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Fit Connection
Fit Connection is a podcast and video series that aims to build community among Health and PE educators by highlighting amazing teachers and administrators and sharing opportunities for growth and professional development. The show is hosted by Stevie Ray Gray, who teaches at Short Pump Elementary School in Henrico County, and whose infectious curiosity puts his guests at ease. The podcast is produced by Blue Ridge PBS in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education.
Fit Connection
Episode 104: Let’s Go to the Park!
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Join Fit Connection Host Stevie Ray Gray as he talks to two teachers from Virginia Beach whose students benefit from a unique partnership with their local Parks and Recreation facilities.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZAAEPNfLcAs
It's the Fit Connection podcast, linking classrooms and communities with what works in health and picture. Here's your host, Stevie Ray Gray.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna get off of the sidelines and get into the game. I'm your host, Stevie Ray Gray, and this is Fit Connection. Now, Parks and Rec uh plays a vital role in the health and fitness of a whole community, and we've got a couple of really amazing professionals to help us discuss this relationship. So let's get moving. Hey everybody, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_01Wonderful, and fabulous.
SPEAKER_04Amazing. So, first before we get into it, I would love for you to just take a little bit of time to introduce yourself to our audience. So, how about you give me your first and last name and uh what you teach and your county?
SPEAKER_02Uh, my name is Amanda Romero. Uh, I teach biology at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
SPEAKER_01Hi, I'm Marika Dutton, and I teach health and PE at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. Two high school teachers. That's really good to get an opinion from you. We've been talking to elementary teachers for a while. Uh well, thank you so much, Amanda Marika, for coming on. And parks and recreation and the relationship with PE. So, from my experience, the only thing that I know about parks and recreation in our community is that they will come into my gym sometimes with programs. Um, and I know that some of my students use some of the programs outside of school, but how does Bayside is a Bayside? Yes, yes, sir. Bayside like say by the Bell Bayside.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04How does Bayside High uh utilize parks of recreation? Or what's the programs look like? Or just give me a basic overview.
SPEAKER_01I'll take on this. Um, so we use the recreation center that's right literally right down the street from us. Um we use it as an extension of our classrooms here for health and PE. Um, and we are a combination class called Sci-Fi. Um, so we develop help the kids develop a lifelong, healthy habits of you know, that extend beyond just school so they can continue it in their future and throughout their lives.
SPEAKER_04So a sci-fi and an acronym for something?
SPEAKER_02Science and physical education.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's cool. And so, how do you two play a big part in the science and physical education parts of that program?
SPEAKER_02So years ago, we developed this program, um, kind of piggybacked off another school, but we just expanded it well beyond what we can ever imagine. And we take a course of science with PE and we combine them together with different concepts. So health and pe. So we match up our curriculums, especially at the beginning of the year, and we try to coordinate where we can what whatever Maurica's teaching and whatever I'm teaching, how can they come together cross curricula? So, for example, when we go to the Rec Center, um we have this project at the end called the Passion Project, where they take a concept from my class of biology of what they've learned throughout the year, and a concept from her class, and they research it. It's based on their interests, on what they want to learn about, and it's all research based on what they want to do. So when we go to the rec center, they are able to use the Teen Media Studio to help set up and pursue that whole project. And even when we're not at the Rec Center, we combine classes here as well to um, like I said, combine the classes in order for them to see that it's not just biology they're learning, it also um has a lot to do with their everyday lives with health and fitness as well. So it just depends what topic we're teaching and that sort of that's really cool.
SPEAKER_04Uh when you say that you go to the rec center, can you explain what that looks like for is it like a field trip? Do you have to like plan it out or is it part of a more guesses?
SPEAKER_01It's definitely planned out. Um we take and leave the school every Thursday and Friday because we have AD A B days here at Bayside. Um so on those days, we take a big yellow bus and we take all of our kids from our that day and we take and transport them to the uh rec center down the street. We spend two blocks there, about two and a half blocks, honestly. Um, and then we all bust back afterwards.
SPEAKER_04And they're on task the whole time while they're there, usually, usually so I'm assuming that there's some kind of joint agreement between the school and the rec center. Can you if you were part of that planning process? That well, did you two like spearhead this program? Let's start with that. How did how did it come to be? What were the beginnings of this? Because it sounds really awesome. I'm sure a lot of people would like to understand how it started, maybe how to do it at their schools.
