People always tell me they are amazed that I can handle a whole day with freshman girls. While there is nothing more entertaining than 14-16 year old girls and their vast array of drama and emotions, along with a plethora of eye rolls, super loud laughter, and general goofiness, but there are times when they totally amaze me.
One of those days took place last Friday during my 7th hour. We were fully engaged in their favorite activity, "Fabulous Fitness Friday" and this week it was "Teacher Pursuit". The girls were to complete two laps on the track, pretty easy, but there was a catch, I would be chasing them. I wore my GPS watch and stayed right on a 10 min mile pace. I also gave them a head start. For every student I passed during the run was equal to 5 push ups for the class (and me) because "we were doing this as a team".
My first 5 classes of the day went well and much as I expected. The speedy kids took off and some of the others had to be encouraged a bit. On average, we did about 25-35 push ups a class. The kids were pretty nice to the kids that were passed as we tried to keep it very none-threatening though a few were not too happy, but then came 7th hour.
This is my class with quite a few athletes. I told them them the activity and they took off swearing they would not do any push ups. I gave them their head start and as I got a little closer to the end of the group, I noticed that three of my fastest kids were at the end of the pack. I thought that was a bit odd until I got closer and I realized that these athletic, popular girls were pushing along their classmates that were at the end of the pack. They were yelling encouragement, putting their hands on their backs, and cheering like crazy and to my surprise, these girls, who usually don't make it one lap without walking were running and SMILING. It could not help but smile and tear up a bit. My girls are getting it, they are understanding that fitness and activity is not just about physical ability but about being healthy, about accomplishing something as an individual AND as a team. They are learning there is joy and satisfaction in the success of others and that being first is not always the only outcome. WOOOHOOO! If I can teach them that, I have accomplished a lot. This moment made all the craziness worth it.
I wish I could end this blog by saying everyone of my students has fallen in love with fitness and healthy living. Believe it or not, this is not always a high priority for a 15 year old. But there has been a major shift in attitude. They like working together in their fitness teams, they talk about their fitness improvements (they all tell me about their 6 packs and the workouts they do at home :) ), they tell me what they eat for lunch just because they decided not to have Hot Cheetos that day....this is all awesome. I still get lots of eye rolls when it is time to run, but the difference is, now they actually give it a try...that is really all I can ask.
Yep, I LOVE my job.....plus there is always the bonus that I get to wear cute workout clothes everyday for work...not a bad deal at all.
