City Park Collegiate Experience

Oh Canada!  What a great country!  I have been fortunate enough to have visited different parts of this expansive nation numerous times. Some of my favorite places visited include:  Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City.  I was lucky enough to stay at the beautiful Chateau du Frontenac in Quebec as I was a chaperone for my mother's French Club school trip.  Many people speak French up in Quebec and Montreal but as you go west there is less of a French influence.  Although I have not journeyed that way yet I believe there are more Native Americans and have heard the landscape is breathtaking in some areas specifically the Banff area.  OK...so enough about me and on to the case I just learned about!  

The City Park Collegiate Experience is taking place in Saskatoon which is in the province of Saskatchewan (see map below with arrow).

I am pumped up about this article!  I can see myself getting into something along these lines.  I think that what this teacher Allison Cameron has done is absolutely amazing and inspiring.  She has found a way to reach students that have built up such an armor against any and all types of authority.  

Watch the video HERE!  

The results of this experiment are not surprising.  I'm just glad that someone stepped up and made it happen.  Research has shown a correlation between exercise and learning and they even brought in a Harvard researcher to back up many of the neurological processes that are taking place while the body is performing activities.  I really liked the fact that students started changing their lives as well as learning math, etc.  In particular the Native American student that turned away from drinking, taking drugs, and smoking because of this initiative is truly remarkable. In the end reading, math, and comprehension levels sky rocketed and more teachers started using these avenues of "getting through" to their students.

I think what Ms. Cameron is doing here is ideally what the state of New York and probably many other places would love to be accomplishing.  Touching on the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains with active involvement and compliance from the students is a dream to strive for.

Personally, I feel that P.E. should be part of the report cards and students should have to have a Regents test in order to prove they know the basics about staying and/or becoming physically fit and prove that they can meet certain criteria in order to move on.

Great ideas! I think that something has to change soon and this article is moving in the right direction.  Rolling out the ball and telling students to play doesn't work anymore as we saw in the video with many standing around.  We have to get them engaged and stimulate their minds along with their bodies!