No Running

so nowadays we need to bring back a

culture of movement we are definitely in

a slow kill no move culture we don't

want to tell people that they're in a

shape will tell people that they're not

smart and their aptitude isn't there but

we won't tell people that they're

unhealthy I dreaded PE I resented it it

was all about you know who could do the

best and not who could do their best

Opie I always loved P if he was always

like it B go to math go to science and

then finally got PE which is the class

that I love how if you were playing

California kickball seven out of ten P

blocks how do you how do you get better

what does better look like but using

physical education and the importance of

physical education isn't isn't different

it isn't new it's just how our our world

is changing or what we are focusing on

more specifically within the school

environment is

I think that physical education is all

about sport and it's just about sport

and that's not the that's not the way it

was intended nor should it be

it's about getting everybody healthy

physically fit because when you do that

they get mentally fit

you

I have no problem with you if you're a

fat adult you earned it go ahead eat

another slice you know what I mean you

work for that fat go get it buddy

you keep packing it on but a fat kid

it's like no no you don't you're not

allowed to do that yet you got to have

fun the it's such a deal that the NFL

did this thing called place 60 where

it's a program where they're asking

parents to ask their kids to play for a

minimum of 60 minutes a day an hour we

have to beg kids to play are we nuts you

never had to beg me to play 60 minute I

would play for 60 days straight and we

called it the summer do you remember

that a bird's-eye view of any school

playground reveals the same general

impressions children at play eagerness

for action boundless energy the extent

to which play contributes to the maximum

development of children depends on

environmental factors of time space

tools guidance what kind of play

experiences are important for children

what opportunities do they need folks

we're going to zone it in

four three two one Shh we're gonna do a

warm-up game group game of fitness bingo

I'll explain how that works as you'll

notice it's all ready for slot it's in

the corners with pennies in them there's

going to be four teams each of you will

be wearing a penny corresponding to the

color I'll explain more of that as we go

you'll hear it in every generation the

younger generation is so different but I

truly believe in the physical realm

definitely there were many challenges in

today's world that didn't exist ten 15

20 years ago we know through a variety

of reasons that kids are not as active

as they used to be the challenges we

have is how do we try and connect and

engage effectively engage all these

students so that they feel that they are

welcomed it is a safe environment for

them to learn and participate in versus

showing up at a young age

thinking perceiving themselves not to be

good at gym class not to be good at

sports not to be good at movement and we

see this at a young age is like grade

three for to begin we're going to stand

up and space yourself out on this half

of the gym

I want you to pretend that you're

standing on a big bowl of soup and

you're gonna stir the leg

counterclockwise or stir the soup

counterclockwise with your leg ten times

but I do hear a lot of stories about

similar things where people pull out the

ball and here go play and I'm all for

allowing kids to have some free time and

play time and choice time just to be

active and be kids but if that's the

essence of the program it's truly

disengaging for kids those kids aren't

learning about themselves in a physical

realm in fact anything around physical

or health they tend to detach from it

and kind of think of it as a negative

which is complete opposite of what I

believe any physical educator would ever

want for their for their students

alright so in a second I'm going to get

you I'm going to separate you into four

groups this is gonna be the fitness

bingo I dreaded PE I resented it it was

all about you know who could do the best

and not who could do bear best and so it

was all about you know you either were

the shining star or you would you

weren't anybody so I always like

resented that because I wasn't the most

physically adept person and so I

resented like the the entire mindset of

the PE class and how the PE class was

set out and organized

everyone stop talking

did you paying attention as I've

mentioned everybody on the team stays in

the cones with the exception of the

person doing the activity

are you ready get set go

in the gymnasium children are encouraged

to participate in a variety of

activities for the development of these

movement principles physical education

programs are conducted regularly with

the development of efficient effective

and expressive movement patterns as a

major objective which when you're doing

their club one fun jumping jacks okay I

actually look forward to feigning PA now

I don't know if it's the like um the

whole grade eight curriculum peppy or is

it just like my teachers certain mindset

but aside from like the whole

everybody's equal just do your best

I think the fact that they we've

implemented more scientific conversation

into it really makes people understand

you know this isn't just for me to show

off but this is just something for me

too dreaded to skip but this will help

me even in things that I enjoy like I

have math class after this maybe I

should like run as fast as I can to see

to make my cogs work so I can you know

finally implement that equation I've

always wanted to complete something like

that so the fact that science and people

are explaining why you do this why you

do this exercise why you're running how

many laps you're doing

like how crucial it just how crucial it

is for our health not just for our

bodies and because the school board said

you have to do it

did you learn 20 buddy

okay movement is the language of action

movement is basic to every action we

