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Fit Connection
Fit Connection is a podcast and video series that aims to build community among Health and PE educators by highlighting amazing teachers and administrators and sharing opportunities for growth and professional development. The show is hosted by Stevie Ray Gray, who teaches at Short Pump Elementary School in Henrico County, and whose infectious curiosity puts his guests at ease. The podcast is produced by Blue Ridge PBS in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education.
Fit Connection
Episode 109: App-y Hour in the Gym
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Like all academic subjects, Health and PE teachers increasingly rely on technology in the classroom. Former teacher and current administrator Jason Runk joins Stevie Ray Gray to share his favorite applications and tech for staying organized and managing the classroom in this wide-ranging conversation.
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It's a Fit Connection podcast. We can collaborate and communities with what works. LFRO. Stevie Ray Gray.
SPEAKER_03I'm your host, Stevie Ray Gray, and this is Fit Connecting. Today, we're moving beyond the clipboard and looking at how to level up your game in a digital age with another awesome, amazing health and physical education professional. Let's get moving. I am here with one of my best buddies, Mr. Jason Runk. Jason, thank you so much for coming and hanging out with me today.
SPEAKER_01Hey, thanks for having me, Stevie. I appreciate it. It's always a good time hanging out with you.
SPEAKER_03Right? So I know you pretty well, but the audience might not. So why don't you tell everybody your name and where you're at right now and what you're doing?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So my name is Jason Ronk. Um, I work in Henraiko County Public Schools in Central Virginia. Um, and I am the lead teacher for elementary health and PE programs, um, which is a mouthful, mouthful, but yeah. So you oversee how many teachers now? So there are 47 elementary schools um and about 44 teachers. About give or take some some adapted teachers, you know. We we've got those as well. Uh, but yeah, so it's a good bit. And we also uh I also oversee the learn to swim program that we do with second graders, and we do a first T golf program with fifth grade. Um, so I'll be out at Belmont Golf Course tomorrow, all day with uh three schools, hanging out with them and teaching them how to golf. That's awesome. And how long have you been in that role? Uh this is my second year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So what were you doing before that, sir?
SPEAKER_01So before that, I was an elementary health and PE teacher um for many, many years. Uh for 15 actually at Kackley Elementary. My uh we I helped open that school. Um, I also taught at middle school uh for a few years, uh, online health and PE for 10th graders for I want to say 11 years. Um, so yeah, yeah, I've been I've been everywhere doing it all. I have a hard time saying no, as you know, Stevie.
SPEAKER_03And Jason probably won't mention this, but for a while there, he was known as the Virginia guru for technology in the gym, which is one of the reasons why we have you here because of all of your knowledge about all the apps and techs that can be used inside of the health and physical education arena. You can say it. I'm a tech nerd.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's okay.
SPEAKER_03You can say it. So have you always been a tech nerd, or was there a point where you realized that your tech nerdiness could translate into education in the gym? I I think I've always been a tech nerd.
SPEAKER_01Um, I I grew up at that at that pivotal point when uh when I went to college, we were required. It was the first year they required you to have a computer. And so uh so my whole college career, I was one of the first ones to go through where Virginia Tech, which uh where I went for undergrad, um, they required you to have a computer. And you know, my roommate was a computer science major and he had servers in our dorm room. And so, you know, that kind of you know piqued my interest a little bit, and that's when uh cell phones started to come out a little bit, and so uh and digital cameras, and so I was like right there, like of of that age when I started to explore technology and it kind of just like uh you know it energized me and and made me uh kind of kind of geeky, but you know, it was cool. And Julian grew up in like the digital age, yes, yeah, which is weird. I I was right on that cusp. So that if you if I was a year or two older, I I don't know that I would uh you know be I'd probably be you know typing like this, you know, one finger at a time. I don't know, but yeah, it worked out pretty good.
