it comes to, like, classroom instruction, I think that it's really. It comes down to really having those rubrics and really having those clear driving standards based like competency, language proficiency, language. There, um, it's really, it's hard. Like this is a hard one. Like I, I go off of the data, of YRBS data. We have an MCEIA survey that our staff and our students take every year. So, like seeing and hearing what the students say about how they feel, like they belong, because the other issue is health and phys. Ed is my husband's calling me right now.
Jake:Hold on, yeah the YRBS data we've done that too in the past. That's so important. You mentioned another acronym. What is that?
Jill:MCIA. I don't even know where it stemmed from. It stemmed from in the district prior to me coming into this role but, it's. It's basically this collaborative that our district got involved in, where they help us just student wellbeing surveys, parent wellbeing, parent well-being surveys, teacher. It really gives you a holistic picture of the district got it okay pinpoints, like where you can go and like with health and pe.
Jill:It's. Health is more than just the classroom, pe is more than just the classroom, so it's really looking at just how. How are the human beings in our district doing like that? I think that's the biggest measurement piece is like are our students well, are they healthy? How many office visits are they having in the nurse's office? How many visits, how many kids are accessing our social workers? What what are they accessing for? What are the needs of our kiddos? What are we seeing with data of our suspension rates? What are they being suspended for?
Jake:When are they accessing the nurse or when are they visiting the guidance counselor? So yeah, those all important factors.
Jill:Yes, it's like, yeah, it's more than just the classroom piece. I feel like for those two, which is something too, it's kind of like where I really like I know health and physical education sometimes are not valued in districts, but really like when we hear about individuals, adults, saying like kids are struggling with this and kids aren't doing that, health and PE is the solution, like we have the data to show the solution. Like we have the data to show, like you know, we know that, like physical activity, repetitive physical activity things, things that are like walking um, cycling, can actually help reduce a trauma response that a kiddo is having in their anxiety, calming nature, like. So I feel like it's, it's an essential piece to just our kids' wellbeing, outside of just academic success, you know.
Jake:So Absolutely, let's, let's say it louder for the people in back right.
Jake:Seriously, a hundred percent, a hundred percent agreed. So just a quick story, personal one A few years ago my principal, one of my principals, was you know, mcas is now, and I always said I showed him the brain scan of you know somebody who's sitting and then somebody who's active, and then he was like, oh, this is great, and that's all he said. And since that time I showed it to him. He's been having the students in the school jog for like 20 minutes before they took the mcast. He didn't say anything, he didn't make a big deal about it, but he realized the importance of that and he just did, he, he modeled it, you know, he did it with the students. So I thought that was great. So it just goes to show like if you have an idea or have you know speaker voice and you never know where it can go. But uh, you know, it's so important to share what we know and learn from others yeah, and I think leading with the data too is like really important.
Jill:Like you know, it's just saying like you got to give those reasons as to why it's important, but I feel like a lot of the data that why it's important to health and PE.
Jill:they do resonate with people. People can connect with them. So it's kind of as long as we're advocating for it and using those things and driving our messages with those things, I think people are more apt to listen. I know I've had a lot of success in my district doing that. You just made me think of those two. When I was doing my master's program, there was a gentleman in my class that was talking about how they created a bike biking program before their school day and what they purposely did is they kiddos that were struggling in math. They recommended the kiddos for this bike program and they made sure their math class was the first class of the day. So what they did is they tracked their academic performance in this course after engaging in this morning bike program and they saw that it was actually we're doing better academically in math class through engaging in this physical activity program prior to starting the school day.
Jake:Amazing. Yeah, oh, that sounds like a cool program. Yeah really cool. So we're coming down to the close of our podcast here, so just a couple more questions. Jill, what do you hope to see in the future? What goals do you have? These can be either professional or personal.
Jill:Oh, it's a loaded question, oh God Well.
Jake:And again either one professional, personal. I mean, I know, I know you're doing so much with with your many roles as president .
Jill:This is a heavy Saturday question, jake. People don't know this. We're recording this on a saturday. This is when my brain shuts off Saturday, at four.
Jake:But you know, we, work, we don't stop working.
Jill:Right, we got no, no, um, oh god. What do I hope to see in the future? I really hope at a state level. I really hope we have gotten our state to really to name that physical education is really important in a student's academic performance. In a statement somewhere in our desi world it is also said and in part of physical education is health education. I would love them to name both of those separately and say health and physical education are both essential pieces to a student's academic day. And then also too, just like I really wish, and I don't know how we can get there.
Jill:It's hard with all the things that school encompasses and all the needs that we need, because we're federally funded programs and state funded programs with public funds and we need to measure things. Is I feel like I really want to see it names that like it's not hey, wherever you can work physical education into your schedule. Hey, wherever you can work physical education into your schedule, hey, wherever you can work health ed into your schedule. Like having one presentation count as health ed for a student for the year. Doesn't do it for me.
