Schoolwide Physical Activity: A Comprehensive Guide to Designing and Conducting Programs

Audience: Reference for K-12 PE and classroom teachers, directors, principals, and administrators overseeing physical activity programs and wellness policy compliance. Text for college PE majors and elementary classroom education majors. Also a reference for community youth program leaders.

Physical activity doesn’t have to be confined to physical education class. Many schools are discovering the benefits of incorporating physical activity throughout the day. In fact, schools increasingly need to do so as requirements for weekly minutes of physical activity expand beyond the time available for physical education class.

With Schoolwide Physical Activity: A Comprehensive Guide to Designing and Conducting Programs, K-12 classroom teachers and administrators will learn how to design and conduct activity programs that not only meet wellness policy requirements and goals but also motivate and encourage all students to be physically active.

The premise of this innovative guide is that physical activity in schools is not the sole responsibility of the PE teacher. It is the responsibility of all administrators and teachers—and is most successful when it is integrated throughout the curriculum.

To that end, Schoolwide Physical Activity highlights the role of elementary classroom teachers in providing opportunities for physical activity, and it offers an array of tools and programs for teachers to incorporate in their classrooms. At the secondary level, the book creates a vision of a good physical activity program and then shows secondary teachers and administrators how to achieve that vision. Through this text, teachers and administrators receive

• a blueprint for building a comprehensive and coordinated K-12 physical activity program;

• ready-to-use activities and forms; and

• program ideas that address both the needs and desires of all children, not just the small percentage who gravitate toward physical activity.

Schoolwide Physical Activity comes with a CD-ROM that contains all the printable activities, forms, and tools from the book and over 200 activities for classroom teachers, inclusive transitional activities, integrated lessons, and simple games and dances. The comprehensive guide includes a Web site with an instructor guide, presentation package, and test package.

This resource will help teachers and administrators see their roles and responsibilities in a new light and gain stakeholder support for wellness and activity programs, and it will assist in coordinating efforts among all involved in providing students with safe and appropriate programs that will transform their schools into more active places for learning.

Judith E. Rink, PhD, began her career as an elementary physical education teacher in 1965. She is a professor in the physical education department at the University of South Carolina, where she taught for nearly 30 years and served as department chair for more than 10 years. She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the Teacher Educator Honor Award from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) in 2007 and the NASPE Hall of Fame Award in 2000.

Rink has authored or coauthored six other physical education and physical activity books and has written dozens of articles for refereed publications. She has presented numerous papers at state, national, and international conferences, and she serves as the South Carolina physical education assessment program director. She also serves on the NASPE Assessment Task Force and served on NASPE’s board of directors from 2003 to 2006.

Tina J. Hall, PhD, is an assistant professor in the physical education department at the University of South Carolina. She taught elementary and middle school physical education for 18 years and conducted several programs similar to those addressed in this book. She has conducted numerous workshops and in-services for physical education teachers, encouraging them to take a leadership role in promoting schoolwide physical activity, and has also conducted workshops and in-services for classroom teachers to help them provide opportunities for physical activity throughout the school day.

Hall has taught physical education for elementary classroom teachers since 2002 and has taken a lead role in physical activity training for physical educators and classroom teachers in South Carolina. She is a member of NASPE and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). She was named the Tennessee AHPERD Teacher of the Year in 1995.

Lori H. Williams, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. She has taught physical education at the elementary, middle school, and college levels and has taught other subject matter at the elementary and middle school levels. Her 25 years of teaching experience includes 14 years in public schools. She served as president of the South Carolina Association for Physical Education and Sport in 2006; during her tenure as president she developed material and initiated workshops for physical activity directors in South Carolina elementary schools.