perform whether we are children on the

playground or adults in a work situation

holding it decided she got down

cardiovascular endurance cardio this is

a medical term cardio means heart and

vascular means muscle so cardio is heart

vascular is muscle the best way to find

your heart find feel with your ribs up

and it has to do this for how long as

long as you live that could be 10 years

from now I could be 50 years from now

that could be 100 years from now let's

hope it's long but I think just in

general and phys-ed we've lost the art

of teaching phys ed I think a lot of his

ed programs are doing they just they

just want the kids active they want them

moving and so that's great but I sort of

have a higher goal in terms of what are

they learning what are they getting out

of that program they've got a yes great

they're moving they're playing they're

running around they're doing stuff

they're sweating but what what's their

take away it's really simple you take

energy in you have to balance it that's

your activity energy in balance it up

obesity in Canada has been on the

straight lies since 1972

whether your Conservative government and

blue or liberal government and red it

doesn't matter nobody's made a dent in

that I'm just going to give you a quick

presentation if you have any questions

at any time please do ask as you see the

presentation you'll get an idea of who I

am and what I do so you have a little

bit better perspective of that Dean Cree

Larson and I'm a professor at the

University of Manitoba for 29 years now

and I've been teaching in physiotherapy

and graduate programs multiple graduate

programs in multiple sectors at the

University for that period of time

physical activity levels are so low you

already know this for children under the

age of 12 48% of boys meet that level

and 34% of girls there is no reason why

girls are less active than boys at that

age there's no sex difference at that

age and that's a crime

physical literacy has taught us why that

happens our bodies exist for reason of

we hunter-gathering and even human

sexuality we we want to we want to mate

we want to reproduce you want to feed

ourselves to subsist ultimately all

creatures have the mechanisms of

movement and the mechanism movements

allow you to exist once the conveniences

of society the mechanized world really

started around the 1900s and that

mechanization was you know we got a car

we got combines we weren't using

thrashing ourselves and it really this

has been a slow insidious shift and the

word insidious is my new favorite word

and it means that something's changing

very slowly but harmfully and then you

don't really realise that it's happening

in early nineteen hundred's realized

that people couldn't read and write and

we said let's get on with that for a

hundred years now we've been making

people read write and not help Society

for sure we're knowledgeable or the most

knowledgeable society on the face of the

planet but the problem of that is we've

forgotten about moving

all the knowledge is created

conveniences of no movement watching

things and being spectators rather than

participants we don't have to hunt or

gather anymore

we don't have the necessity to move

anymore and that's where the problem has

become you're going to log roll all the

way to hem ready go blogroll aah growl

aah growl aah growl aah growl aah growl

aah growl aah growl and stop you can

throw to each other these watches right

this everybody just pass our colors to

everybody pass our colors yeah pass your

colors what's your first name there you

go you keep them so you guys make a show

okay make a show that's it here and

let's pass it around that's the attitude

make a show there we go and pass them

down pasta pasta that's right I go all

the way around to throw it back keep

going keep going

do it around that's it get them going

keep going that way keep going alle and

toss it back there we go play come on

there you go that's the attitude here

you go keep on going making a show I'm a

huge fan of physical education and it's

uh it's it has to be put in a at the

same level of reading and writing and

math right now we value reading and

writing and mathematics and that came

for very important reasons helping our

kids participate in society but the lack

of movement in society has never been

changed by the knowledge that we have

knowing doesn't mean doing it's a

culture shift physical education is part

of that culture shift they're one piece

of the puzzle very important piece for

the solution pink wins a hot potato so

you can't touch it too much

that was a great thing about elementary

school is that everybody did pee and

everybody was part of it and I had a

good experience with teachers who really

encourage kids to participate and so it

was taught me about inclusion and the

importance of inclusion and diversity I

think now what you hear is there

everybody is supposed to get an A MP

regardless of how well you do or even

how hard you try and while it seems okay

to differentiate in other subjects for

some reason there seems to be concession

when it comes to me and it it wasn't

like that they don't know how they get

they know how to get an A or or what a

great mark looks like because how if you

were playing California kickball seven

out of ten pee blocks how do you how do

you get better

what does better look like we talked

about kids who excel in math and then

kids who don't excel in math well if

they don't excel in math what do we do

we send them to a math tutor when they

don't excel in physical literacy which

is now what we're calling it or we're

calling it what are we going to do

I'm a piece Peschel astiz

specialist I think a lot what it would

be like if someone said to me okay you

have like 25 hours you need to learn

every single musical instrument and then

go teach music I would be very very

intimidated and very scared to take that

week so the more that we can support our

generalist teachers and our people that

don't have a background and being active

then the more they become more confident

the more they become more competent and

