Elementary P.E. teacher Brandon Bertram creates program to promote physical fitness at school and at home

The idea is, in part, a portion of Bertram’s graduate school project — who, in addition to running P.E. programs at the elementary schools and serving as an assistant track coach, is also finishing up a master’s in human performance and physical education at Adams State College in Colorado — but also due to what he saw as a lopsided arrangement when it came to opportunities for physical exercise in the district.

“We noticed a need,” he explained. “When I moved here (from Arizona), I noticed that opportunities were very prevalent at the high school level, but at the elementary level, there was a need for a form of recreation where all students could be successful.”

Making matters more difficult, said Bertram, are the “drastic cuts” that have been made to P.E. due to state funding levels, which has resulted in fewer P.E. classes for students over the years.

The program Bertram created helps provide students with another opportunity besides gym and recess. Starting in December, about once a month after school, Bertram has hosted school-wide races, that students have the choice of signing up for or not. If they sign up and run, they get to collect a token and put it on a band around their wrist — similar to a charm bracelet. Distances range from a quarter mile for kindergartners to a mile for fifth graders. The tokens represent how far students have run or how many activities they’ve done, but Bertram says that’s about where the tracking ends.

“We don’t take times, we don’t count places... they don’t have to worry about anything other than finishing with a smile,” he said.

The home component is a little different. There’s obviously no organized races, but students get credit for getting out of the house and getting active, which can mean any number of activities.

“When they go home… if they’re active with family, if they go to the park, if they walk the dog, if they go to practice, if they’re going outside and playing with friends, their parents sign off on these cards, and then they bring these to me at P.E. class,” Bertram said.

The tokens are an extrinsic reward, Bertram admitted, but he said the students so far seem more excited about what the tokens represent as opposed to the items themselves. The plastic tokens are the only part of the program that costs money, furnished by the Parent Teacher Organizations at both schools.

So far, the program seems to be working. Bertram estimated that 80 percent of students have chosen to participate this year and on average, 40 percent of the student body turns up to each race. Even better, more and more students are getting credit for doing activities at home as opposed to recess or the afterschool races.

Bertram said that parents, teachers and administrators have all been supportive and are invited to the events. A good turnout was present at the last race of the year on Wednesday, with parents and students from different grade levels cheering each other on. The kids were all smiles, enjoying the sunny weather and the chance to run, skip, walk, or whatever, around the Westside fields.

Bertram may have a love of running, but his personal fondness for the sport has nothing to do with its implementation into the program: it’s about opportunity.

“There’s no barriers to it; you don’t need a stick or a ball to do it,” he said of running. “All students of all abilities and backgrounds can do it.”

Bertram plans to bring the program back next year, and is hosting a summer fun and activity camp June 17-19 for incoming first- through ninth-graders. For more information, contact Brandon Bertram at brandon.bertram@hoodriver.k12.or.us