More and more research seems to be showing that performance in
school can be enhanced by physical activity. These two sites,
Brain Breaks and Deskercises, will give you some great resources
for short exercises that can easily be done during the school
day. Some of these are purely physical, and some require some
mental exertions. The key is to give your students an
alternative to spending hours in their seats receiving
information. For more information on the benefits of adding more
movement to our students’ school day, you can also check out
this 2009 story from NPR. Thanks to my colleague, P.E. Coach
Jason Sellers, for bringing these to my attention! My colleague,
P.E. coach Sean Stepan, brought this to my attention the other
day. Coincidentally, this has been on my mind lately –
particularly as I am currently in the middle of testing very
squirmy Kindergarten students for Gifted and Talented. I had
been talking to several people lately about the need to rethink
the design of the classroom, and this ABC New