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Quincy teachers use video, one-upmanship to keep kids active

Columbia Basin Herald | UPDATED 5 years, 2 months AGO
| April 28, 2020 11:25 PM

QUINCY — It turns out flipping a bottle half-filled with water so that it lands upright really isn’t that easy.

Quincy elementary PE teacher Andy Harris won that challenge — he was successful five times in one minute. That was between the jumping jacks — the challenge was to flip the bottle three times, do three jumping jacks, and repeat the sequence for one minute. It’s part of an experiment by the five elementary PE teachers in Quincy to keep kids active in unique circumstances.

School was closed statewide March 18 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which presented challenges to parents and teachers alike. And for those classes where the kids have to be physically present, the challenge was even trickier. Kids couldn’t be there.

“It’s definitely made it (teaching) a lot harder,” Cory Medina said. Medina is the PE teacher at Mountain View Elementary.

So the elementary PE teachers are trying an experiment, communicating with the kids through video. Teachers have made two videos so far, so the experiment is still in its early stages. The first video was released April 15 and had been watched about 800 times as of Monday. The second video went out April 21 and had about 350 views as of Monday.

Eric Nelson, PE teacher at George Elementary, was the first to try it, making a video for his students. “We just continued off what he was doing,” Medina said.

There were plenty of videos and ideas for things kids could do to keep fit, but the teachers wanted something different from all those other videos. “And then Mr. Medina said, ‘hey, why don’t we try to one-up each other?’” Nelson said. The videos end with a challenge to the kids, to try the activities and see how well they do.

But elementary kids don’t always have access to PE equipment, so each challenge has to use things readily available to them. The first used socks and T-shirts, the second, a partially filled water bottle.

The teachers do a little brainstorming each week via teleconference. “Mondays are our idea days,” Alan Rasmussen said. Rasmussen is the PE teacher at Monument Elementary. Elijah Gregg, PE teacher at Ancient Lakes Elementary, is the fifth participant.

“We kind of use different apps to fancy them up, make them look cool. Pretend to be movie stars, you know,” Nelson said.

Just like in the movies, the first take doesn’t always work. “I ended up doing (the bottle flip), like, four times just to get one that looked good,” Medina said.

“I was just worried if I was going to make it through the whole minute,” Rasmussen said.

The teachers said they’re thinking about continuing the videos after school is dismissed for the summer and possibly when school starts in the fall.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columibabasinherald.com.

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Andy Harris dressed up in boxing gloves and straw hat to catch the attention of his students. Harris and the other four Quincy School District elementary PE teachers are making videos to keep their students interested in staying active.

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Alan Rasmussen and the other four elementary school PE teachers in Quincy did some brainstorming, and came up with a way to connect with their students while school is not in session.

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