Jill:But you know what? Right now, I feel like that's where some people are messing with the language and I feel like it's I just want, I want, I hope, I hope in the future that we can say that like that. This is physical education and health that are essential pieces to our kiddos' core curriculum. Like California has put it out there, physical education is the fifth core subject in California in some of the districts I think almost all districts and just say, like you know, like every kid should be engaging in physical activity at least three times a week or two times, like naming it, like naming it.
Jill:I think it would be a hard ask right now to say every day, daily with all the other events but, if we can name it, of saying like we need kids to engage in this all year long in some way, whether it's two days a week, three days a week whatever percent agreed, yeah, and then, after naming it, coming up with an action plan to actually implement it.
Jake:So, but I agree with you 100%, we do need to name it, have it written down. I think that'll definitely with all the hard, hard working professionals in our field. We need, we need that.
Jill:So yeah, and I think advocating for things like I know, like our MCAS testing, is like we need something to measure performance of things, like to hold accountable, whatever.
Jill:But, like leading with data, like that bike program. Look at the academic success If we have physical activity in a kiddo's day. Look at the success we're having with our testing and our academics. Like trying to find data that leads like that. To find data that leads like that. And in health education. I think as we really refine the skills based health education as the whole state is now moving in that skills direction, hopefully in a few years we'll have data to show. Look at skills-based health ed teaching kids how to decision-make, goal set, effectively communicate with each other, self-manage their health practices. Look at the impact it's had on their daily life. Look at the suspension rates going down for substance use.
Jill:Look at the amount of incidences that we've had to hospitalize kids for suicide suicide ideations Like I hope that we can get some of that data to show and like then that hopefully will help lead that conversation of like look, but I also, if we're not valuing that in our curriculum, day-to-day, it's really hard to collect that data right, yeah, and I think that's where individual people's collective capacity of going and advocating in your building first absolutely advocating in your building, then building really building relationships with district leaders trying to advocate.
Jill:we are very lucky in Revere we have we have one of our assistant superintendents who is it is evident she values health and PE to the core and she has always been open-minded even as a principal to change schedules, to adapt things, change things around so that things are more comprehensive when it comes to health and physical education experiences for students.
Jake:That's great. It's good to have someone like that in your district.
Jill:Huge, huge.
Jake:Lucky to have her, but they're lucky to have you, Jill I don't know, I don't know. Oh, don't be bashful. So our final question, Jill, how can our listeners connect with you? We'll take a social media on email. You have a website. How can they reach out?
Jill:Right now it say how can they reach out? Right now it's basically email. Um social media for me is basically I mean, since twitter is converted to x, I feel like it's just not. It's too overwhelming for me yeah and I just think I'm trying to. I'm trying to be a healthy person and navigate social media consumption, um, and I just think it's just one more thing that I can't manage right now. So email is the best way to reach out to me.
Jake:Okay.
Jill:So my email to reach out to me is jillherwig at gmailcom. That's the best way. It's my personal email.
Jake:Perfect. I'll make sure to link it in the show notes so if folks have questions they can reach out to you.
Jill:Yeah, I love. I mean I love talking all things health ed and just there's so many great people out there sharing just people's newsletters Jeff Bartlett's newsletter, jordan Manley and him created a platform that's health and PE. It's called the Health and Physical Educator Collective. Like there's so many different resources out there I'd love to share with people, so that's a great one.
Jake:I'm glad you mentioned that. Yeah, I joined that one actually this past year and more people are joining, so I know Andy Milne is on it.
Jill:There joining. So, um, I know andy milne's on it there, as you talked about. So, no, that's great. And jordan manly, amazing human being. I met him last year at cleveland. He's really close friends with bartlett and jordan is just a stand-up great young not I mean we're all kind of up there in our age, but like still in my eyes like young, energetic, passionate physical educator and dad just really wants to better the the whole field as a whole.
Jill:So him, chris Peppers I'm going to throw Chris Peppers name out there. The newsletter that he puts out pretty much on a weekly basis is outstanding for resources. So many different amazing people in this field that definitely. It's not like I. I'm just going to facilitate the resources. I don't have my own, but there's so many out there I feel like I don't even need to create my own because they're just doing an amazing job with it.
Jake:Yeah, I would agree, all those people you mentioned. They're definitely outstanding professionals in the field, so it's good to know people like that and, again, they're just advocating for the profession, for themselves and for everyone. So, jill, thank you so much for sharing your experience and expertise with us Listeners. If you have any questions, you can always email us at mahperdpodcast@ gmailcom. We'll have this episode uploaded soon.
Jake:We're also asking our listeners to rate and leave a review for this podcast, as it does help other folks find it. Thank you all for listening, have a great week and we will be back soon.
