The Kentucky Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KY SHAPE) officially declares the week of March 9-13th as Health and Physical Education Advocacy Week. Each day will focus on a different social media engagement strategy by utilizing a specific hashtag each day. Share your own tweets and posts each day, be sure to help us retweet and share important messages each day from the KY SHAPE accounts!
On Monday KY SHAPE Executive Director Jamie Sparks will visit Paris Elementary School and be joined by Superintendent Stephen McCauley. They will be visiting with students from Dr. Leann Pickerill’s class to hear student opinions on the need for physical education to be required for all K-12 students in the United States. The students recently learned through a Scholastic News article that not every state requires physical education for students. The students have written opinion pieces to share with Jamie Sparks and elected officials about the benefits of physical education for students. Mr. McCauley will be sharing how Paris has implemented “getting fit” initiatives for students, faculty and families!
ACTION: Work with your students and staff to share student voice for the importance of health and physical education on Monday and share using #StudentPEAdvocates!
As the 2020 Kentucky Superintendent of the Year, Fleming County Superintendent Dr. Brian Creasman has made the health, fitness, and nutrition of students, teachers, staff, and school leaders his focus. He is bringing awareness to create change in Kentucky. Dr. Creasman points out “we continue to rank last out of 50 states for physical activity and continue to rank as one of the top states for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, childhood obesity, and the health concerns continue to grow. Opportunities for physical education, health education, recess continues to drastically drop each academic year.” Through his national initiative known has #FitSupts, he has declared every Tuesday in March as #TennisShoeTuesdays and asking education leaders and staff to wear tennis shoes to show their commitment to improving health, fitness, and nutrition for students and staff.
ACTION: Share this message with your principal, superintendent and other district leaders to join this movement and wear your shoes and colorful socks on #TennisShoeTuesdays! Also be sure to visit the SHAPE America Action Center to send your email to Congress to support HPE funding: https://www.shapeamerica.org/advocacy/advocacy_action_center.aspx#/
KY SHAPE members will join more than 180 fellow health and physical educators representing 35 states on Capitol Hill to take part in the SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators 12th annual member advocacy day, SPEAK Out! Day, on March 11th. In continued efforts to educate members of Congress about the importance of a well-rounded education within the bi-partisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Dr. Creasman and leaders from KY SHAPE are headed to Capitol Hill to advocate for full funding for professional development for teachers for health and physical education programs in schools. Kentucky leaders representing KY SHAPE for this event are:
· President Robin Richardson, Jefferson County Schools
· Vice-President Physical Education Linda Rucker, Bullitt County Schools
· Vice-President Elect Dance Candace Young, Madison County Schools
· Vice-President Elect Recreation Theo Bellamy, Jefferson County Schools
· Executive Director and SHAPE America President Jamie Sparks
KY SHAPE leaders will be asking lawmakers to fully fund the federal education program Title IV, Part A, Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, under ESSA.
ACTION: Follow @KYAHPERD on Twitter for live updates from Capitol Hill and be sure to retweet our messages as we meet with members of Congress about quality health and physical education. #SpeakOutDay
KY SHAPE will share two major Health. moves. minds. announcements on Thursday! Stay tuned for those press releases on Thursday!
Health. moves. minds. is a new service-learning program, introduced this year by SHAPE America to replace Jump Rope for Heart, a program SHAPE America was proud to have created and supported for almost 40 years.
The program provides teachers and administrators with resources to address mental health issues school-wide, which reduces the stigma surrounding these topics while giving students critical coping skills. It is grounded in standards-based physical education and health education and teaches young people how to take care of their mind and body while developing important character traits such as kindness and empathy.
The program includes:
· Free standards-based lessons for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 (grades 9-12 available spring 2020);
· Activity materials and assessment resources for each lesson; and
· Opportunities for school-wide engagement, parent involvement, and community service.
ACTION: Celebrate #HealthMovesMinds by utilizing ideas for student engagement for kindness and mindfulness through free lessons from www.healthmovesminds.org
In the fall KY SHAPE members voted to officially change our name to Kentucky SHAPE. Friday the leadership board will be meeting for the annual spring retreat. We want to hear from members, schools and students about the future of health and physical education and how we best move our work forward.
ACTION: Share with us your thoughts, needs and opportunities in 2020 and beyond using #KYSHAPEforward