are willing to take that risk and take

to get kids to be active without fearing

that they're gonna be something wrong or

make a mistake okay cameras rolling on

your table yeah okay you know for me I

see integrating movement skills in many

parts of my day we spell out words using

our bodies stretching jumping jacks to

spell out the syllables of words

movement is pervasive through our whole

day and so why not take advantage of it

you don't need equipment to incorporate

it into other areas of study I was

really I was a sporty person so I played

all the sports so when I went through my

undergrad back in Ontario it was what I

was going to be that teacher / coach

that's what I was going to be and it was

gonna be PE because I love sports and

and that's where I was really opened to

different types of teaching a physical

education and that there are many

different types of students in our

classroom environment so what type of

student would you have been in that phys

ed class Adela you said you know you're

the studious ones that like to get your

beans out but yeah what were you Dan

you're talking to me and I am passionate

about physical education that's my thing

my name is Joanna Shepherd I'm an

associate professor at the University of

the Fraser Valley but more importantly

I'm a pedagogy specialist in the area of

physical education so my PhD really

entailed going over curriculum

curriculum more specifically to physical

education within my own teaching and

what I see within the world and from a

parent's perspective and we need to keep

on working upon not really looking at

physical literacy but what I'm seeing is

a cutback a cutback in the importance of

physical education and the importance of

getting their children moving within the

school environment I have colleagues in

math I have colleagues in history I have

colleagues in drama and art and music

all of our passions are needed within

the school system but they only have so

much time I think that's one of the

things that that we are always fighting

against is what gets to go first

what gets to go second but just

appreciating an understanding that there

has to be a place for all of these areas

that it's not just in one side of it's

not just after school it's not just in a

sports club course dance team

or cheerleading that we need to work

together to talk about physical activity

to teach about physical activity and

what I'm going to talk to you today

about is how exercise is really for our

brains physical exercise turns our

brains on now what happens when we

exercise is we turn on our front part of

the brain a part of the brain to evolve

this is a part of the brain that's

called our CEO over the brain or

prefrontal cortex where our frontal

executive functions are and when we

exercise when we move we turn that part

of the brain on I'm a psychiatrist at

Harvard Medical School and I've been

there for 40 years or so and I've become

passionate about wellness and and

overall well-being health and well-being

in the past 15 years or so because it

grew out of knowing that exercise for

instance is a great antidepressant and a

great anti-anxiety agent but also

important to have our attention system

working at its best and I became aware

of this early on in my career but really

in the mid 90s we got the scientific

evidence beginning to show that exercise

was a very important way to make our

brains work best so exercise prepares

the learner

learn it prepares the learner to learn

by improving the attention system mark

told you that I did a lot of work in

attention deficit disorder which I have

and we always talk about attention and

executive function and all that stuff

impulse control well exercise improves

our attention system and improves it

greatly what we've seen in in studies is

that the earlier that kids move the

better and the brain's developing all

the time so the more we do the better

so this interrupt with us too sorry

it'll be a little sore if it's sore here

it's no big deal we don't want to

irritate your ankle but that's okay that

motion it's incredibly important to have

those movement fundamentals um kind of

taught at an early age and and not

shouldn't say just taught but taught and

experienced and and practiced and work

through and that only comes from from PE

class or from play from learning the

things but actually doing them regularly

and primarily because a child's mind is

their nervous system is so much more

malleable than in adults so that that

plasticity of the nervous system their

ability to you know learn something new

whether it's language or a movement or

what-have-you

it's it's they have a huge potential in

those early ages you know as people get

older that becomes less and less and if

you ever teach a child watch it you know

teach a child how to skate versus teach

a three-year-old how to skate it's a

very different process their ability to

learn and to adapt and to change their

patterns is far greater than in adults

and so I think it's crucial that we get

those fundamentals movement skills down

early when when they're receptive to it

you know as our brains evolve we became

better movers we became smarter we

became able to to make movements without

wasting a lot of energy to adapt to new

environments we were designed to move in

the beginning the humans did not

schedule an appointment to be physically

active because most of the day was spent

moving to simply stay alive fast-forward

time and we discovered farming where we

had to work and hard flash-forward once

again to ancient China where the Chinese

studied the body and physical movement

and because of it developed a little

thing called kungfu the ancient greeks

were busy keeping active themselves

olympics ever heard of them during the

roman civilization every roman trained

for the military making the entire

civilization fit for war and the cover

of any muscle mag they didn't call it

the Dark Ages for nothing life was rough

and it's safe to say those who were more

physically fit had better odds of

survival the Renaissance the cult of the

perfect body was sung in art it was all

