Schools gear up for healthy challenge
By Katherine Snow Smith, Special to the Times
Published November 6, 2007
Students at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel recently had the option of buying hummus and crackers for a side item during lunch. Kenly Elementary School in Tampa has declared itself a candy-free zone. And students at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School in St. Petersburg can spend gym class working out in a fitness room with equipment that rivals what's in commercial health clubs.
On the heels of the state mandate that elementary school students spend 150 minutes a week in physical education, individual school districts and some schools are implementing their own innovative programs to encourage better nutrition and physical fitness.
"We want healthier choices to be easier choices," said Mary Chris Peterika, project manager for the Steps to a Healthier Hillsborough for that school district. "And ultimately all of this is conducive to academic achievement."
Studies show that students who move around to get the wiggles out behave better in class. Some even retain information better if they learn it while they are moving. So some schools are incorporating movement into the classroom.
At lunch, they can't just fill up on pizza, chips and cookies. Yet the cafeteria can't become a place with no tasty offerings to enjoy. So districts are continually revamping menus.
In Pasco County, for example, any fries and chips served in the cafeteria are baked. Last year the popular 2.5-ounce "jumbo" cookie was replaced with a smaller, low-fat version.
"We had a little grumbling at first but they've adapted well," said Rick Kurtz, director of food and nutrition and distribution services for the district. As the district considers new menu items, students are gathered into small focus groups for taste tests.
Schools and school districts throughout west-central Florida are making an increased effort to make kids aware of healthy lifestyles. Here's what some are doing:
Is this really PE?
Students at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School in St. Petersburg alternate their physical education class among the gym, outdoors and a fitness room that resembles a wing of Gold's Gym. There are six each of rowing machines, recumbent bikes, stair steppers and striders. Kids are also jumping around on six Dance Dance Revolution electronic mats.
Among the most innovative parts of this gym class are the four exercise bikes that hook up to Sony PlayStation video games. The faster bikers pedal, the faster their motorcycle on the screen races.
"We researched all the things we could do to make kids happy and excited about physical education," said Carroll Yates, who helped put together and equip a new approach to PE class for the school.
Take 10
Broward Elementary School in Tampa has embraced a new curriculum tool called Take 10 that offers teachers different ways to incorporate physical activity into teaching. Students stand next to theirdesk and do jumping jacks as they call out multiplication tables or squats as they spell words aloud.
"The whole idea of counting by fives or 10s while doing jumping jacks puts it in your memory in a different fashion," said Kathleen Moore, the school's principal. "The teachers slide these activities into their daily routine. It gives the kids the opportunity to stand up and move around and then get focused again."
Teen cuisine
Students at John Hopkins Middle School in St. Petersburg produced a cooking show featuring future Rachael Rays and Emerils cooking up healthy snacks and meals such as pita pizzas, Caesar salad without eggs, baked french fries and smoothies.
Professional chefs helped students come up with meals and snacks and figure out all the nutrition information, which is listed on each page of a cookbook they also created. The county is in the process of submitting the program to the Food Network and Video on Demand.
Jump ropes and Jared
Last school year, Fox Hollow Elementary in Port Richey became one of the first schools in the nation to take part in the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a program to fight childhood obesity that is backed by the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.
Now the school has a slew of ways to encourage kids, parents and teachers to live a healthier life.
At Family Wellness Nights, students and their parents learn to make a salad fun by placing greens in a bag with walnuts and cranberries and shaking it all up. Then they learn games with jump ropes or balls and take home what they played with. "If they do it at school, the hope is, they will do it at home," said Noreen Kraebel, a resource teacher who heads up the Alliance programs.
Teachers are competing in a Biggest Loser contest with weekly weigh-ins.
And Fox Hollow's food and nutrition manager, Darlene Hamm, speaks to classes regularly about healthy snacks.
Jared Fogle, the icon for healthy eating at Subway and beyond, even visited the school last year to talk to students.
A breakfast boost
Breakfast is free for all students in Hillsborough County. Encouraging kids to eat breakfast is a top priority at Lee Elementary School of Technology and World Studies in Tampa where about 85 percent of students eat breakfast at school each day.
When kids exit their school bus, they automatically walk through the cafeteria, where they can choose the hot or cold breakfast line. "We've had a lot fewer problems, less falling asleep and a lot more energy in the classroom," school principal Mamie Buzzetti said.
Katherine Snow Smith is a freelance writer from St. Petersburg.