ODE grant will help enhance physical education programs at Ontario schools
District to gain $64,000 subsidy for initiative
By Brielle Kennington
Argus Observer
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:51 PM PST
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| Alex Moncada (back left), Alex Becerril (back right), Hugo Vasquez (front left) and Andrew Silva (front right) participate in a soccer game during recess. With the help of a $64,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Education, the students will learn different activities during their physical education classes to develop specific physical skills. |
Physical education just became a bit easier at the Ontario School District.
The district recently announced it received a $64,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Education to improve the quality of physical education taught in the elementary schools.
The money will help furnish in-service training to elementary classroom teachers not specifically endorsed in physical education.
Since none of the 64 elementary classroom teachers are currently endorsed in physical education, all will be participating in the training, which will begin next school year.
“They’re all very excited. We had every teacher sign that they were committed to doing this,” Ontario School District co-director of school improvement Melissa Williams said.
The district learned it would receive the grant last week, and, already, plans are in place for the training.
The elementary schools will partner with Eastern Oregon University to receive the training.
Williams said she believes the school was awarded the grant based on the need and also its efforts to work with another organization such as Eastern Oregon University to accomplish the mission of the grant.
“Whenever you apply for a grant you have to demonstrate that you have some kind of a need,” she said. “Since we are partnering with EOU that probably helped us.”
The first step in the training will include an assessment of the needs of the PE program. The teachers will then attend classes that model good PE lessons.
The school will also bring in a PE specialist from Nyssa to collaborate with the training. Though the teachers will attend classes to learn activities that will help students develop certain skills, some of the training will occur during school hours so the teachers may be observed. Williams said she hopes the grant will help the teachers to provide a more comprehensive and consistent curriculum for their PE classes.
“I think it will give them real specific skills and activities they can do with students,” she said. “They won’t have to think each week, what can I do this week?”
Though the grant will provide 64 teachers with training, the money can- not be used to hire a PE specialist or purchase PE equipment. It will be up to the principals to work on putting the necessary funds into a budget to support the PE curriculum.
“I don’t know why the district doesn’t have a PE specialist, but it’s common practice in the state not to in the elementary level, and it’s also hard to find people who are properly licensed,” Williams said.
Many classroom teachers in Oregon face the responsibility to provide their own PE curriculum, which is why the Oregon Department of Education awards grants such as the one bestowed to OSD.
The grant will have a substantial effect on the 1,195 elementary students in Ontario School District. Williams, who also works as a part-time principal at Aiken Elementary School, has worked for the school district for five years. She said she is looking forward to seeing the changes in the PE program and how the teachers will schedule the increase in PE activity into the school day.
