Students in the Life Skills program at Southard Middle School are getting to experience physical education like never before. With their own class period and peer tutors to assist, they have an opportunity to get the physical activity they need that sometimes a big general ed P.E. class cannot provide.
Partners P.E. is a new class offered at Southard this year. It is a physical education program featuring supervised peer tutors and individualized learning and instruction.
Coach Kenya Evans oversees the class. She brings 15 years of experience with Partners P.E. from Plano ISD, where she gained valuable insight to enable her to help implement the class in Princeton.
“The purpose of Partners P.E. is to encourage physical activity, increase knowledge of health and fitness strategies and assist in the acquisition of individual lifetime recreation activities and skills associated with team sports,” Coach Evans said. “Partners P.E. is designed to meet the unique physical education needs of students with disabilities who cannot meet the state requirements of regular physical education because of physical, social, emotional or behavioral limitations.”
According to Life Skills teacher Katherine Johnston, the Life Skills students can lose out on the actual physical fitness activity in the more advanced P.E. classes.
For the full story, see the Jan. 21 issue or subscribe online.
By Jean Ann Collins • [email protected]
