By: Jacob Maslow

Being a teacher is a noble calling, with our educators being directly responsible for shaping the young minds of the future. It’s a teacher’s job to nurture, mentor, and guide their students through the education journey, from the moment they start their schooling through to when they graduate. This also includes some responsibility for their overall health and well-being.

As educators seek new strategies to enhance student engagement, professional development can play a valuable role. Pursuing a Master of Education online can equip teachers with innovative methods to create more dynamic, movement-friendly classrooms. So, without further introduction, let’s take a look at the ways teachers can help reduce sedentary rates in classrooms.

Why Reduce Sedentary Lifestyles?

You may be surprised to hear this, but reduced exercise and movement have been associated with health issues later in life. Those with sedentary lifestyles may have an increased rate of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other adverse health events. The most effective solution to a sedentary lifestyle is movement and exercise.

Benefits of Movement for Learning, Engagement, and Overall Well-Being

Making regular movement a part of classroom activities is a promising strategy to help enhance student learning, behaviour, and overall well-being. Since students spend most of their weekdays in school, educators can help reduce the sedentary nature of school classrooms and help ensure that students aged 5-18 can get the sixty minutes of movement that is recommended daily for overall health, development, well-being, and growth.

Research demonstrates that students may benefit from short, structured physical movement breaks throughout the school day. These breaks can range from short bursts of exercise to interactive educational games. Physical exercise has been shown to help students manage mental health and well-being, stress, anxiety, and neurodivergence in non-stigmatising ways.

Active Learning Strategies

Educators can implement some strategies in the classroom to incorporate movement into the educational setting. These active learning strategies are effective ways to get kids up and moving while still delivering the curriculum and ensuring that students learn what they need to while still getting some physical activity in.

Standing discussions are a useful way to do this. During a classroom discussion, educators can encourage students to stand up and discuss topics while remaining standing. This helps to stimulate blood flow and open up restricted parts of the body that are compressed while sitting, such as the neck, back, and hips.

Role-playing is another beneficial way to encourage movement. Students can role-play different roles while learning about a topic and act out actions to encourage movement and physical activity during a learning session.

Other movement-based activities are also helpful in moving away from sedentary behaviours, such as a walking excursion, walking lesson, or perhaps throwing a ball around the classroom when the student who catches the ball needs to answer a question or take a pop quiz on a certain educational topic.

Implementing Micro-Exercises and Breaks

Teachers can implement micro-exercises, such as stretch breaks or using games like the one we’ve suggested above, to introduce movement into the classroom. An educator might introduce a five-minute brain break during each period, ensuring that students get up and move their bodies and get a much-needed break from the heavy mental load that learning at school carries. These should be implemented at all year levels across both primary and high schools.

Make Movement an Approach for the Whole School

Those in educational leadership positions also have a part to play in helping to incorporate movement throughout the school. Some simple ways to incorporate movement in all areas of the school include:

• Have painted play spaces for active play at recess and lunch, e.g. line markings for hopscotch or downball.
• Playground challenges at recess and lunch on the play equipment.
• Create pop-up play spaces that change locations on a regular basis.
• Implement a range of easily accessible sports and activity equipment around the school.
• Recruit older students as leaders for structured exercise activities.
• Create a schedule of physical activities to be offered during recess and lunch breaks across the week for added variety and catering to different physical abilities and interests.
• Encourage students to map the schoolyard, creating different zones for different games and activities.
• Have active hallways — mark school hallways with tape encouraging students to move in different directions and ways (e.g. jump, hop, or tiptoe) from room to room or when entering and exiting school buildings.
• Have before and after school programs that encourage physical activity, align with the school values, and promote exercise.
  

Encourage Extracurricular Activities

Another way educators can reduce sedentary rates in classrooms is to encourage students to take up extracurricular activities. After-school sports are an ideal way to do this. Students who have been in class all day have an opportunity to exercise and move their bodies. Educators can work with parents to ensure that students are engaged in regular physical activity.

Lunchtime Activities

In addition to the list provided above, schools can implement lunchtime physical activity sessions and might consider tailoring these to students who aren’t sporty. For instance, drama classes that encourage and promote movement during role-play and improvisation are one way of doing this. Educators may have to get creative with ways to encourage physical activities in students with varying physical abilities or who aren’t particularly sporty.

Flexible Classrooms and Seating

Promoting flexible classrooms is an effective way to reduce sedentary rates in classrooms. Introducing flexible seating arrangements, such as standing desks or movement-friendly furniture like wobble chairs, can encourage students to shift positions regularly rather than remaining seated for extended periods, which contributes to secondary classrooms.

Encouraging Active Transport to School

Encouraging active transport to and from school, in collaboration with parents, such as walking, scooters, or cycling, can also contribute to reducing overall sedentary time during the school day. You might introduce a weekly ride-to-school day and block off the streets for car drop-offs, encouraging parents to participate in this initiative.

Published by Joseph T.