Calling All Professionals

Are you new to HPER as a profession, OR have you been in it for a while and would like to add some adventure to your professional career?  Are you interested in contributing your talents to a professional organization?  Do you want to do more that just attend workshops and conferences? If you are, consider joining the HAHPERD Board for the upcoming school year 2016-2017. The Hawaii Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance is seeking nominations for the Board.

Benefits from being on the Board include opportunities to …

• network with colleagues with similar interests.
• raise your level of professionalism through this volunteer experience.
• contribute to the professional growth of others (coordinating workshops and conferences, advocating for HPER, etc.). 
• develop leadership skills.
• network with other professionals at state, district and national levels.
• develop lifelong friendships.

You will have a great support team that is willing to assist you in this professional growth opportunity.

Nominations are open for Director (2 year term), president-elect (3 year term) or volunteer for any on-going committee (Website, Conferences and Workshops, Social, Advocacy, Teacher of the Year, Scholarship, Finance, Codes and Constitution, community service, etc.)

Is it time for you to take the next step and consider being on the Board?  If yes, please contact Yvette Ikari Yvette_Ikari/CENDO/HIDOE@notes.k12.hi.us or Shelley Fey sfey@punahou.edu ASAP.

Keynote Speaker Leslie Hicks

     Strength can be defined as a good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person, organization or thing, and strength was definitely on full display at our 2016 HAHPERD Spring PE & Health Workshop this year.  

     As a way to experiment with possibly holding a future state conference on a weekday, this year's workshop was held on Monday, February 8 at Punahou School. In a demonstration of their strength, our professionals came out in force, from public and private schools big and small, and even from the outer islands.   Those that attended were definitely treated to a thoughtfully organized day that left them both refreshed and ready to take on the challenges facing our profession.

     The day started off with the keynote from Leslie Hicks (SHAPE America Physical Activity Council Academic Coach) from Arizona.  She spoke of different ways we can advocate for our profession, including joining our professional organizations both locally and nationally, signing up for the SHAPE America #50MillionStrong Count Me In! campaign, and registering in the Let's Move! Active Schools program to take the evaluation and begin the activate and celebrate process.

     She also announced that an exciting bill was just recently passed by the US Congress and signed by President Obama in December called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  As was explained by HAHPERD board member Angie Miyashiro in last month's newsletter, the bill effectively replaces the term "core subjects" in No- Child-Left-Behind with "well-rounded education" and will now include subjects like health and PE.  This opens the door for PE and health to possibly receive federal fundings that were previously only designated for those few subjects labeled as core.  While all the fine details of ESSA are still to be ironed out, this bill reflects the hard work and efforts behind the scenes at the national level and further emphasizes the need for all of us to do our part as professionals to continue to flex our collective muscle and continually strive to prove our worth with our students, parents, administrators, and policy makers.  

Click here for keynote presentation Powerpoint

Hawaii (2).pptx

SHAPE America #50MillionStrong Count Me In! Campaign

http://www.shapeamerica.org/prodev/50million.cfm

Appropriate Instructional Practice Guidelines

http://www.shapeamerica.org/standards/guidelines/upload/Appropriate-Instructional-Practices-Grid.pdf

Physical Education Program Checklist

http://www.shapeamerica.org/standards/guidelines/upload/Physical-Education-Program-Checklist.pdf

Break Out Sessions

Break-out sessions this year included presentations by Leslie Hicks on the importance of Brain Breaks and Classroom Energizers, Dr. Dwight Lin on ACL and other sports injury prevention, Guillermo Ruiz from the American Heart Association on the Jump Rope/Hoops for Heart programs, Mick Wong from the Hawaii Bicycling League on their Bike Ed program, and Doug Kiang on wearable technology.  Pictured above:  (left) Dr. Dwight Lin and (right) attendees listen to Leslie Hicks' Brain Breaks presentation.  