SPEAKER_02Um, okay, so this started. Oh my god, when did it start? Probably COVID year. And that's when before Maurica and I were even even a part of this, uh, about a year, it was just in the making. So it was pretty much like, hey, we want to reach this partnership. Is can we do this? Is it possible to do this? And it all started with lifeguarding certification. So where the beginning time before COVID ruined everything, um, the whole plan was to be busted over there every day. Um, the kids got in the pool, XYZ. Well, I was brought in as the academy teacher because we are a health sciences academy, and she is the P portion of that, and I'm the biology portion of that. And we decided to um expand it a little more. So, what we mean by that is like we like Morica said, we plan it at the beginning of the year. So we always hop on a Zoom meeting with all the parks and recs people you can possibly think of. There's probably about 20 of us in there, and we just lay pretty much what we want to do for that coming year. And we've expanded it well beyond, we've been doing this for what is this, five years now, year, fourth year. And um, we've expanded it well beyond of what we could even ask for. So when we get transported over there, um, right now, for example, our students are learning hands-on CPR to get CPR certified through the American Red Cross. And the lifeguards over there are teaching them that. So we don't even have to teach them that because I mean we're certified in CPR, but we are not instructors. So we are able to transport our students over there and they get to learn all of this for practically nothing. And they get to learn first aid and AED training. Whereas at the high school level, all they have to learn to do is the uh hands-on, if I'm not corrected, correct? Just compressions. Yes, just compressions. At Williams Farm, they're able to get the full shebang. And not only that, after they're done with CPR, they have a choice to go to the lifeguarding track to become certified lifeguards. And they're in the pool and they're training to become lifeguards. And we've had many students in the past that get jobs as lifeguards because of this partnership that we have. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_04So I my follow-up question to that would be um all about the staff, I guess, at the rec department. Like, what's the name of the rec center?
SPEAKER_01The Williams Farm Rec Center. Um, the staff there, we we send an email just at the ending of every week to let them know. So this is what we're thinking, um, according to what we've already established the summer before, because we meet after the year, end of the year, and we talk about okay, so this is what worked, this is what didn't, this is what we'd like to add, so forth, so on. And there's all kinds of departments involved. It's the aquatics, it's the um the weight room staff, it's the front desk, and so forth and so on. All people in the building kind of know that we're coming. Um, so everybody's involved and got their hands on, you know, in doing something with us. Um, so we talk about this and then we will send them our our weekly schedule, if you will, to let them know that, okay, this is what we plan on doing. And we always say that we're flexible because we know things happen, right? Where something, somebody might not show up because of the XYZ or what have you. So we are very we adjust accordingly. Um, but yeah, we give a schedule, say, hey, this is what we plan on doing. If it doesn't work, please let us know and then we'll adjust and send another schedule out. And it's always um kind of gridded, I guess. We break it into compartments where so all the kids aren't in one area at one time, because that can be very overwhelming to have a whole bunch of kids in one area. Um, so they're broken up to at the beginning in four parts. So there's people in the media center, um, then there's people doing aquatics, and then there's people doing um, if there's a classroom learning section or so forth, or having lunch. So it kind of depends on, you know what I mean, like what we have going on that day, or they're upstairs in the weight room and learning about the safety of the equipment and just how to function with people being in the facility that they don't know. Because a lot of times when you go in a facility, one, you don't know the equipment, you're new to it. And not everybody knows how to act when they're in public or how to share or how to share a space, you know.
SPEAKER_03Is that a problem in high school too? Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01So we we kind of introduce them into that and say, hey, you know, you're sharing space with somebody and you have there's an etiquette, you know, when you go to the gym. It's not just go to the gym, throw away weights, and leave, you know, you gotta pick up your weights, re-rack your stuff, be nice, wipe things down, you know, be courteous that there's people on the track that are walking, not running. So there's a lot of etiquette and rules that they also, you know, learn and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04So a lot of social element that's social interaction. Yes, yes. Do you find it's difficult for the staff at these places to adjust to your curriculum?
