Putting Fitness First in PE

Before becoming Vice Principal at Yuma High School in Arizona, Kathy Hoover served as the PE Instructional Lead and Athletic Trainer for Kofa High School, a sister High School in the Yuma School District. 

 

During her tenure at Kofa, Kathy and her colleagues set out to move Phys Ed from a Games first model, to a fitness and wellness focused subject. 

 

They developed classes and curriculum that would help encourage and support a variety of student goals. But it wasn’t easy! 

 

P.E. has a lot to cover!

PE has a lot to cover graphic.

To make matters harder, many teachers had varying backgrounds and experiences when it came to teaching fitness focused units like Yoga, Weight Training, and general Fitness. 

 

To help each other, a group of Physical Education teachers came together to talk about what they were doing in their classes across the Yuma School District’s six schools. 

 

While each school was at a different part of the transition away from a games driven model, teachers were getting more comfortable, and the weekly meetings allowed for open dialogue around the challenges each staff member faced.

 

What helped the departments persist was the knowledge that this new fitness focused mission was important for their students. 

 

Free Fitness Lessons For P.E. Classes

Looking to branch out from the traditional games based P.E model? These 15 ready to go lessons can help! 

"Students do better academically when they get to participate in regular fitness and exercise. That goes for everyone, and we wanted to provide opportunities for all students in an inclusive way that meets them where they are at."

Powering Up by Partnering Up

PLT4M program options page.

As their efforts began to bear fruit, Kathy began looking for extra resources to kick things into hyper drive. 

That’s when she found PLT4M

“What excited us about PLT4M was that there were all sorts of programs and videos to explore for proper technique and form. There were major advantages for students and athletes, as well as teachers and coaches.”

After implementing PLT4M over three years ago, Kofa has now fully integrated PLT4M into their PE and Athletic program. 

 

Gabe Ortiz, now the Instructional Lead at Kofa, is excited by what they have accomplished at the school. 

 

“PLT4M is the foundation of our program. Students bring their 1 to 1 device to the weight room so that I can tailor the workouts via PLT4M to our gym and the experience level of the student.”

PLT4M rackview featured on a laptop.

In one class, Gabe serves a mixed bag of students, ranging from brand new first-year students to returning seniors who have taken the course for multiple years. 


Each student has access to experience based programming that meets their individual needs and interests. 


Gabe describes what he sees from all of his student’s as ‘agency’ in their learning.


“We have a projector where we loop some of the key instructional videos. But from there, students have personalized weights via the PLT4M app. 


With the information at their fingertips, it provides them that agency and accountability to not just be randomly working out a few days a week in PE. 


Now they have ownership of their progress and improvement.”

Foundational Human Movements Posters 

Help your students master the 5 foundational human movements with these ready to print posters. 

Going District Wide

After Kofa saw incredible success over their pilot year, the other high schools decided it was also time to incorporate PLT4M. 

 

Now, every school in the District is using PLT4M. Similar to the initial transition to a focus on Fitness, each school is at a different stage of their PLT4M adoption.

 

To help ease the challenges of a new technology, the staff still meets frequently, exchanging best practices, and ultimately, making their school’s PE experience the best it can be for their students. 

Student logs workout on PLT4M.

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