SPEAKER_03So, what was the moment that you decided or was there a pivotal moment where you were like, hey, I can use some of this awesome tech stuff that I love and I can put it towards some of my students to try and teach them some of the things that I need to get them to learn?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Um, I would say that so I like I said that when I was at Virginia Tech, um, I, you know, uh everything was kind of like like internet and and computers and um P Central, uh, which is one of the first PE websites out there for lesson plans and stuff, um, they actually were based out of Virginia Tech. And I I worked for them a little bit, stuffing pins into envelopes and sending that out. So I knew then like it was it was something that was going to evolve. Uh and I think that when I actually started to like really like where it really clicked with me was probably when I started teaching elementary health and pe and the iPhone had been out for a few years. And I started to realize that there are so like the library of apps on there just started to grow. And I was like, I wonder like what I can use to help me manage my classroom a little bit better and and make it easier on me so that I can spend more time with the kids and not have to like work around frantically and you know run around trying to manage everything. Um, and so I started using certain apps and and you know, music for start and stop and all those types of things. And that's when it really, really hit me. So about 15 years ago.
SPEAKER_03So your your tech and your early tech advancements was more for your sanity and management and protocols and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. But uh, but with that, it it translates, right? So, like it translates to help the students as well. So it was initially meant to help me um and to make my life easier and my job easier, but I ended up with doing that was able to create more relationships with the students because it freed up my time and it allowed me to um help them with certain form for exercises, things like that. Um, you know, so it really freed me up, which was which was awesome.
SPEAKER_03It probably engages them more too. I mean, this is a digital age, so they are acting for the newest tech and the newest apps, all that stuff, right?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, absolutely. And the the kids the the you know, putting the music on, and like that's you know, that they love love that gallon off of that. I don't know how people teach I I don't either. It's it's mind-boggling to me, and I would be bored out of my mind if there was not music in the gym while I'm teaching.
SPEAKER_03So, one app that I use a lot is Spotify for that reason, because you can create your own playlists, and and I you know me, I just need music around. There's all music playing. Is there an an app? I know you've been out of the the functional classroom for a while, but is there an app that you used to use every day, or is there an app now that you recommend teachers to try? Any app how about an app or a tool, some kind of Stevie?
SPEAKER_01You're you're you're trying to get me to like pick a favorite child, and I can't do it. I wish I could, but I can't do it. There's so many. I might be able to narrow it down to like a couple. All right, okay, all right.
SPEAKER_03So let's get this top three.
SPEAKER_01That's out there. Thank you, thank you. All right, so one of the apps that I really like is called Team Shake. Um, and this is uh one of the best grouping apps that I've found out there. There are a lot of different variations of these apps, um, but this is one that I've used for a long time. Um, and they've they've been around for I would say probably at least 12, 13 years. Um, but the app is awesome because it actually groups your students. And so what happens is your, let's say you have 20 kids in your class and you have, you know, 10 stations and you want to split them up, you can put your roster, load your roster up in it. Um, you can load them as um by their gender, you can load them with their different um skill abilities so that you can try and even out some of the stronger, more athletic students with some of the ones that are might be a little bit weaker in that area. Um, and then you can um have them matched up as a partner for that um activity. And the best thing about it is that you don't have to count out one, two, three, four and count those things out because that absolutely drives me insane, especially when you have 10 kids going in one spot, four in the other, two in another one, and you're like, Did y'all not listen at all? And they weren't.
SPEAKER_03They're only listening, it just bounces off.
SPEAKER_01They remember what number their friend is. Exactly. But and that's the thing, right? So if if you tell them, hey, you're in a group with these three students are in this station, they'll remember what student they're with, they'll follow that kid even if they don't remember the station, it it limits that a lot. Plus, if they're in the wrong spot, you could just say, look at your phone and it's still listed on there. You got it. Um, so that's pretty cool. And then another thing about that app is that if you have students that maybe um are uh not don't work so well together in a group, or maybe they work a little too well and they might get in a little trouble if they're working together, you can put them on opposing teams and they don't know it.
SPEAKER_02But in the app, you can have them as opposed to they will never be on the same team and they will they will wonder why are we never I never did with my best friend, I'm never with and I'm like, I don't know, it's random.