SPEAKER_02I wouldn't say so. Um, they're pretty accommodating. And when I say pretty accommodating, very, very accommodating. Um, so in the past couple years, we've had larger numbers come with us. When it first started out, um, especially with COVID, like our academy numbers, because you have to in Virginia Beach, you have to apply to become part of the academy. So it's kind of weird um with Virginia Beach. So, for example, at our school, we are Bayside High School and Health Sciences Academy. So it's kind of like a branch off of just typical Bayside High School. And when it comes to that, we just try to embed everything with William Strong. So, like we said, we just we always make sure, like, hey, is this okay? Can we do this that day? And I want to say, what would you say, Morica? 95% of the time, they're like, absolutely, we can get this done. For example, um, I want to say two weeks before um Christmas break, um their instructor led a fitness class together, like one of those, at what do you call them? Go ahead, Morica.
SPEAKER_01Group X. There you go. Group X. Yeah. We had a group X class where they actually were doing step aerobics. We had, they were getting it on the steps, right? Music and everything. The instructor was telling them what to do. They were following. And a part of that is just because we want to make sure that they understand that when you go to a gym, it's not just about lifting weights. There are other things that you can do as far as physical activity that you might enjoy more than lifting weights, or that you can do because not everybody is at the same skill level when they start, right? So being able to be exposed to those group exercise type classes will say, okay, well, when I go to the gym, I don't have to do weights. I can go do a Zumba class or I can go do a yoga class or something like that. So we're trying to incorporate all other classes or classes like structures into um going to Willows Farm. So, you know, they have options.
SPEAKER_04But do you have any um outdoor education possibilities? So I know, like as more and more, I won't say secondary, um, classrooms are doing outdoor ed like hiking, camping, biking, fishing, at least in my area. Just wondering if you have seen any of that around, doesn't have to be that specific recreational uh facility, but around in your area.
SPEAKER_01We ourselves have gone to um, we have a big, huge park called Mount Trashmore. Um, in the past we've gone and gone fishing around there.
SPEAKER_04Mount Trashmore?
SPEAKER_01Mount Trashmore, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Is that the actual neighborhood? Like that's on paper.
SPEAKER_01That is the server. It was a mound of trash before it was a park, which is really cool. You know, talking about using your resources, right? Um, but yeah, it's a big park with a lake in the middle. Um, and there's like this, you know, big walking track around it. Lots of people go, mound of trash. Um, but we've taken them fishing there. And then we've also held out some kind of some instructional classes as far as physical education out there as well. So they've done like workouts outside and trying to like, you know, utilize um any because you don't always have to have weights to work out. So trying to make sure, you know, that body weight exercises is a thing, you know, utilizing a tree to do push-ups or pull-ups or something like that. So being outside, yes, we've in the past we've gone and done fishing and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04That's cool. So how do you going on that? I was just thinking like being outside away from school grounds or just being in another place outside of the school, how do you navigate the um say liabilities? I guess liabilities and the logistics of moving people off campus to go engage in physical education or physical activity? Like how many hurdles, administrative hurdles, do you have to jump in order to make sure everybody's all the bases are covered?
SPEAKER_02Um, well, we have to get our field trip approved, obviously. And that's it's a big, big little packet, and it's just explaining everything, especially when it has to go downtown because you know, buses aren't free. We don't have to pay the awesome drivers that we have. So we just make it so the kids just understand that this is an opportunity. So we are the only school in Virginia Beach that gets to do something like that, and we make that known. So when we pitch our idea for our academy, our sci-fi program for ninth grade, we teach all freshmen. Um we pretty much sell this program because no one in Virginia Beach gets to do this program to get your certification and become a lifeguard. And the cool part about that is if you get hired by Williams Farm, you are reimbursed everything. And they only have to pay a small amount, but still you get it a pretty much you're getting a free certification class and you get to a job, like that's amazing. That's just incredible to just give back to your community. And the cool part is is they can work at any single rec center in Virginia Beach. It's not just Williams Farm. So if they get certified, they can take that certification and go work at any other rec center, or even our water park that's here, or even um just a community pool, just to use that to build their community um stronger and be able to become a lifeguard, which is amazing.
SPEAKER_04That's really cool. So you mentioned that your school is the only one that gets to do something like this. How difficult do you think it would be to expand this to other rec centers in Virginia Beach for other schools?
SPEAKER_02I wouldn't say it would be too difficult, would you agree? Like, I wouldn't think it would be it's just a lot of time and paperwork. Yes.
SPEAKER_04So are there a lot of rec centers available to serve like all the community? Because I know it's a big, it's a big county.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_04This is a Virginia Beach in like little like counties too. Don't you have like little districts or something within your am I making that up?
