Holy Trinity School, North Vancouver, B.C.
It was September, 2015 and I was in a lot of trouble. In front of me I was looking attentively and nervously at my new batch of grade 1 students who were at the time sitting like cute little angels. I quickly counted their heads to make sure everyone had indeed shown up for their first day of school. Yep, all 27 were sitting in front of me looking at me nervously not moving or saying a word. 18 boys and 9 girls with one student with autism. That was the only moment that I saw all of my new students sit still and be silent for the remainder of the school year.
On that first day in grade 1 during my 19th year as a teacher, I knew I was in deep, deep trouble. You see out of those 18 boys, about 13 of them could not sit still - period. 15 of them were the first born in their families and wanted to be the boss in the classroom every single minute of the day. 6 out of the 9 girls were quite shy, never raised their hands and let the boys do all the talking and/or pushing. I was so exhausted by the end of that first day! I knew deep down that I would have to use all my teacher's capabilities, knowledge and tricks to manage the class behaviour and deal with their abundant energy and total lack of focus. By the end of the first week with my new students in grade 1, I knew this was going to be my toughest year as a teacher to date.
Luckily, I had a teacher assistant that year to help assist my student with autism’s learning. It became evident that having a second adult in the room was going to be crucial in teaching these little angels and helping the active, dominant and busy little grade ones to learn. What we needed actually was a whole team of adults, yet I know as a classroom teacher, two adults presents is indeed a ‘gift’ in a grade 1 classroom.
At the end of the second week, I went home and cried openly. My husband, who is also a teacher, was a bit concerned and asked how he could help? I was like, ‘Come to work with me!’ I knew that was not possible, so I quickly let him know what was happening every day while I tried to teach… complete and utter chaos. Boys were constantly moving, boys were constantly touching other children on the carpet, boys were constantly running to the bathroom and getting caught by other teachers, boys were constantly interrupting me all day long that honestly I was starting to lose my mind! All my teacher classroom management tricks were only working with some of the new students. How do you get everyone on board? How to build team unity amongst these little beings that were slowly killing me? How to get these high-energy, rambunctious boys to calm down and focus? My husband encouraged me to try something new and suggested more play time outside.
It was during a phone call to one of my new parents during the third week that my ‘new idea’ presented itself on how to bring calmness, and stability to my grade 1 classroom. It was my third year as a grade one teacher by then and I had success with previous classes by reaching out to parents during that first month of grade 1. I call these calls to parents as ‘get to know their cute little daughter or son better’ call. I usually reach out, tell the parents over the phone how their son or daughter is adjusting so far to grade 1, what I notice as learning strengths and some areas that I am noticing that need some extra support. A typical area of extra support in grade 1 is obviously reading. So after an initial reading assessment I am quickly able to decipher if the student is reading at grade level or not and let the parents know their child’s results. Also in this phone call, I ask questions about the student, specifically how they behave at home and if there are strategies that the parents use that could work for me in the classroom. This is a very nice way of saying, “Yes, your son is adjusting to his new grade 1 environment, his new peers yet at times are having trouble listening, sitting and focusing for periods of time…can you give me some insight into your child?” It usually works like a charm. Often I find out more about the student from their parents like their ‘likes and dislikes’ and I can use all that information in the classroom to make a positive connection with each child. I love making those phone calls to parents!
So on a particular call on a Friday afternoon, one parent of one of my busiest, high energy student’s, said to me that she often takes her son to the local park before and after school to ‘run him.’ Her words, not mine! She said I quote, “He has so much energy every day, that it is the only way I can get him to listen to me in the morning and around dinner time.” Run him. Those words triggered sometime deep inside of me.
The following Monday I decided to try something new. After I said, “Good morning!” to each of my busy angels and quickly took attendance before anyone got any ideas to take over and quickly told them, to “Line up at the door without a sound.” That last bit of instruction was almost impossible for them, yet after 3 tries to line up without a sound, they did it. “Great job grade 1’s!!”
I led them outside to the playground in single file. You might be thinking I was going to let them play freely on the play structure? No way! I had different plans for my active angels that Monday morning. I was going to run them.
As the team leader, I told my sweet, adorable, energetic students that I had a challenge for them. The challenge that morning was to run as many laps around the play structure as they could in 10 minutes. Some of the boys started to run right away…I blew the whistle and yelled, “Stop!” and “Not yet!” You see I was a physical education teacher for 7 years, so I knew how to work a whistle like a pro. I had the boys come back. I then gave my second instruction. I was going to select a leader to lead the runners around the play structure and would pick a new leader every day. I proclaimed in a loud teacher voice, “Who can be a leader that runs fast and sets a good pace for their fellow classmates?” Many of the boys' hands went up fast! A good start indeed was unfolding before my teacher's eyes. I quickly picked one boy who I knew would keep running the whole time. I had all the students line up behind the appointed first leader of the running pack and said on the ‘whistle’ you may GO! TOOT!! My leader took off like a thoroughbred horse at the horse races.
