Technology has made physical activity in schools even easier and with more options with “PE Kansas.” This free, Kansas State Department of Education web-based K-12 physical education curriculum tool has seen overwhelming support from teachers all across the world.
Since launching in mid-January, nearly 5,400 users have accessed the online curriculum – including 1,161 from Kansas, along with individuals from each state and 38 countries across the world. Thirty Kansas communities have had 10 or more users, and about half of these communities are in rural parts of the state.
“The Kansas Health Foundation (KHF) saw the importance of quality physical education years ago and invested in the development of the Physical Essentials, Physical Focus, and Physical Dimensions curriculum. This resulted in a huge curriculum in both content and physical volume,” said Mark Thompson, KSDE project facilitator. “The most logical means of assuring universal access to the curriculum was to develop a website to house the content. Thus, PE Kansas was created.”
A team of educators and professionals reviewed the old curriculum, transforming physical education in Kansas in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, according to the website. From there, new activities and focuses were added, and the old content was either kept, removed, or modernized, and updated in a digital, drop-in lesson plan format that helps educators understand how to put together developmentally appropriate, standards-based lessons.
Through a variety of initiatives and nearly $2.2 million in funding, KHF has supported quality K-12 physical education curriculum, and inservice and university trainings for current and future educators. The existing grant, approved in 2013 , has made the web-based curriculum available to all K-12 school teachers.
“For years, we’ve viewed the school environment as a prime place to impact lifelong health and wellness for Kansas children,” said Steve Coen, KHF president and CEO. “Having the physical education curriculum available to anyone online is the culmination of years of work and effort on the part of many dedicated individuals, but it’s also the beginning of a new era of healthy teaching and activity in Kansas schools.”
Karl Ely, physical education teacher at Valley Center’s Abilene Elementary School and middle school, has been using the curriculum for 15 years – even when it was housed in cumbersome three-ring binders during his time in college.
“It was like our bible. They said this is all that you should do. But the binders were huge,” Ely said. “So this is nice. It’s all in one place – one site.”
Ely logs onto his PE Kansas account about every other week – sometimes once a week when he’s looking for new ideas in the beginning of a unit.
“The cool thing about it is these are all standards-based,” Ely said. “I know that the activities are age appropriate and are going to meet our grade-level outcomes, which are set by the national association (SHAPE).”
Ely said he likes how the website allows teachers to customize lesson plans, and select lessons based on grade level, type of activities or classroom settings.
The website also saves teachers time when researching a unit, is free to use – unlike many other education resources – and has creative activities that can help teachers get out of the rut of repeatedly teaching the same thing over and over again.
“It also gives me more free time to spend with my children,” said Ely, who has two children ages 3 and 4 and also coaches boys basketball at the middle school. “I think that’s also why I’m more apt to use it than I was before.”
This resource can be ever changing and growing, where outdated activities can be deleted, and new ones can be added at any time, said Meggin DeMoss, who was part of the team that updated the K-2 curriculum. Physical educators are also encouraged to submit activities that work well for their students.
“This allows us to work together as physical educators to share ideas and to help ensure our students have every opportunity available to learn how to lead healthy lives,” said Michelle DiLisio, one of three high school curriculum content editors.
Next, the team plans on adding activities to keep the valuable tool relevant. They will also conduct trainings and hold presentations on PE Kansas to increase knowledge and use of the site.
“The other thing I hope we have done is keep Kansas on the map for being a leader in physical education, health education and physical activity. I am confident that with this resource and the Active Schools: Let’s Move Kansas project, we are doing just that,” said Rhonda Holt, project facilitator.
Our mission is to improve the health of all Kansans. But, it’s only possible with a broad network of effective partnerships across the state.
