‘Active Learners Tend to be Better Learners’

It’s been almost a year since the subject of has been brought to the forefront of public attention. Last year at this time, parents, students and teachers came out in droves in support of saving ’s job as an elementary physical education teacher at . One argument raised during the fight for Imperati was further affecting the already reduced minutes of gym class students were getting in Branford schools compared to the state recommendation.

Fast forward to now and some changes are underway: Imperati’s job was saved and middle school physical education and health teacher Maia Vargas is learning how to tack on the physical education minutes but not in the way you might expect.

Fresh off a two-day workshop at the Connecticut Department of Education’s Physically Active Classrooms Institute, Vargas said, “The idea is teach teachers the importance of activity because this isn’t really about adding physical education; it’s about adding minutes to a kid’s day.”

Vargas teamed up with two science teachers and one math and one social studies teacher from to learn about a new concept of creating active classrooms where physical activity is incorporated into learning or done during breaks between lessons. In essence, every class would have some elements of movement from English class to history.

Vargas said in increments of one to two-minute bouts of exercise, students will be asked to incorporate movement into their regular classes. For example, a math class may run a multiplication game where students leap onto numbers on the floor to show the correct answer. Other activities are just moving for the sake of moving explained Vargas. One such exercise is using poppers from the Institute-supplied activity kit. Poppers are semi-circle-shaped pieces of Styrofoam that students pop into the air and catch.

“When you are moving,” said Vargas, “and learning, you tend to retain more.”

The Center for Disease Control recommends 60 minutes of activity a day for students and Vargas said the new initiatives of incorporating movement in the classroom supplements the current 40 minutes of gym most middle school students get every other day. "This is trying to help kids get that 60 minutes, especially in the winter when they don’t go outside,” she explained.

Right now WIS is the only school with an activity kit from the Institute, said Vargas but she’s hoping to get a grant from the Branford Education Foundation to purchase more bags for each team in grades five to eight. The long-term goal would be to train all faculty members in multiple grades and schools to incorporate moving in the classroom.

“I never sit down for more than 20 minutes at a time,” commented Vargas. “How can students?”

In her health class, Vargas said she has been incorporating exercise for sometime. With an exit to outside close by, she said she often takes students on short walks between instructions. They come back to the lesson, she said, ready to learn.

Right now, just the five teachers who attended the conference at the Institute this past February will be experimenting with exercise in the classroom; a workshop for more WIS faculty is planned for April said Vargas. Next fall she anticipates that more teachers will be implementing some of the movement activities more regularly.

“This is up and coming and what’s going to be happening in the next few years,” said Vargas. “Active learns tend to be better learners.”