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]