The P.E. department will institute a redesigned curriculum in the second semester of this school year. Before the new curriculum, P.E. classes were essentially split, with half the time spent in the classroom and half spent doing activities.

After reassessing the curriculum, the P.E. department found that there was no link between what students were doing during the two halves of class. Information amassed in the classroom was important for a healthy lifestyle, but students were not taught how to implement it. In the other half of class, students were taught how to exercise, but not why it was important.

According to P.E. teacher Nate Severin, the department realized that the information students learn in the classroom and the activities they participate in must better connect to each other. The most notable change will involve the aquatics unit in freshman P.E. In past years, the unit lasted an entire semester, but now, it will only last about a month.

The new curriculum will focus on what the department is calling “program goals.” These goals have been in development over the last three years and will measure students on a scale from basic to advanced, as well as their ability to transfer the knowledge to athletic activity. “We’ve decided to pick and pull 19 of the most important topics in physical education and focus on that for two years,” Athletic Director and P.E. teacher Christina Amoroso said. “I believe the students will leave P.E. with an even better understanding of fitness, health, and nutrition.”

Students will be assessed in a more comprehensive format that focuses on information learned in the classroom, but more importantly, how that information can be applied to actual physical activity. They will receive a score from one to four based on their level of proficiency. Teachers will ensure that every student has reached at least level three before moving on.

The new system also requires P.E. teacher Erin Lawley to take over Severin’s sophomore classes, and Severin to take over the weight room class, so that he can focus on the new freshmen curriculum.

Correction:

A January article about alterations to the P.E. curriculum stated that prior to this semester’s changes “there was no link between what students were doing during the two halves of class. Information amassed in the classroom was important for a healthy lifestyle, but students were not taught how to implement it.”

Additionally, the article stated that a new assessment system would focus on “information learned in the classroom, but more importantly, how that information can be applied to actual physical activity.” Both these assertions were misinterpretations of quotes from P.E. teacher Nate Severin.

According to Severin and P.E. teacher leader Lorna Sturgeon, the new curriculum aims to strengthen connections that already existed.

The new assessment system is different only in that it incorporates a one through four proficiency scale based on program goals, an adjustment currently underway in each department throughout the district. Finally, the article stated that changes in Erin Lawley’s and Severin’s teaching schedules were related to curriculum changes when in fact the two changes were unrelated.