As the new school year gets underway, the Ken-Ton Health and Physical Education Department is continuing its amazing work to get kids engaged and moving.
Right before the school year started, nearly 50 educators from the department met and collaborated to make this school year a successful one. The theme of the workshop was “Take Off – Touch Down” with the goal of updating their curriculum and preparing for the upcoming year.
Members of the Physical Education Department were able to listen to guest speaker Dr. Clancy Seymour, the Director of Health, Physical Education, and Sport Pedagogy at Canisius University. Dr. Seymour went over the new national PE standards and shared strategies and ideas to implement them in the classroom. The Health Department was able to learn about the opportunities provided by the Farm to School initiative, led by coordinator Nicole Zugelder, and how they could potentially be integrated into the Health curriculum. They were also presented with a new curriculum developed over the summer for 7th grade students.
“This work was important,” Health coordinator Laura Jelonek said. “This will enable our department to align activities across the district, fostering new, engaging, and enjoyable learning experiences for our Health classrooms.”
“Ensuring consistent instruction across the district is very important,” PE coordinator Heather Ratka added. “It allowed our teachers to develop a deeper understanding of the standards. Additionally, through discussions by level, teachers were able to provide feedback and work collaboratively when developing their yearly plans.”
