Daily Classroom Opener (In the Gym)

Due to time constraints, physical education grant requirements, and an attempt to control behavioral issues through consistency, each class begins in a similar fashion. The class must begin with students entering the gym and putting on a pedometer before they begin jogging, in the same direction, around the outside of the gym. After they all students have put on a pedometer, I add some variation to their jogging warm-up.

Each student must listen for my whistle and respond accordingly. Two whistles signify a change in direction, three whistles signifies that each student must stop where they are and do a strength building exercise of my choice before they continue running, and four whistles signifies that they have 10 seconds to line up in their specific stretching lines.

The stretching lines are extremely detailed in terms of where students line up. Using natural landmarks on the gym floor, students are expected to line up in a specific spot. Students are not assigned a set spot on the floor, so students must communicate with each other in order to have everyone lined up before the ten seconds is up.

It would be difficult to explain the these landmarks without drawing a map, but it consists of four line leaders who set the lines at one baseline of the gym. The rows (4 students in each row) build off of the line leaders. Each column and row are exactly equal in distance apart. The greatest part about this is that there is no piece of tape or paper saying, "line up here." Students were taught where and how they should line up the first week of class and they have memorized these spots since.

One last note, if there is an odd number of students for that day (due to an absence) the very last row must line up symmetrically. How they decide to line up symmetrically is up to them, but if they know that if I were to cut the back row in half, each side would be equal to each other. Obviously, this row would not match with the other columns, but as long as it is symmetric, it is approved. NOTE: This is just another way to incorporate math or art into the PE content.

If the students fail to line up correctly before the allowed time, they must do a strength training exercise of my choice before they start jogging around the gym again. If the students line up correctly before the allowed time, we move on to the stretching portion of the class.

The student that was recognized the day before for exceptional behavior is responsible for choosing another student to help him or her lead stretching. However, before stretching can begin, that same student responsible for leading stretching is also responsible for telling the class an interesting fact, which was researched the night before, related to health/PE.

When the students are finished stretching, the variation of different lessons can now take place.

When I have explained this practice in the past, people have questioned whether or not this was to strict for my students. They told me that is sounded like a boot camp. However, once I showed these doubters this practice in action, they were believers.

The students love it. They think of it as a challenge and they try to set a time record for lining up each day. As of today, the record stands at 6 seconds. Now, that is impressive.

In just a 10 second period, students work on communication (both verbal and nonverbal), discipline, reaction time, other content areas, and behavior. This isn't bad for something that I have seen classes take several minutes to do (line up for stretching).

"Make use of time, do not let advantaged slip"

- William Shakespeare