This year KP is trying something new out with her PE classes. Since the school is making improvements over the next five years, they gave KP a little extra money to improve her fitness classes. She decided to use this money to purchase heart rate monitors. Every student in a PE class with KP receives a strap and a sensor to use. This monitor measures each person’s heart rate. This year, these classes are much more individualized because each person’s abilities are different. Some students are able to do more than others in certain activities, so the classes are based off of what an individual is capable of doing.
One of the goals behind her PE classes this year is to track a student’s heart rate with the heart monitor. To use the heart sensor, each student is given a strap that wraps around their torso, and the sensor is placed in the center. While the sensor is recording a student’s heart rate, the data that it records is sent to KP’s iPad using the Polar GoFit app during the class, this way she can track her class to tell if they are participating. The goal for each student is to keep their heart rate elevated at 70% of their individual capacity for most of the class, which varies from student to student.
To make maintaining a healthy heart rate more fun, every ten minutes that a student is in their target, they receive a badge on the application that KP uses. Depending on the length of the class, the number of badges for the day varies. For a shorter class period the goal for the class period would be to earn one or two badges, but for a block period goal would be to earn four or five badges. How many badges a student earns in a class affects what grade the student gets.  This year grades are more accurate because it is based off of a student’s participation.
Even though the heart rate monitors are used for all ages of PE classes, KP mentioned that the classes that are interested the most are the 4th graders and the freshman. The technology will continue to be used in her classes, and will make PE a more interesting and fun class for everyone.
~Brianna Liras