Pickleball, table tennis, badminton, kayaking, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and floor hockey are just some of the activities that the Physical Education Department offers students. With the recent changes made in the physical education curriculum, students are being offered these activities more frequently than in the past.

The reconstruction of the curriculum didn’t happen overnight.  Last year, the School Board reduced the four-year requirement to two. Students still need one credit of phys ed, but it is now worth one-half of a credit as opposed to one-quarter of a credit.

As the Physical Education Department was cornered into a perplexing situation last year, the department came together and brewed up a plan to keep their program moving on the right path.

The department developed a new curriculum based on a new principle of creating a new activity based environment where students are lured into the program; the department hopes students will come back to the program their junior and senior years to sign up for gym as an elective.

The department’s goal for the future is to ultimately achieve more than half of the students coming back to the program.  However, the current objective is geared more to the juniors enrolled in PE as of now.

“The junior class this year, seniors next year, will not have to take phys ed at all,” PE teacher Mr. Santora said. “This year’s juniors are our target group for next year.  If we can keep 60% or more of their class in phys ed– I think that’s the number we’re aiming for.”

The department’s main concern last year was how to entice students into enrolling in the program as a junior and senior.  That’s where the department was struggling.  However, they collaborated and developed a new, clear-cut curriculum.  That new curriculum came into effect at the start of this school year.

“Right now, the biggest change from last year to this is that juniors and seniors no longer have fitness tests or actual true fitness focus in their classes,” Santora said.  “We even have some seniors doubling up and taking gym first and second semester.  We [the department] encourage everybody to do that.”

The fitness focus in conjunction with the two day activity component is long gone.  The department has shifted towards a more practical activity based focus.  However, there are two caveats.

One being that the department has maintained freshman fitness.  Also, the freshman will jump in the pool three days a week for one nine weeks.

Then, the freshman will have a fitness based class for the remaining nine weeks. Freshman will also have the chance to choose an activity for two days a week for the entire semester with the upperclassmen.  The freshman will not have the chance to experience a game day.  But, that’s were the department has cleverly strategized.

“But that’s hopefully where the draw will be for eleventh and twelfth.  You know as a freshman they get to experience the game day class.  As a sophomore they get to experience the activity classes like pickleball and badminton,” Santora said.

They’re hoping that the freshmen and sophomores will notice that the upperclassmen are all having fun in gym.

Senior, Tori Planitzer said, “I think that the new gym curriculum is great personally.  It gives you a chance to participate in activities that aren’t too demanding and they’re all fun.  I’d definitely recommend it for an elective.  It gives you a chance to get out of the normal classroom setting.”

Not only does gym give students a chance to relax and leave the classroom setting, but it also gives students an opportunity to participate in fun games, freshman Josh Poe said.  “I love gym.  I go so hard, you should have seen me in speedball.”

Moreover, the sophomores will have activities for three days a week with the upperclassmen.  In addition to the freshmen jumping into the pool, the second caveat is that the sophomores are enrolled in swimming for two days a week for an entire semester instead of experiencing two game days.

Basically, everything from last year is reversed.  The activity component is on day one, three, and five instead of the fitness component.  Then, the new element added are game days, which are held on day two and four for juniors and seniors.

Additionally, the students will have the opportunity to choose from a well diversified amount of activities.  Instead of sticking with just two different activities as in the past, the students have the opportunity to choose a total of four different activities over the duration of the semester.

The variety enables the students to interact with different teachers, peers, and have a lot more fun while getting in shape.  The game days are chosen by the teacher and vary.  One day you could be playing crab soccer, the next you could be playing Trix ball or Santora ball, so on and so forth.  However, the students will stick with that one teacher that they picked for a game day over the entire semester.

“The program we changed to this year we hope can stay for the future and attract enough kids,” Santora stated.  “Our department is very strong.  We are very united in our new program.  It offers the best of everything.  This new program is very strong and offers the students everything they need, and by time they reach eleventh and twelfth everything they want.”