Walking
by Maralyn Fink
I returned to SJHS on October 30th to catch up with Heather Dedyne and her PE-V walking for fitness class. PE-V is an elective class and is offered to grades 10-12. The class is offered every trimester and averages about 30 students per class. According to Mrs Dedyne she believes it was introduced around 10 years ago by current PE- teacher Cheryl Malony and Bob McConnell, who has since retired.
This was a beautiful sunny day with a little briskness in the air. The class will walk anywhere from 2.1 – 2.3 miles. The class is 62 minutes long, but that includes changing out to PE attire, stretching and changing back after class. So the average walk is about 45 minutes of walking. Their goal is to walk as far and as fast as they can each day. Walking is done everyday, weather permitting, outside unless it is raining, snowing the wet heavy snow, or the temperature is below 10 degrees.
Mrs Dedyne said that they have engaged technology in PE-V!
There are several fitness apps for smart phones that the students can download. These apps ( all free ) will monitor their distance, pace, number of steps, heart rate and even calories burned. They also use weather apps so they know exactly the temperature and if there is rain or snow in the forecast before they start.
Thank you Mrs Dedyne and class for letting me join you that day. Impressive how the kids take this in stride and no one lags. They chat with each other and seem to be enjoying this type of class.
Oh, as I could have used some cookies, it didn’t seem that this was the time to bring mine out. You know, calories and all.