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In an effort to encourage healthier living for his students through increased levels of physical activity, Brad Guidi, a physical education teacher at Southwestern Consolidation Elementary School in Shelbyville, Indiana has begun implementing cross-cultural activities into his curriculum.
Guidi has been teaching physical education at Southwestern Consolidated for the last nine years and introduced a new program this year that he calls “Get Fit”. The program is essentially an open invitation to students to hit the gym before classes start each morning in order to “wake them up” and get them physically and mentally ready for the day ahead.
Guidi says that the program is still in its infancy and as such he and his staff are still working out some of the kinks. But the response to the program has been positive and students are showing up to the morning activities in steadily increasing numbers. So far the most prominent activities available in Get Fit are organized dancing and yoga but there are plans to incorporate a full range of activities over the next several months and into the 2015-2016 school year.
Guidi has utilized several of the popular “Just Dance” videos that are available on YouTube and the Wii gaming system and projects the videos onto a large screen in the school’s gymnasium for the students to exercise along to.
The older students have been taking part in basketball as well, not only in pickup games but also in skill drills and exercises. Guidi says that even the kids who don’t have much of an interest in basketball enjoy participating in the drills because, as one student put it, “Mr. Guidi knows how to make just about anything fun for almost anybody.” Guidi says he would “be remiss” if he were to start a program like Get Fit in the state of Indiana and not somehow work the game of basketball into it.