The Movement and Technology Balance: Classroom Strategies for Student Success

Educate students in mind and body—and optimize their success.

Technology offers exciting new opportunities and challenges to you and your students; movement is essential to their learning. But screen time often comes at the expense of physical activity. Enter a blended instructional approach that combines kinesthetic teaching methodologies with technological resources to meet content standards, increase achievement and test scores, and enrich the learning process, promoting students’ social, physical, mental, emotional, and cognitive growth. Here you’ll find:

• A neuroscientific overview of the powerful brain-body connection
• Step-by-step instructions for balancing movement and the use of technology in the classroom
• Practical tools, templates, and vignettes to ensure successful implementation
• Classroom management tactics and useful remedies for common problems

Traci Lengel is a Health and Physical Education teacher in the Pocono Mountain School District.  With more than twenty-six years of experience, Traci’s knowledge in movement education, kinesthetic furniture, motor development, lifelong fitness/wellness, health education, movement/technology balance, curriculum design and educational/content publication has contributed to the success of her insightful programs and consultations.  Additionally, Traci is an adjunct professor at La Salle University in Pennsylvania and The College of New Jersey.  In conjunction with these positions, she is a designer/coauthor of three graduate courses.  These highly esteemed graduate courses, titled Wellness: Creating Health and Balance in the Classroom, The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement and The Kinesthetic Classroom II: Moving across the Curriculum, have had a profound effect on the personal and professional lives of thousands of educators. Furthermore, Traci is coauthor of the book The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement, which was published in 2010 and is a best-selling educational publication. Her most recent publications, in 2017, are Ready, Set, Go: The Kinesthetic Classroom 2.0 and in 2018, Classrooms on the Move: Using Kinesthetic Furniture to Create a New Age of Learning.

As co-owner of her own educational consulting company ActivEDge, Traci is a consistent leader in her field.  She also balances an additional career position with the company Kidsfit. This corporation manufactures and sells kinesthetic furniture while providing educational experiences for instructional usage and application for these innovative designs.  These careers allow her to show others how to utilize active teaching methods in a variety of settings to enhance educational achievement and peak performance of learners of all ages and abilities.  Traci travels extensively to support and promote her passion for improving the health and well-being of children all over the world, while bringing learning to life.

Known for her enthusiasm, innovation, work ethic and passion, Traci devotes much of her time to both her personal and professional successes.  With her motivational teaching methodology, she presents and facilitates professional development trainings and workshops. Traci provides keynote presentations for active education along with meaningful programs in the areas of movement/technology balance, wellness, stress management and teaching/learning through movement in a kinesthetic classroom.  Her ultimate professional challenge is to inspire educators at all levels to incorporate movement into their daily teaching.  Traci’s greatest joy is the unconditional love and support she shares with her family and friends.  She is kindhearted and committed to bringing fun and laughter to education and the people who share her journey. Traci is persistent, dedicated and leaves a lasting impression.  She can be reached at theactivedge@gmail.com.

Jenna Evans is a teacher in the Pocono Mountain School District with over seventeen years of experience in the classroom. Jenna has extensive knowledge of best practices in Early Childhood Education and she prides herself on delivering innovative, developmentally appropriate instruction that reaches all learners alike. Jenna is a leader in her profession, having served on a variety of committees that support Positive School-wide Behavior programs, Read Across America, technology growth and integration, and specialized school events. In addition, she serves on a collaborative writing team that continuously assesses and rewrites the Kindergarten English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum to ensure her school district is providing rigorous instruction that supports all of the PA Core Standards. Jenna is the co-author of the book Classrooms on the Move: Using Kinesthetic Furniture to Create a New Age of Learning.

Jenna received her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from East Stroudsburg University and her Master’s Degree in Classroom Technology from Wilkes University. She is the co-owner of her educational consulting company ActivEDge and is passionate about integrating kinesthetic education into the classroom. Jenna has formed an instantaneous bond with learning environments that balance movement, technology and innovative teaching methodologies to optimize student performance while educating the child as a whole.  In combination with her teaching career, Jenna also dedicates her professional energy toward private consulting and freelance writing for specialized publications and graduate/undergraduate course design in the following areas: curriculum development, movement education, applied educational technology, differentiated instruction and classroom management.  

Jenna’s experience in technology integration and design, accompanied with her growing passion for kinesthetic education, ignites her desire to find a delicate balance between the two in her own classroom, while encouraging other teachers to consider the same.  As she welcomes continued progress in her current occupation, Jenna is also excited about postsecondary opportunities to develop the future of her profession. When not advocating for positive change in schools, Jenna devotes her time to her family. A loving wife and mother to both a son and daughter, she enjoys spending her days in the organized chaos of raising children. She sneaks in date nights with her husband whenever she can, and together they enjoy movies, day trips, and quiet time at home.  Jenna dedicates her efforts to her personal priorities and her professional goals without fail as she strives to continually grow and strengthen her aspirations.