Click here to download Leslie Hicks' Brain Breaks and Classroom Energizers handout:

Handout Brain Breaks.pdf

Discussion Panel on Advocating for 

Quality PE & Health

 This year's workshop featured a unique opportunity for attendees to hear Mr. Frank Fernandez, principal at Kaimuki Middle School (pictured left), and Mr. Rob Hesia, the Hawaii DOE HPE Ed Specialist (pictured right), speak on advocating for quality PE and health.  It was discussed that PE and health teachers need to be an integral part of the school culture.  Being a part of that positive school culture is all about commitment and when PE and health are valued by the entire community, they become part of the value system that can drive a school's decision making.  It was also shared that effective teachers and leaders need to communicate and establish their values first. Those values lead to a common vision by the school community which in turn guides the practices of the school.  The greatest challenge however is in constantly making sure the daily practice supports and reinforces the vision.  It is only when the values, vision and practice are in line that we see the positive outcomes for our students and entire school community.  

Special thanks go out to Shelley Fey, Yvette Ikari, Bobbie Perry and the entire workshop planning committee and volunteers for all your hard work, creativity, planning, and organization of the day.  It truly was a special event!

If you were one of the fortunate professionals able to join us at this year's conference, you definitely did not go home disappointed.  The morning started with a moving keynote by Kentucky's own Jamie Sparks.  Among his many great stories and ideas, he shared ways we can be powerful advocates for our profession, including collaborating with other teachers, interacting passionately with students and parents, and finally promoting the power of PE and health with our elected officials. 
     If that wasn't enough, we were honored to have nationally renowned dance instructor Christy Lane join us as a featured presenter throughout the day.  Christy, along with her awesome Dare to Dance guest instructors, had an infectious energy that got everyone comfortably moving with a variety of different dances and styles.  To top it all off, there were so many quality breakout sessions and exhibitors that it was impossible to find any down time. 
     Special thanks to Shelley Fey, Yvette Ikari, Bobbie Perry, Jewel Toyama, all the volunteers, presenters, exhibitors and board members past and present for all your hard work in making this year's conference another moving success!

“There is no ‘I’ in Team”                            

“United We Stand, Divided We Fall”

“Alone We Can Do So Little, but Together We Can Do So Much”

“E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One)”

“T.E.A.M stands for Together Everyone Achieves More”

     As athletes, physical educators, teachers and coaches, we’ve all probably heard or recited many of these kinds of quotes with our students and athletes.  As coaches, we preach these values all the time but as PE teachers, do we do the same in our PE classes?  Should developing the skills and knowledge of teamwork only be reserved for those athletes of team sports or should all our students be learning them?

     One of the catch phrases floating around in education today is the term, “21^st Century Skills.”  When we hear 21^st Century Skills, we often think of learning technological skills like coding, multi-media platforms, robotics, social media and 3D printing.  Not too often will you hear someone say that learning key 21^st Century skills happen in PE classes.  Well, while learning technological skills are indeed important, when you look deeper into what is truly valued by employers today, you clearly see that these skills are actually secondary. 

     For example, the organization Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (www.p21.org) describes one of the four major student outcomes as Learning and Innovation Skills, otherwise known as the 4 C’s.  These important 4 C’s are listed as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication.  All these skills involve learning to function as a team member and can be taught through team-building activities. 

     In a 2013 Forbes article entitled, “The 10 Skills Employers Want in 20-Something Employees,” a survey was give to 200 hiring managers, asking them to list the 10 skills they desire in an young employee.  The top 4 skills they desire in a new hire?  Number one was the ability to work in a team, followed by the ability to make decisions and solve problems, the ability to plan and prioritize work, and finally, the ability to communicate with people inside and outside and organization. 

     Even more revealing was an even larger survey of 400 employers conducted by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills and the Society for Human Resource Management.  This survey entitled, “Are They Really Ready to Work?  Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21^st Century U.S. Workforce,” revealed the top 4 skills desired from today’s graduates are professionalism, teamwork, oral communication, social responsibility.

     As you can see it's so important to take the time to teach these valuable skills to all our students.  You'll find that it's not that hard to do, you can still incorporate fitness into your activities, and your students will have fun while learning valuable team skills that they'll take with them for a lifetime. 

TeamBuild SEA 2015.pdf

Get your calendars out and save the date of Saturday, May 2 so you can spend the day with some of the most passionate PE, health, and dance advocates around.  Our theme this year is Let's Move with ALOHA (A Lifetime Of Healthy Activity) and features a unique format with our usual PE/Health offerings along with nationally renowned dance instructor Christy Lane doing her Dare to Dance sessions concurrently.  Registration to our conference will allow you participate in all the festivities or you can register just for the dance workshop with Christy Lane. 