SPEAKER_01And you can blame the app, right? So you blame the app, and so if people are like, oh, I never get picked for the uh it's random, it's the app, right? So you can blame it on that's right, that's right. So that's one of that's one of my favorites. I think that is something that that every PE teacher should have, no matter what level you're at. Um, it just makes things so much faster and quicker. Um, so that you you don't waste time, you know, counting people off and going down a line and having the kids trying to move to see, oh, oh, he's counting one through four. I'm gonna switch with so and so, so I can be on so and so's team. Right? No, I'm tired of that. So using this app, I I think that's one that I would use every day. Um, I would also use it as my attendance. So as the students we come in, I would ask the teacher, hey, who's not here today? And then I would click there's a little button to um take them out of the class uh for that for on their roster. So that way I know that they're not in it um for that day. It just takes them out. Uh, and that way they're not in the the rotation of whenever I uh split them up into groups and I know who's not here today. It also helps me with names, learning students' names, um, because as I'm putting them in groups, I'm watching, and then I can, you know, especially at the beginning of the year, if I'm seeing them go around and be like, all right, I know like Samantha, but who's the who are the other two in that group? And then I can kind of figure it out by looking at the app. So it kind of helps. I'm horrible with names, so it it was really helpful for me.
SPEAKER_03I mean, it's hard when you have to learn 600 to a thousand kids' names, right? Yes. Team Shake, is there another one that you love? Team Shake.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So Tabata Pro is um Tabata Pro. So any any Tabata app really would probably do okay. But I like Tabata Pro because I use um uh Apple Music. Like you said, you use Spotify. So I use Apple Music and Tabata Pro, it will actually integrate with Apple Music so that I can play my playlists while I am putting setting these these rotations up or whatever I'm doing with it. Um and you can set it to to play while you want it to play, you can set it to rest. Um, you can have like you know, have the music start and stop during rest times. So if you are doing stations, you do you can set it for a certain amount of time so that all the stations are equal. I remember when I first started teaching, I was always like, I'm on my watch, and I'll be like, all right, the guy, I have about a minute, minute left. Okay, blow the whistle, and then I rotate, right, rotate. And then I'd be like, all right, what's all right, what's time? And I would sometimes feel really bad because that we get to the end of class and somebody when a teacher would come in or a student would get injured, and I'd be like, Oh, I gotta get you a mandate. And then I'd totally forget.
SPEAKER_02And they've been at this station for three minutes, and and I'd be like, Yes, we got three stations left. There's only like two minutes left in class.
SPEAKER_01I'm like, oh no, you know, and I'll be like, 30 seconds, sorry, go, you know, and kids would get left out of doing all the activities. So with this Tabata Pro, I'm able to set the time. I can just look, hey, how much time do I have left in class? You know, how much do I need for my cooldown at the end? Let's, you know, let's put this and and put these, uh, the time on here, and then I can set it and forget it. And then that allows me to stop staring at my watch and worrying about time and going around and helping all the students, making those connections, um, you know, helping them with their form, asking them, you know, what you know what sport they're gonna be playing this weekend if they got a game coming up, you know, and what you know, maybe what what this activity we're doing will we're doing will help them with in their act in their sport, those types of things and and connections where as before I was so worried about time. I wasn't able to do that stuff.
SPEAKER_03Uh here's something I I try to implement as much as possible. You mentioned walking around and checking on like form, making sure cues are getting hit, especially with motor skills. Have you ever run across um a technology tool that helps you to collect the kind of data that we need to best inform our teaching? Does that make sense? Like, is there is there like a meaningful data collection that you can gather in the gym through any kind of tool? Yes.
SPEAKER_01There's a couple. Um so one thing that that you know that we use is Wellnet, um, which it which is a great way that we collect our fitness data and our um we do a pre and post test, um, cognitive test at the beginning of the year and at the end. Um, that's for for our cognitive side of of things. Um, I like it because you can do an item analysis on the test. So when we give the pre-test at the beginning of the year before we teach anything, um, we can kind of uh you know, all the kids we we do this with fifth grade, all the fifth graders will take that test.