about the human form and all its glory

in Europe educator Johann Goethe Muth's

sparked the popularity of gymnastics

which led to the entire country of

Germany's movement revolution around the

same time in Sweden pair Henrique Lang

was developing exercises and teaching

physiology to understand how physical

activity affects the body on the other

side of the planet during this time was

the Americas colonial period a mass

movement of humans discovering the new

world

fast forward once again to the 20th

century US presidents Theodore Roosevelt

Eisenhower and JFK encouraged all

Americans to be more physically active

through their various programs we've

been moving our whole existence and

because of it our brains even got

smarter you don't survive this long

without solving a problem or two along

the way which brings us to today this is

a brand new this time when I say go

you're going to run as fast as you can

and pick up a card when you get the card

though as soon as you get the card it's

going to turn you into a slow-motion

superhero so then on the way back you

have to run or fly something in slow

motion back to the center circle so fast

super fast speed to get a car and then

slow motion the way back ready Oh

I started out just teaching in high

school right and so you kind of have

that grade 9 where sometimes it's a

struggle to get kids active for all

kinds of different reasons and going

back in teaching more in elementary

schools as last year you find this like

this excitement and this motivation just

want to just move your body and play and

be active and then at some point that

changes the pee experiences is changing

and I think our clients being our

students is changing and I think we have

to try and meet the needs of that and

it's looking creative creatively at the

programs that we're offering trying out

different things and realizing that what

kids are doing now to engage in physical

activity is different than what it was

before here on the playground children

are engaging in their own choice of

activity moving as they will and

enjoying their own movement pattern

because movement is so natural to

children teachers often overlook the

importance of teaching a sound basis for

more efficient and expressive movement

patterns such a basis can be provided by

helping each child develop an awareness

and understanding of how he moves where

he moves in space and what his body can

do this film is designed to show these

three awarenesses and their use in

developing efficient and expressive

movement patterns well that's right like

peas completely based around team sports

so if you don't like team sports and

like chances are you're not going to

like most of you most of it I I don't

really enjoy just because it's like

sports I don't I have to play even if I

don't like it there needs to be more

sports like more choices because you get

like one thing it's like Kate we're

doing this but it's like what if I want

to do something else that I enjoy I want

to get more of a pea

like these are the kids in PE that don't

enjoy it because like they're so used to

skateboarding like doing doing things on

their own because it is like an

independent sport so you can see

everyone here is like sweating and

actually working hard like I've never

done and you can like this before where

we got the chance to like do

skateboarding because we were talking

about this with the teachers all year

trying to plan it out and Mike finally

we're getting to do it and like you can

see everyone's actually having fun

I never really had the passion for the

sports is like all my friends did and

everybody else in the PE class I still

enjoyed it but it just wasn't meant for

me and I think that we're kind of like

pushed pushed me back in like a fitness

world and seeing that like oh if I'm if

my body can't do this if I'm not I'm not

meant for this and I'm not I'm not good

at sports I'm never going to be fit and

they were going to be active but like

now growing up and see you know there's

other ways to pursue that as other ways

to achieve total body fitness it doesn't

have to be like that so I find I don't

know my PE career in high school wasn't

the greatest but I found other ways to

be active and now I'm enjoying it

through super-fit any other courses that

my school has to offer for fitness now

every person in this room believes in

literacy if you know your ABCs you can

do words you can do sentences if you can

do sentences you can write a birthday

card to your mom you can't you can't go

there numeracy if you know your one two

threes you can do fractions equations

you can jump from space funded by Red

Bull because you have engineering

science every child needs a repertoire

of movements that they can do

competently and we don't deliver on that

right now and if you can't do movements

well you can't progress in life just

like any of the other skill based

literacies we need physical literacy to

be on the same footing in the curriculum

as literacy and numeracy still searching

for that magic answer of why phys ed

math and numeracy and literacy are up

here and we want we don't want to bring

those down we want to get phys ed and

physical literacy elevated to the same

level so we're working on that now I

don't know what the answer is

founder of innovative Fitness which is a

one-on-one personal training company and

two decades ago and basically came in

and tried to positive disruption on the

personal training industry take it from

being the celebrity trainer and buying a

friend - let's move toward some results

very quantitative based and what we do

Kenneth 500 five to ten years which is

great need that but when we got into the

space and we were asked to come in by

teachers the request to us was need

activation so we need a little bit more

than information in education we like a

little bit more than what why we want

the house as it is a troubled kid from a

small town who if I didn't have physical

fitness I'd probably be in jail physical

fitness is something that helped me

develop a sense of self-esteem which I