My job was to stand at the start of the running loop around the play structure and count for each student the number of laps they ran in 10 minutes. That was a huge challenge for me, for there were 27 students and they all wore the same uniform to school. I did my best! As excited children with flushed running faces approached at the end of each lap, I would quickly raise my hand, so they could ‘hi-five’ me. The boys hit my hand with great gusto. Having two young, active, strong sons at home I knew this was a possibility and tolerated their ‘intense’ high-fives as best as I could. The boys were loving it! If a student stopped, I told them to keep moving by walking and when they got new energy, to start running again. The words of encouragement, “You can do it!” was like a lightning rod for some of my students. Some of the students asked to stop when tired, and I quickly reminded them we were running as a team and you cannot not stop till the end. “Just slow down to get your breath back! Then start running again.” They responded as well to my kind words of encouragement.
At the end of the 10 minutes, I blew the whistle to ‘STOP’ and asked all the children to come towards me. The sight in front of me made my heart melt. All of the grade one students were exhausted, red-faced, completely quiet, with many big smiles on their faces. They all looked up at their fearless leader attentively. I said, “Fantastic job grade ones!” and how impressed I was with their running skills. I had already let them know the first week of school that I ran competitively for Canada and for my university and running was my ‘thing.’ They waited for my next instruction in silence. I let them know the most number of laps run by a student without naming who it was. I said, “That is our class record.” We will come outside tomorrow to see if anyone in this fantastic grade 1 class can beat it tomorrow. I asked them to line up in silence. They followed my instructions the first time. A small miracle was unfolding before my teacher's eyes. I was smiling all the way back into the classroom.
That morning in the classroom after our morning run ran like clockwork…mostly. The students were calmer, quieter and listened to me more during lessons. There were still interruptions yet less of them. There were still kids touching other kids, yet they responded to my voice better and made a change in their behaviour. The afternoon to my memory was quite chaotic, yet I still felt victorious at the end of the day.
You see I had also just read the book Spark, written by John J. Ratey who proves through evidence-based research that exercise can truly transform the human brain. In one study, he found that students who exercised every day before high school in the end performed better in tests and thus secured higher grades. Heck, if morning exercise could help teenagers perform better, why couldn’t daily exercise help cute little six years perform better too?
My little morning running club ran all year that year, rain or shine. Since we lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, where children love playing in the rain all winter long, this did not prove to be a problem for my class. All my grade one students became excellent runners and loved this daily physical activity (DPA) each morning. Each morning, I would select a new leader, I would give them a new running goal and blow the whistle. Off they would go, running their hearts out every single day. As their fearless running coach, I would have a huge smile on my face every single time.
In the classroom, the running bond formed outside with my energetic little runners started to help strengthen the bond inside the classroom. I slowly got to know each student better through daily conversations and learned overtime who needed extra words of encouragement, needed to sit alone, needed to be close to me while teaching on the carpet or needed a focus item (plastic snake, soft ball) to hold during teacher instruction. I basically learned what to give each of my high-energy angel grade 1 students, what they needed to focus and to learn. Students started to settle down over time and focus more on their school work as the year progressed. My first born students learned how to work cooperatively with others and share things with their peers instead of being dominant. My shy students started to have a voice, for less students were trying to interrupt them and in the end, respected what they had to say. We made small gains each day together that year emotionally, socially and academically.
Every single day that year in grade 1 was like running a marathon. I would start off fresh, set a pace and slowly get more tired by the end having to dodge so many other bodies (challenges that rose up) that I would be totally out of gas by the end of the day. Completely and utterly depleted every single day.
In the end the daily run did wonders for my grade 1 students. It taught them to set goals, challenge themselves and stay focused. Our daily runs were soon increased to 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. We were having so much fun outside even when wet, often kids didn’t want to go back inside.
Parents were happy! Their sons and daughters were applying themselves more to their lessons and having more success reading, writing and basically getting along better with others each day. The DPA was not a magic bullet by any means, but it was the daily catalyst that set the wheels of learning in motion while in the classroom. We were indeed on this learning journey together and we had learned to stick it out no matter what. Also, kids were going home telling their parents all how well they did during the run challenge and how much fun they were having with Ms. Powers. It was a win-win in my opinion and I was glad to hear that happy news stories were trickling home.
At the end of the year I was thrilled. Thrilled to have completed my hardest year as teacher to date, thrilled to have taught all those wonderful rambunctious and/or shy children the love of running and thrilled that they were moving onto grade 2!
As I think back on my 2015-16 school year, all I can do is just smile thinking of each of those lovely kids in my grade one class. To this day, I can see all of their faces so clearly. I will never forget them. It was a tough year yet one full of memories and stories that could last a lifetime.
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