Newport-Mesa Unified School District has changed how it approaches physical fitness, incorporating a healthy lifestyles curriculum and a diverse range of offerings.
A Daily Pilot columnist outlined how the district’s P.E. offerings include weight training, dance and yoga — and the recent introduction of more nontraditional types of activities such as pickle ball and Frisbee.
“Physical education is more than just rolling the balls out and letting them play,” Kirk Bauermeister, Newport-Mesa’s executive director of secondary education told the Daily Pilot. “We hope that our students walk away with an understanding of healthy living and eating, as well as how important staying active is for overall health.”
The district’s reinvention of P.E. is part of an effort to make the age-old course more appealing to students with more diverse needs.
The columnist said the district’s curriculum is more aligned with how physical education should be built, using a variety of components including free, unstructured play time, with adjustments made for varying skill levels and an emphasis on healthy living and nutrition.
Experts say the most effective P.E. programs don’t necessarily require more money for fancy equipment, and they shouldn’t be strictly geared around skill tests and structured activities with singular goals, like timed runs around a track, according to the column.
Here are some other education news items for the region for the week ending Feb. 22.
- Students belonging to Estancia High’s Medical Academy practiced a variety of emergency procedures needed to save lives in an emergency situation.
- The Anaheim Elementary School District plans to offer dual-language immersion programs at all 23 of its campuses starting in August.
- Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County is a nonprofit organization founded in 2003, which exists to provide clinical pediatric dental care and education for children and families. The group offers dental care at local schools.
- The most recent student mural at Westminster High School pays tribute to Sylvia Mendez, whose family successfully challenged school segregation in this city more than 70 years ago.
- Next month California students will start to be tested on the state’s new science standards for the first time, but with little instruction in the subject in elementary school and few aligned textbooks they aren’t likely to be ready.
- Student members of the Aliso Niguel Theatre Company plan to sing, dance and monologue their way into your hearts with their production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and the original play, “Forget Me Not,” this weekend.
- The idea of teaching in two languages is gaining traction, nationally and in Southern California. Some of California’s biggest school districts, such as Los Angeles Unified and Riverside Unified, are expanding their dual-language options.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with our local education coverage by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates or following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.