Students at Almor West Elementary School were on a mission impossible recently when they were tasked with not touching any of the straps on a maneuver maze in PE class.
Students twisted and turned, stepped over or ducked under straps. Some students carefully plotted their route before entering the maze while others simply crawled all the way through. The students were trying out a new piece of equipment PE teacher Jay Shoemate purchased through a TSET Healthy Living grant.
Shoemate and six other physical education teachers in the Lawton Public Schools district bought new PE equipment after undergoing an intensive grant process lasting most of a year. At the end of the process, they were able to buy new PE equipment for their schools. The amount of the grant each school was awarded depended on how much of the program was completed.
“It was like getting your master’s,” Shoemate said of a process requiring teachers to watch videos and summarize them and conduct research. The process also taught teachers how to write more engaging lesson plans.
Phoebe Dunn, PE teacher at Eisenhower Middle School, agreed that the process was arduous, but said it was worth it.
“It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” she said of the grant her school received. “You definitely earned what you got in the grant. It was an actual course. You had to do the research. The grant opened up a whole different aspect of what we consider PE.”
She purchased four pickleball sets, a bundle of jump ropes, a golf mat, a volleyball net and accessories, a large nine square, various balls and a music machine. She said the music machine heightens the students’ energy level and makes them more active.
The extra equipment allows more students to play at one time, Dunn said. Now students don’t have to wait to take turns to play, meaning they are more active during class.
One goal of those selecting the equipment was to choose items that would build life-long exercise habits.
“We are exposing kids to a physical activity they can enjoy and continue through life,” said James Burkey, assistant principal at Lawton High School who participated in the grant process.
With the input of LHS PE teachers, Burkey chose pickleball equipment, cornhole sets, disc golf, jump ropes, resistance bands, tennis rackets, and a variety of balls.
“We ordered what we thought would work for our kids. I thought, ‘If I was in PE class, what would that look like?’” Burkey said. “I’m a firm believer that in eighth hour we all need to be up and moving.”
Students in Katylynn Weidel’s class at LHS have been recipients of some of the new equipment and were using the cornhole sets for the first time.
“Once the weather cools off, I will take the kids to the track to play football, soccer or tennis. I’ve never done tennis with them. I would like to get them out there to work on coordination,” Weidel said. Normally, her students play basketball, dodgeball, freeze tag or walk around the track, but she looks forward to teaching her students new games.
“They love new activities and getting involved,” she said. “The new sports equipment is perfect.”
Shoemate said he lacked enough equipment for his students to play with, noting that he had a rack of balls and a bowling education set that needed to be replaced. In addition to the maneuver maze, some of the items he bought include some scooters and a volleyball net, which will allow the school to have a volleyball team.
“We can do more things,” Shoemate said. “The equipment allows me to expand. A lot of kids just wanted to do basketball. Exercise is more than just basketball. This stretches them as individuals. Not every child is athletic, it makes them feel like they have success.”
He said he wants students to learn to love a game so it will be something they carry with them for the rest of their lives.
“It’s all about life-long learning. I want them to enjoy exercise. It can be something you really enjoy,” Shoemate said. “So far, they seem to be excited.”
That excitement carried over into the maneuver maze.
“I liked it. It was challenging in a way that wasn’t too hard. It wasn’t too easy either. It was extremely nerve-wracking. You had to see where you were going,” Almor West student Yael Salcedo said of the maze. He said the first time he couldn’t do it, but the second time he “saw a space and I was able to do it. I didn’t do it on my first try. I tried, I tried again and I did it. I felt extremely happy and excited.”
Hayden Padilla, Almor West student, said she loved the maze.
“It has really hard obstacles, but you have to face them,” Padilla said. “We usually just play, but today it’s different. We get to do the maze,”
Padilla said she had played with the new scooters and students made up their own game they called the spider crawl.
Dahlia Williams, student at Eisenhower Middle School, said last year the students mostly played kickball, dodgeball and basketball. They also played 9 Square, but with a smaller set. She and her classmates were playing with a new larger 9 Square game recently.
“There is more stuff for free Friday,” Williams said.
Another student, Angel Silverhorn-Henry, said she would like to have a jump rope competition.
Students may not be the only ones to benefit from the new games. Burkey said he would like to use the equipment at faculty get-togethers at Lawton High.