P.E. looks different in a pandemic-affected world

RITZVILLE – Physical education is important for students. It provides a chance to not only develop physical fitness, but has been shown to be beneficial for mental and emotional needs as well.

However, when social gatherings are discouraged and even prohibited based on county guidelines, getting those students the physical activity they need looks a little different.

“There’s difficulties with a lot of different classes, certainly P.E. being one of them,” Ritzville-Lind High School athletic director Greg Whitmore said.

Whitmore is teaching health, weight training and a walk for fitness class at Ritzville-Lind High. Head boy’s basketball coach Dustan Arlt is teaching two P.E. classes at the high school and another P.E. class at the elementary school.

The high school is using Edgenuity to facilitate P.E.

“We are teaching a class called Lifetime Fitness,” Whitmore said. “The students get online, watch videos, take a quiz and take tests. In addition, we require the students to log 60 minutes of physical activity at home (per week).”

Students get a form signed by their parents acknowledging that they completed the hour of activity and provide it to teachers for credit.

Whitmore said he’s flexible in his walk for fitness and weight training classes regarding what exercises students conduct.

“Obviously, in general I’m saying, ‘go for a walk,’ but if they want to bike or do some other activity … the key thing is they’re getting that activity,” Whitmore said. “If they’re in my weight training class, I’m assuming they enrolled to get stronger and more toned. That really needs to be some sort of weight training, (but) there’s a lot of things they can do.”

In Whitmore’s weight training class, a Google Meet is hosted. Students are invited (but not required) to join Whitmore, who is usually in a weight room, for a live workout.

Whitmore said his class sizes are “about the same” as normal enrollment, but the pandemic has affected students’ engagement.

“Not many kids are showing up during (live workouts),” Whitmore said. “We’re not requiring that they show up to those Google Meets.”

The smoke and air quality issues last week also forced teachers to strongly recommend that students find ways to conduct physical activity indoors.

“We’re going a little bit easier,” Whitmore said. “With the smoke issues and virtual learning … we’re kind of starting off slow. Certainly, we would like that to be 30 minutes a day, so we’ll probably increase the amount of activity we want them to do for the entire week.”

At Reardan Middle-High School, athletic director and P.E. teacher Erik Nikkola similarly faced the challenges of virtual learning and air quality problems, though the school district is doing more in-person learning than Adams County schools.

“We’re providing stuff for kids to do at home, but all of a sudden, with all this smoke, we had to find ways for them to do activities, but indoors,” Nikkola said. “That has been a challenge.”

Nikkola is asking students to log their activities through a pedometer or activity log. He hopes his students will achieve either 60 minutes of activity or 10,000 steps per day, but said that was a difficult goal with poor air quality.

Nikkola said his in-person students are generally thrilled to get outdoors whenever they get the chance, because they’re in the same classroom all day due to COVID-19 guidelines.

In a non-smoke but still pandemic-affected world, Nikkola will encourage students to get outside and hike, ride bikes or stretch.

“(I want them to do) things that they’ll be doing for a lifetime,” Nikkola said. “I want them to stay physically active.”