SPEAKER_03Uh let me interject really quick and saying Jason is saying we a lot because we teach in the same county. So we're sorry, Stevie, yes, we're doing some of the same thing. So we is a collective, me and him. Uh we don't know if everybody's doing the same thing. All right, go ahead, Jason. Right.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, thank you for clarifying that, Stevie. Yes. So um, but yeah, so it's something that we are able to do a item analysis with, and so I can see out of those questions that we ask at the beginning of the year, do they are they answering the one about body composition really well? How what percentage of my students know about body composition? And it's usually not all that great. So I can run that and say, hey, this is something I'm really going to need to focus on and during this school year because most of these kids are are struggling with the concept of what body composition is, right? As where if it's asking you, it, you know, what food group is an apple in, right? And 95% of the students get that right. I don't really need to focus too much on that, you know, in in fifth grade with those students. I can move on to other things like macronutrients and um, you know, and and kind of focus on on a little bit higher level stuff um that also might be on there. So that's that's something for the cognitive. Um, one of the things that I've I used and that I thought was really, really awesome was I used polar uh heart rate monitors, and there are a lot of heart rate monitors out there, but I found this to be really um motivating for the students because I would it and they weren't watches. Now they have watches and things, but these were uh little like sensors that you would put on like an armband, and the students would uh and you had to set it all up. It took a little bit of prep, but you could set it up in the class so that each student had their own number on it and they would come in kind of like a pedometer and they would put it on at the beginning of class and we would exercise, but all the data for their heart rate was sent to my iPad. And then I could also put my iPad and mirror it to our Promethean board, and the students could see what their heart rates were during the lesson and during class. And the longer that they were in their um MVPA time, their moderate to vigorous physical activity time, um, the longer they were in that zone, the more time they got and they would start to win like little awards. They'd have like little, little like, you know, tokens basically for the the longer they did it in the class. So the kids would like, I mean, you couldn't even get through the directions, and they're like back there doing that, you know, they're they're just running their little feet around and and trying to move. And I'm like, guys, you gotta I didn't have to turn it off and be like, all right, we're not gonna turn this on until you know we get started because y'all are already like like moving and not listening to me. Um, but but the motivation, like there's students that normally would just, you know, walk or kind of just meander around a little bit when they're doing the activities, you know, playing tag games or you know, those types of things. When I put that on, they were like, I want to, I want to win, I want to see, you know, what I can do. And it motivated them to work a little bit harder. And then at the end, um, we could even uh it would show a graph of their heart rate. And so we could sit and we could have a discussion about, hey, here's our heart rate went up a little bit. Here um we were doing what around this time in the class. Oh, we were doing our warm-up, our like tag game warm-up or whatever it was. And then I was like, and then it went back down for a few minutes. What do you think? We were like, oh, we were sitting, you were giving directions, you know, and then oh, here we this we were in a high rate for the whole time. That's when we had our, you know, main. So it can make those connections of oh, when I'm exercising, my heart rate's going up, you know, my heart's beating faster. And um, so having that data and um collecting that is really cool to see. And um, it also, you know, again motivates the kids when they can see their own data, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's really cool. So yeah, now I'm gonna jump in with a little uh yeah, a little counterpoint here because you said, yeah, awesome heart rate minors that links up to my iPad that jumps up to the screen where they can all see all these things. It sounds like all that stuff might cost a little bit of money. And for our specific teaching area, we are not known for having the grandest budget, right? So let's just say that we've got a teacher with no money, zero budget. Is there any free or maybe low-cost tech that you know of that you can point them to that would help motivate their students, like a heart rate monitor might?
SPEAKER_01So I would say probably the the lowest tech that you could go for like the free stuff would be going on social media because using apps like uh X, TikTok, uh Instagram, there are so many amazing PE teachers out there that are just giving away activities for free. They're putting it out there and they're so creative. And when you go on there and find these activities and you introduce new activities, new instant activities, especially every class, um, I feel like that really motivates the kids to get moving because it's like, oh, what are we gonna do today? Oh, we're gonna play mosquito tag. That's crazy. We got a noodle coming out of my head, you know, and so you know, keeping it fresh and new and finding those new ideas um and social media is an amazing way to do it. And you don't have to post anything, you just sign up and you you can start following people that you might already know. Um, and you know, they start posting and you'll you'll just eventually start to get a group of people that you you know kind of constantly post and that you can find some amazing uh activities. So if you don't have any money, anything like most of y'all will probably have a phone um or a computer that you could probably get on to see social media, so no cost to you, amazing ideas and activities to help motivate your kids.
