Mylan Park Elementary School is officially ready to kick off the new “Reading and Riding” program. After a successful fundraiser, ten stationary exercise bicycles were secured by the school in early January to promote the addition of core content into the physical education program.
Pictured left, faculty and students learn about stationary bike program from Justin Wood.
The “Reading and Riding” program is an innovative approach to adding movement in the classroom, encouraging the idea of active reading groups. In contrast to sitting at a desk, Mylan Park students will be tracking calories burned, average heart rate, and distance travelled while seeing how many pages they can read.
Deb Tampoya, MPES principal, first learned about the project online and approached Justin Wood about the idea of raising money for the bicycles. Wood, CPASS master’s physical education teacher education student, is a graduate teaching assistant at MPES.
The school kicked off their fundraising efforts on the website DonorsChoose.org. Wood created a short yet persuasive blurb describing that children retain more information when physical activity is integrated into core subject areas. Wood explained that the bicycles would help in fighting the obesity rate and low physical activity that has plagued West Virginia for years.
The $2,078 fundraising goal was achieved in just 48 hours. A total of 26 donors made contributions, with many leaving encouraging comments and praise for the PE teachers on the website. Social media was used to reach out to prospective donors.
“I love to see the teachers and administrators at Mylan Park Elementary constantly looking for ways to promote the connection between movement and academics,” said Dr. Emily Jones,PETE assistant professor. “There are so many exciting possibilities that the addition of exercise bikes to the school environment can have on children’s and teachers’ physical activity levels and learning,” Jones added.
The Mylan Park students aren’t the only ones encouraged to be more active; two bikes are located in the faculty lounges as well. Approval from Tampoya and the Fire Marshall awaits for the remaining eight bikes to be placed in the library or the hallways of grades 2-3 and 4-5. The physical education team at Mylan Park is striving to promote more physical activity in school and introduce students to ways they can be more physically active outside of school.
Wood specifically cites Drs. Jones and Sean Bulger’s classes as providing him with the techniques to help improve the PE program. “What we’re doing at Mylan Park is a direct result of information learned from the PETE faculty. Their influence helped me,” Wood said.