SPEAKER_02I think you're making it up a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Okay, just a little bit. I felt like there were like areas in Virginia Beach that you could teach inside of, but it's just a big county, yeah, with a lot of different communities, um, yes, um, either you know, well served or underserved. So that how can you okay, expand it out, I guess, not just to Virginia Beach, but maybe to like the rest of Virginia? Like, what could some people start looking for if they wanted to make a program like yours?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it's a matter of, like you said, um, the facilities. Like, is it close? You don't want to have a program that you're gonna have to drive like 30 minutes for, you know what I mean? Um, and it's just a matter of also like getting together with the facility and all of the people that work in it, as far as like the physical or the structure, the instructors and the aquatics, if there's aquatics, because not everybody has aquatics. Um, so it's kind of gonna be rec center-based, I guess. Um, and depending on what that school's looking for. Like if you're just getting out, wanting to get out of school and do like the weight room part of it, because maybe your school doesn't have a weight room, then I think it would be talking to the facility and their fitness centers, because that's where you're going. So it'd just be a matter of communicating with them and saying, hey, we're interested in getting something started. What do you think? How can we make this possible? Like start talking about maybe possible days of trying it. Is it once a week? Like, you know what I mean? So reaching out to a facility that is close, not necessarily far away, because then you also have the transportation, so you have to get that all involved.
SPEAKER_02So and it's not even that too, not even just the facility, it's also your administration at your school. Yes. So, for example, um, we are an A B on an A B schedule, so every other day, and it's I'm just gonna try to explain things as best as I can. Um, we have to manipulate the master schedule of the whole school, pretty much, I guess you'd say. And for our program to be successful, her and I have the exact same students third and fourth block. So, for example, her third block is my fourth block, and vice versa. So the reason we're able to go for two blocks is because it's during both of our planning. I mean both of our um sections. So we leave directly after second block. That's at about 10, 10, 10, 10, 15, and we go for the rest of the day to about 150. And we eat lunch there. So we have to coordinate with our cafeteria people for the people who um get lunch served at school and don't bring their lunch. So we have to get those served. Then we have to worry about medications. So for we for example, the first year I did this, I had three diabetic students in the same exact class. So I had to get training on that. Um, we have two diabetic students this year, so we have to make sure that their blood sugar is good. We have kids with asthma, we have kids with everything you can think of. So we have to take all those medications with us. So it's not just the facilities, it's just working with your school to be able to fit that program in. And it's it's very doable as long as you have not only the rec center, but if you have an administration that is willing to just be like, it sounds like a good idea, let's do it. And we've been doing this for I mean, I've been doing this for five years now, and it's slowly and slowly just getting better and better.
SPEAKER_04That's really that's really cool. And I imagine not a lot of pushback from your administration either. It wasn't a lot of fight.
SPEAKER_02Not really. Not really. I mean, some days it's kind of like, oh, you need tutoring, we're gonna be at the rec center. So we're gonna have to push that to next week on Monday or Tuesday. So there, of course, there's little things here and there that can be adjusted. But overall, I mean, it's just it's fun. Like the kids, well, the kids this week or last week were like, wait, we're not going to the rec center because we had state testing. And I'm like, no, they're like, oh, so they got upset.
SPEAKER_04That's really cool though that they actually look forward to doing it. So this is like during the school year. Have you heard of or have seen any of this carry over into the summer?
SPEAKER_01Oh, definitely.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um a lot of people outside of our discipline talk about like this the gap that happens and bridging the gap over the summer. I think that's an important thing for health and physical education as well, which is you know, we get them every day or every other day um during the school year, and then they go home and then they come back and they kind of forget everything, or they haven't been as physically active as they would have been with us. So I in your program, do you hear about people going to the rec center outside of the school hours or over the summer? Or what's that look like? Or what are you heard about?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I have students now saying, I never went to the rec center before, and I'm going now just about every week, like at least once a week. And then they'll come and tell us like in the summer when we come back to school, that's like, oh my gosh, I got a job doing lifeguarding at the rec center, or they say, I was swimming. I never swimmed before. I didn't know how to swim. Now I can swim and I'm going swimming during the summer. And it's really cool to see that excitement in their face because it's something that they probably wouldn't have done had it not been for this program. They would have been like, Well, I could have learned that some other time, you know. But it's like now they're actually they're applying it, you know, to their daily life and creating those healthy habits that they established with this program. So they, yeah, they absolutely are saying, I'm going to the right center to work out. And they'll come back and be like, look at my muscles. So it's really cool. So they go after school too. They'll go after school too. Some of them have grand memberships and they'll go after school. Like, I went to the right center after school yesterday. I'm like, oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04Do you have any kind of log that they can take with them? Is that part of the assignments, or is everything in the third and fourth block? It's just handled right then and there.