SPEAKER_03It does bring up a good point though, because when we get on our phone, if we get on the computer, there's a big push for limited screen time, right? So, how if we're trying to be super techie, how do we balance that screen time? Because a lot of the things are like look at the screen. I've got two Promethe boards in my gym right now, right? Most of my tech stuff is look at the screen, but then rather we balance that with you know using it as a tool when we're trying to say, don't don't look at the screen too much, but look at the screen right now. Right, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So it does uh the um heart rate monitors, there was so when I first did it, I was thinking, oh, I'm gonna put this up on the screen the whole class period, and they're gonna always and I ended up having to turn it off during exercise, turn it on during a break. Hey, we're gonna get a water break, and then you can come down after you get your water, you can come and sit in front and see where you're at and you know, kind of look at it. Um, and then I would have to turn it back off to get them to go do stuff so they weren't always looking at it. Um just like teaching them moderation, which is important too.
SPEAKER_03Like this is I will show you how when we use it, and then we don't need to look at it anymore when it's appropriate and when it's not, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But but yeah, they that and uh a lot of uh I I like to do a lot of uh project um you know project based activities like creating dances, um, those types of things where they're in a in a group um and they can create their dance and then maybe we videotape it or maybe we make a Tabata and they're gonna make a Tabata video to show for um you know on Wednesdays, our workout Wednesdays on the morning announcements so the whole school can work out with uh you know a fourth grade class. And you know, we we would do something like that where they would they would do their little project, they figure out what they wanted to do, and then I would set the tech up and have them kind of you know be the director and have them be able to go around and show us their their move or their act, their dance move or their exercise that they want to do in the morning with, you know, everybody. Um, and so that that's another another way, just doing those projects and having them have to really think about, you know, working together. And then we use the technology.
SPEAKER_03Has that ever like fallen flat? Or is there like part of something that you thought was gonna be really cool when you were using it with technology and just did not hit the way you thought it was going to?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, probably um probably coach's eye. Um I don't know if you've ever used coach's eye or it's like or video delay. So it's basically it's like they're like coaching apps so that you can um it basically if you were by yourself even, you could swing a golf club, right? And and have the the screen facing you and recording you, and then you would go over and look at it and it would put on like a 10-second delay, and you could watch your form, right? And you can make it go in slow-mo and all this, all this stuff. Um, so I tried to use that for I didn't try, I did do it. Um, I usually I used it for uh students doing push-ups. Um, that was one of the big things that that I had the just the form of how to do a correct push-up. Um, and explaining it to them is very difficult. And it's a lot different than them seeing themselves doing it and understanding, oh, I get it, my bottom's like this high in the air. That's why I'm not being able to, you know, get down all the way. And so, like them being able to see themselves do it helps them correct it a lot more. So, what I would do, I would have an iPad or something, you know, set up and videotaping them, and they get in front of it and they do like, you know, five, 10 seconds, and then they would get up and walk around and they'd be able to see themselves and basically do a self-assessment of them doing that. But it ended up taking a lot of my time again. Remember that that's time that I like to be able to move around. I felt like I was constantly upkeeping it and they were constantly like, oh, it's not working, or this, you know, and having to fix it, or the the app might go black and then I'd have to go log back in, you know. And so that got very frustrating. So I was like, well, how can I do this without being techie? And so I was like, what if I just got those long mirrors and I lay them sideways on the floor or against the wall, and they can look up and kind of see themselves doing it. All right, am I getting to that 90 degree angle? Um, and that that was kind of my fix for it. I was like, I love being techie and I love that like this is awesome, but in a big class, it didn't work as well as I wanted it to. It took too much of my time, and so I, you know, so that was where it was kind of a of a fail.
SPEAKER_03But I think that's a perfect note to end on is that sometimes technology just isn't gonna do the job, and you need to get old-fashioned health, physical education, instructional strategies to get the job done.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Sometimes it's just, you know, there are there are there are easier ways to do it. It doesn't always have to be techie.
SPEAKER_03Well, Jason, I want to thank you so much for sharing your time and your knowledge with us today. Thank you for coming on. It's always such a good time talking about you. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having me, Stevie. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03And thank you, dear viewer, for spending some time with us too. Remember to keep those heart rates as high as your spirits, and we'll catch you on the next lap of FitConnection.
SPEAKER_00FitConnection is produced by Blue Ridge PBS in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education, hosted by Stevie Wright Gray, with assistance from VPOEL, Physical Family Life, and Driver Education Coordinator for Blue Ridge PPS production staff includes Podcast Productor 85, added Celtic, the graphic producer 10 right, and direct of educational notation.