didn't just naturally have for whatever

reason we found out about the

opportunities with physical literacy in

the school setting because teachers

approached us based on the knowledge and

expertise we had in the health and

fitness sphere and realm and industry so

they came in asked us if we could speak

about health and fitness in their

classrooms so they were going out and

getting trying to get outside help to

come in and speak so when we went and

spoke we did what what everyone usually

does in the space gave the advocacy

campaign here's what you should be doing

and why you should be doing it here's

some information and education what was

lacking was the how or the activation

and the accountability

World Health Organization reports that

there are over 42 million obese children

under the age of five 42 million that's

preventable and that's unacceptable

physical literacy is the Gateway to

fixing the childhood obesity epidemic to

be clear we can solve the childhood

obesity epidemic if we can educate

physically literate populations there

are three main areas that we need to

promote this message in the household in

schools and in society the what's next

is an interesting part when it comes to

physical literacy and physical education

because it's the only subject matter

that keeps seems to have this little

carousel of menu of options that you can

choose from an implement for two weeks

and then throw aside and then do

something else and then throw aside we

kind of dance all around it you know

whereas in math you can't say you know

what yeah I did it I did addition last

week I don't want to do it anymore or

you know we did we did long division I'm

not interested in it anymore it's a

continuum you're building on it for some

reason in physical education there is no

continuum because there is no foundation

ideas into action that's what it's all

about in our own realm our own circles

of influence we can do it in the school

setting it must be measured so the first

tool that we developed was a fundamental

movement skills tracker and just like

reading writing and arithmetic what we

said was in all those subjects you have

a baseline evaluation of where you are

then you get prescribed learning and

curricular they re-evaluate you in

midterms and then you're actually

assigned a grade based on your

progression it makes common sense we've

been doing it for years why not do that

for phys ed we have to find ways to

resonate people resonate with people

around what matters to them and if

you're a parent and you can't rally

around your child's health and

well-being

again Albia thank you there's not much

we can do to address some of your

comments to stop mattis I think this is

a we have a real issue here in New

Zealand because of our multicultural

aspects very because because of people

coming from the islands and so that that

is what really spikes the statistics

here in New Zealand

we're the third largest in the world

after the Mexicans in the u.s. in terms

of obesity markers and so on this was

sport New Zealand who just published an

article I read the article connected

with sport New Zealand and said look at

we got tons of stuff that we can help

you with be interested they wrote back

they were like yeah we are how could we

talk about it that's the thing though

everyone talks about it know it like

we're talking I need to do something it

needs to be actionable

no matter how many sidewalks we build

know how many parks we construct no

matter how we urge people to eat well

and exercise regularly it simply won't

happen unless they have the ability the

movement competence the confidence to

move and a desire or motivation to move

and that's what our physical education

system does it builds ability competence

and desire

the role of PE it's not a separate

entity it's not a separate thing whether

you learn between 2:00 and 3:00 o'clock

it's a facilitator it's a facilitator of

learning it creates the platform it sets

the stage for teachers to really help

enhance student learning and without it

we know the study show us is that

learning will not occur at the same

rates as those where kids are very

active on a regular basis I think one of

the biggest things that we can do when

we are promoting physical literacy is

look at it from this point of view and

this is a this is a point of view that

many specialists around Canada and the

world have really embraced that fiscal

literacy is a journey it is a journey

for children and this journey doesn't

end at grade 3 it doesn't end at

graduation at grade 8 it doesn't end at

grade 12 when they're often there

they're starting their own adventures it

is their whole life why is it important

to me because I have a 4 year old niece

I have a four year old niece who cannot

be still she needs to run around jump

move in different ways balance play in

the park go swimming try skating she

wants to be active I am terrified that

when she gets into the school system she

will be sitting and she will lose that

passion to move I'm going to stop there

because I think I've set you up and and

I'm really interested in seeing what I

have lots of suggestions but I'm

interested to see how you buy into this

and what you see into your future and

and what you'd like to do with it

one of the biggest questions that we

either ask ourselves is what are we

doing what what are we actually doing

that spring reform to the group that

needs it the most which is the kids

because the kids don't know any better

they're not immersed in politics they

have no idea about costs or anything

they're just waiting for us to show them

how to play and at the end of the day we

get caught up in our own focus our own

agendas our own mandates and nishan but

really it's about the kids the kids are

waiting for us to come up with a

solution

we have seen some suggestions for

providing best use of activity tank

select games carefully in order to

permit a high amount of purposeful

activity

I

Oh

haha going name the place I can't go

anywhere and you better keep the patient

only if you dare because

all right okay

three

I feel

all right

you