School Assessment

J Carrillo
School Assessment
PPE 310
2.3.16

School Assessment

After being at this school for a few weeks now I was surprised to see the overall grade. While I
was completing the assessment it made me realize how much my school does and does not do as
far as physical health goes and promoting physical activity around campus. There are two strong
points about my school that do stand out to me. One of those is the teachers involvement in the
morning with the students. Another strength is the physical activity afterschool, which occurs
twice a week, where teachers gather and participate in exercises led by the PE teacher. The
weaknesses at my school would be the lack of promoting health eating habits to students and the
lack of physical activity throughout the school day.

School Assessment

Members of the staff at my school may be perceived to be out of shape, however they are
actually very motivated to be active with the students before school. Most teachers are out in the
morning playing soccer, basketball or just running around and I find that to be a strength of my
school. At schools I have been to before I havent seen teachers giving up that morning time to
play with students. I think it is a great way for students to see you can be active at any age and
how important it is to stay healthy.
I find the promotion of healthy eating habits, or lack thereof, to be a weakness. Students are not
given a snack time during the day and I think that is something important. I think it could be as
simple as a short ten minute break where students can walk around outside for some movement
and a snack. I would take this opportunity to promote healthy eating and provide smart food
choices for parents to send in. I would also have some snacks available for any student who
could not afford to bring one. I know for myself how important it is to get that mid-morning
snack to get me through until lunchtime. I think the same idea is required for growing children. It
also gives them a chance to move around and get a break before moving on to the next lesson.
Children and adolescents should do 60 minutes (1 hour) of physical activity each day. (CDC) I
have noticed that kids are playing in the morning and at recess, but no other times during the day.
An improvement my school could make would be incorporating more physical activity into the
day. This could be something as simple as standing up in the middle of a lesson and stretching
and drinking some water, to a five minute brain break video. I do not think teachers really realize
the difference it could make in the day for the students and how much more out of them they will
get during a lesson. Students are not meant to be sitting in a seat for 7 straight hours. I would
show statistics of how it has helped other students at other schools who do incorporate these
opportunities throughout the day. I understand its a school decision and administrators can

School Assessment

sometimes be fearful of change, but I truly believe these five minutes breaks in the day will help
improve students behaviors, health, energy and participation. Students need to be able to get up
and move around and not always inside the classroom. I think at least one other time besides the
two pre-set recess times students should be stepping outside for a few minutes.
Teachers, parents, students and administrators should all be aware of the actual time and
attention that is put on physical activity and nutrition each day. I look at the students at my
school and a large populate is overweight. With encouragement at school and home to be active
and make smart food choices, I think students could learn and apply it to their lives. I would put
the results from the assessment together and show it through a newsletter of some sort. As a
community we could come up with ideas to get students and families more active during the day
and also in the evenings and on weekends.
For my Signature Assignment I have chosen the topic of parents influence on the overall health
of the student. I think the information I have provided and used can help me with that topic
because they can easily work together. As a teacher, we are given a platform where we can help
provide students and families with useful and beneficial information and resources. I believe
everything kids learn, habits they pick up, knowing right from wrong, and all starts in the home.
Parents and teachers have the ability to shape the minds of our children and students. I think if
teachers could get together as a school to educate parents on healthy lifestyle choices and the
effects it has short term and long term both physically and mentally it would help.
Information
I am student teaching in a fifth grade classroom at Whitman Elementary, in the Mesa Public
School District. Whitman Elementary is a Title 1 school in a suburban neighborhood. In 2015,

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the ethnicity of the students at the school was 14% White, 7% African American, 52% Hispanic,
24% American Indian and 2.7% other races. About 90% of those students are on free or reduced
lunch.
In 2015 students took the AZ Merit for both English Language Arts and Mathematics. The
districts percent of proficiency for Math was 38% and Whitman fell a little below at 32%. The
districts percent of proficiency for ELA was 33% and Whitman fell below at 20%. Going back to
my Signature Assignment, I wonder how much testing scores would change if the students at this
school were physically healthy and moving around more throughout the day. While the average
class size and student to teacher ratio was 15:9 in 2014 it has increased and classroom sizes are
growing with approximately 683 students enrolled.

References
How much physical activity do children need? (2015). Retrieved February 6, 2016,
from http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/

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Whitman Elementary School. (n.d) Retrieved February 06, 2016, from
http://www.greatschools.org/arizona/mesa.1341-Whitman-Elementary-School/
Whitman Elementary School. (2006). Retrieved February 06, 2016, from
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/AZ/schools/0497000420/school.aspx/

Rubric

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E Portfolio Link: http://jcarrilloportfolio.weebly.com/healthy-leadership.html