We are currently looking for exhibitors and presenters, so please check out hahperd.org under the "conferences" tab for forms and registration. 

Reston, VA, February 6, 2015– In an effort to ensure that school health and physical education are addressed and eligible for funding in the new version of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a group of more than 120 physical and health educators will meet with their Congressional representatives next week.

Educators will participate in face to face meetings on Capitol Hill during SHAPE America’s 7^th annual SPEAK Out! Day, February 10-11. The teachers representing 37 states will offer insight and perspective on the negative impact that occurs when health and PE are marginalized. They will also share stories of success when these programs are sustained and thriving in schools.

“The Senate has already begun to address ESEA early in this session of Congress and we expect the House of Representatives to follow suit very soon. We look to our members to help push our legislative asks forward and bring policy to life in schools across the country,” says Carly Braxton, senior manager of advocacy for SHAPE America.

            In addition to the upcoming advocacy day efforts, more than 85 organizations in the health and physical activity arena have signed a letter in support of featuring health education and PE as a prominent piece of ESEA, which would make them eligible for federal funding. The letter also asks that the PEP grant – the only federal program addressing PE and nutrition education - remain in the bill. Learn more about SHAPE America’s 2015 legislative asks and federal legislative agenda.

            Past participation from SHAPE America members has been critical in securing Congressional support for elevating health and PE to core subject status in federal education law. Members have also been successful in encouraging their lawmakers to keep PEP from being cut out of the federal budget altogether.  Currently, the funding is at an all-time low of $47 million for FY15.

If you haven't heard the great news, HAHPERD is hosting a FREE Let's Move! Active Schools PAL Training event on Saturday, January 17, 2015.  This Physical Activity Leader (PAL) event will teach you how to be an be advocate for physical activity at your school and provide key training, resources, and ideas to promote activity and movement throughout the school day.  This even will be held at the Kamehameha Middle School-Kapalama campus and is entirely FREE!  For more information on this great program please check out the video link below and/or contact Shelley Fey at sfey@punahou.edu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjMP8eg54lA

On October 4th and 5th, HAHPERD proudly hosted dance instructor Christy Lane for a Saturday workshop at Mililani High School then at the 2014 Children and Youth Day (CYD) held at the Hawaii State Capitol on Sunday.  Participants in both sessions described Christy as "amazing," "fun," "unbelievable," and "energetic."  At both events, Christy taught a variety of line dances that started off so easy that even the most chorophobic (fear of dancing) attendees were still able to learn and keep up.  Christy just has a way of breaking down a dance into just a few simple steps and make it fun.  As everyone became comfortable, Christy would then encourage some creative movement or show a little twist that the more daring could add to jazz it up a little.  Popular line dances like the Electric Slide, the Wobble, as well as country line dances, folk dances, and ballroom dances were all part of the program. 
HAHPERD would like to thank Alexis Zoder who helped organize the CYD event, Yvette Ikari for organizing the Dare to Dance event, the University of Hawaii KRS professors and students for your time and support, Mililani High School, Christy Lane, and all the volunteers who came out to help at both events. 
Did you miss out and weren't able to catch Christy Lane?  You're in luck as Christy has agreed to return to Hawaii in the spring as part of our annual 2015 HAHPERD Hawaii State PE & Health Conference.  Stay tuned to hahperd.org for more details!

This year's 2014 HAHPERD Fall Social was themed "A Lifetime Of Healthy Activity (ALOHA) with the Ohana".  On September 13, many families and friends showed up to the UFC Gym BJ Penn Waikele to attend this awesome event.  Participants got a chance to try many different activities presented by the energetic and talented UFC fitness instructors as well as meet two local MMA fighters, Max Holloway and Brad Tavares.  Food was prepared by Aloha Salads and prizes were donated by All G Productions and HAHPERD.  Prizes included shirts by Island Tats, local CD's and DVD's by some of Hawaii's top entertainers, sunscreen products by Planet Sun, and UFC training packages.  Special thanks to Rob Hesia, Yvette Ikari, the staff and instructors at UFC Gym and all the volunteers who helped make the day such a success!