The summer vacation has barely begun, but Broadalbin-Perth teachers were already back in the classroom on Tuesday, June 28. However, this time, they were the students.
About 35 B-P teachers participated in the two separate day-long professional development session led by district physical therapist Jessica Sargalis on the importance of incorporating movement breaks for students into the school day.
TLC teachers Cynthia Hartney and Karen Klein and occupational therapist Bobbie Couperus peruse S’cool Moves learning materials during a break in the seminar.
“Physical activity helps students with self-regulation and focus, and improves memory,” Sargalis said. “Research has shown that students are 87 percent more likely to retain information if their learning is paired with movement.”
Sargalis was joined from a distance by Debra Em Wilson, a reading specialist and the creator of S’cool Moves, an educational company that uses brain science and evidence-based strategies from occupational and physical therapies to teach educators and support staff how to implement these strategies in their classrooms.
“Before, I didn’t realize how much the kids needed the movement breaks,” said Marlana Scott, who recently completed her 14th year as a prekindergarten teacher. “It’s easy to forget that the bodies of these 4-year-olds are inclined to move. But this past year, incorporating the S’cool Moves strategies into my classroom, I saw my students make the greatest gains in learning in a single year than I’ve ever seen.”
During 2015-16 school year, Sargalis offered monthly sessions to teachers at The Learning Community, during which she taught them various strategies and routines, such as a recess refocusing routine to help students transition from recess back to classroom learning. Sargalis said that after the teachers and students were able to master the basics, they were able to add aspects of reading and math lessons into their movement practices.
“For example, we can do a warm-up to a guided reading activity, and the movement will help open up different pathways in the brain, so the students can reach different parts of their brain to help them with reading,” Sargalis said.
While Tuesday’s session was focused primarily on the needs of B-P’s youngest students, Sargalis said she will return Wednesday to offer training to teachers from the intermediate and middle schools.
“We started this at the younger levels because that seemed to make the most sense, but the older kids need it just as much,” Sargalis said. “Now, if they try to do the movement that their bodies need on their own, they get in trouble. I want to show our teachers how to incorporate movement into their classrooms in a way that is constructive and helps students learn.”