SPEAKER_01If the logs usually occur during the school day, but we always encourage them to do it on their own, like outside of the program as well. Some of them do, and some of them just go, I just go work out.
SPEAKER_04So works out. So I got one more thing for both of you. It's about um a your favorite part about this program. So the thing that makes your hearts glow, and then maybe the most challenging thing.
SPEAKER_02My favorite part is the end of the year project that they have to put. Is called the Passioned Project. So it's what I told you at the beginning where it's a concept from my class, a concept from PE, and they take it and they research it. But the crazy part behind that is at the end, they have to put their project on display for the entire community to see. So Williams Farm does us a huge solid. So I want you to picture this an entire gym shut down at a rec center just for us. And we put all projects. So last year we had 96 students. So we had 96 projects throughout the entire gym. And the kids dress to impress, they go and they stand next to their projects. And we have community come, it's their family, it's their friends, it's just a base side community. And the kids just show them what they do. They showed them what they're passionate about, why they're passionate about, and what research they found about that. So it's pretty much seen our class and what we've taught them and all the life skills and just things you can think of. And they put it all to what they want to do, that what they're passionate about. For example, um, one of my our students um family has a history of substance abuse. So they took substance abuse, which they learn in health, and then they took genetics as part of my class, and they wanted to figure out is there a solid connection and what research is there to back it up? And they put that on display. So it's basically what they researched and what they found out, you share. There's really no right or wrong answer because it's research-based and they're credible sources. So the kids are very passionate to be like, oh my God, I found this. Oh my god, Mr. Mara, I found this. Oh my God. And they're just back and forth with us. And that's my favorite part.
SPEAKER_01My favorite part would be just to see how much the kids grow when it comes to the physicality of everything. Just seeing them from the beginning of their freshman year when they come in, they're all as tie and timid to the end of the year where they're like balls of fire and they're raring to go. And they're like, look how much muscle I put on, or look how more flexible I got. I can touch my toes. You know, it's just it's little things like that, just to see their growth and the smile on their face that they can do something that they never thought they could do before when they first entered. And you know how you're in a fresh, you're a freshman, so you're in that fishbowl, everybody's looking at you, you know. So um just seeing again their growth. Um, the most frustrating thing I think you asked for was just sometimes when I'm trying to teach a lesson, it being interrupted by going to the farm. So that would be my frustration. Um and those breaks. Couldn't agree more. And the breaks don't help. I mean, I love my breaks, but like if you're teaching a lesson, then you go to the farm and then there's a break, it's just like, there goes my lesson.
SPEAKER_02It doesn't help too that I have a end-of-course SOL exam. So when we go to the farm, it kind of interrupts curriculum-based. So I have to find a way to, I wouldn't say like shove everything down their throats or anything like that, but minimize what they already know and try to condense lessons. And it's working so far because so far it's a hundred percent pass rate. So fingers crossed it continues that way.
SPEAKER_04I imagine a lot of that has to do with the the exercise that's coming in as well. So we know the link between exercise and learning. So you going to the farm and then coming back and putting in more data, it probably helps them out more than we'll have to do some research on that. That should be that'll be somebody's passion project at the end.
SPEAKER_02Next topic, yep, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Well, uh I want to say thank you so much to our guests today, Amanda, Morica. Thank you so much for coming on and talking with me. I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. And thank you, the listener, for spending a little bit of time with us today. Uh, let's keep those heart rates as high as your spirits, and we'll see you on the next episode of FitCon. Thanks so much. Take care. Be well.
SPEAKER_00FitConnection is produced by Blue Ridge PBS in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education, hosted by Stevie Ray Gray, with assistance from BBOE Health, Physical, Family Life, and Driver Education Coordinator, Jim Better. The Blue Ridge PBS production staff includes podcast producer Andy DePew, editor Calvin Luffrew, Senior Graphics Producer Jake Breaker, and Director of Educational Innovation, Tom Landon. Subscribe to the Flip Connection Podcast on Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music, and the Blue Ridge Echo YouTube channel.