Does it really work?

Common Concerns

You probably have a lot of questions.

How will my kids behave?
How can I make the time when I have so much to teach?
Will my grades actually get better?

If you’re asking any of these questions, these videos are for you.

Mike Kuczala

CONCERN: It’s just a little movement. Can it really make that much of a difference?

“Your kids are going to be more engaged. Your kids are going to be more motivated. We’ve seen that across the board. They’re going to want to be a part of your classroom environment because of what you’ve created through a kinesthetic classroom. It is going to help differentiate instruction through learning style – you’re going to be meeting the learning needs of more kids. And you know, we have five basic human needs – according to Glasser – and they are survival, power, freedom, belonging and fun. And we assume survival. The rest of them, those needs get met through creating a kinesthetic classroom. You’re going to have a more motivated, engaged, energized learner and it’s going to translate into higher academic achievement – and a more fun job for you. You’re going to enjoy what you do a whole lot more, because you’re going to see the difference in your classroom.”

Dr. Phil Burchfield

CONCERN: My class doesn’t have time to move. We have too much to learn.

“But I think where it’s special is that when in the classroom, where a teacher is trying to give some type of instruction and they see students for some reason or another disengaged in the instructional process – and them realizing that they’re not listening to them and taking a time out and say, ‘Okay guys, let’s stand up and stretch a little bit.’ They do that, they sit back down in their chairs, and they are more engaged in the instructional process. So it may kill one minute, but it’s better than killing the rest of the class because they weren’t listening to that staff member to start off with.”

Donna Robbins

CONCERN: Will it actually help my students’ grades? “We actually see their grades improve, I feel like, because of this. They come in – they’re kind of just tolerating life, tolerating school – and we get them active in something that they love doing. They don’t have a clue that this really just helps their brain function better, but then they come into the classroom and they are actually showing growth after short periods of time. It’s really a neat thing as a teacher to see.”

Success Stories

Exercise in the classroom works. Learn how these educators successfully put movement back in their schools and classrooms.

Ready to Move to Learn yet? If so, let’s get started.

Dr. Lynda Taylor

SUCCESS: This can be done even without a lot of resources. “As a district, we’ve had to set some priorities because we don’t receive funding from the state for physical education teachers, so we use local monies for that. And then you have to get a little creative, but we said this is important, this is something we want to do. We’re just going to start from scratch, start with what we have and make it into the best we can. I was always taught that by my parents: you take what you have and make the best of it. And that’s what we’ve done. We’re a good example of how people without money have implemented the programs we have done. We’ve used grants, combined funds. But it has to be a priority.”

Henry Phillips

SUCCESS: Small breaks can make a big difference. “A teacher will be teaching and for a ten-minute period, we just stop and they’ll just get up and walk around the room, or jump up and down. Just give them an opportunity to release energy. Like I said, the lower the grade, the more energy they need to release. They’ll go and take walks…nature walks, so you’ll be teaching a lesson and you’ll get to a point and you just stop and take a nature walk. Just walk outside around the campus and come back in and we found our kids are more attentive when they do those kinds of things.”

Amanda Tullos

SUCCESS: You can move and learn at the same time. “Some of them are just for fun and it’s more like following directions when it comes to the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Cupid Shuffle. All of those – they do help with following directions – and that’s a Mississippi College- and Career-Ready standard – but we also have some that y’all heard today where the students are counting – they’re counting by twos, fives and tens – and so we’re integrating math into that dancing and so it’s not just we’re dancing to dance, but we’re also integrating the Mississippi College- and Career-Ready Standards into what we’re doing. The students, once they dance, it just kind of makes them alive. And as one of our students said earlier, it gets his brain going.”