Just Finished in Mississippi...

So I just got out of the woods and onto a plane in Mississippi. I had a great time with one of my oldest friends, Spencer. We tried hard to find some turkey and failed and we did get into the deer. I found one I wanted to harvest and missed a 30 yard shot with my bow. Ouch...Regardless, we had a fantastic time, hunting, working his property, and catching up. He is a great guy.

I will be in Wisconsin for a training tomorrow and travelling on Tuesday. If you want to schedule a time to talk with me on Wednesday, I will be in the office most of the day and available to talk. There are a couple of you, my Project Directors, who I need to have a discussion with to make sure we are on course and will meet our deadlines. I am sure you are, but those deadlines have a way of creeping up on us if we don't manage them correctly.

In other news, word on the street is that the DoEd will be accepting new applications this spring. What does this mean to you? You know that AFS works solely on a referral basis, and I would love to talk with potential Project Directors in other districts that you would feel comfortable referring over to us. So, please take a couple of minutes and get me one or two names that I can contact and email them over to me when you get a moment.

In Mississippi this Week

So Hawai'i was a huge success, and you can check out my reports from the island at my personal blog here. This week I am in Mississippi to work with Choctaw County Schools. I will be in the backwoods in the northwest corner of the state looking for whitetail deer and turkey with a good friend of mine. So, if you need to get in touch with me this week, know that it will most likely be Monday when I will be able to get back to you.

Clairton City Schools Report

I just finished my training at Clairton City Schools. Clairton is in Year III of their implementation and is doing a good job at making sure they meet the goals they set through the Objectives that were originally proposed to the DoEd. Through a significant amount of support at the administrative level and leadership from within the PE Department, the district is well on its way to meet their stated expected outcomes.

This district is in a high poverty area. Perhaps when I say high poverty, you think that a lot of their students come from low income households. Outside of Chicago Public Schools, Clairton may have the highest percentage of students who come from this type of household. Student motivation is a challenge within this district. Motivating students to collect their MVPA data is a challenge here more than anywhere else I work with.

But the PE instructors may be near experts in student motivation. The district administration is committed to supporting the efforts of the PE instructors not only financially, but with the time and energy they require. Clairton rewards all students who submit their MVPA data during the scheduled weeks by hosting a huge pizza party at the end of the term.

Now I know, Coordinated School Health states you should not use food as a reward or punishment. In this case, this strategy may be the most cost efficient and effective way to get their students to submit their data on time. All students who attend the party are also provided with an entry into a drawing. For the drawing the district provides enough gift cards to local merchants that about half of the students walk away from the party with something in their hands.

Many of the ideas we use and strategies we recommend come from Clairton. We appreciate their efforts in making sure that their students are able to walk away from their program with an understanding of how to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of fitness.

Week of 10.05 Schedule

So this week I will be in Clairton, PA at the front of the week for training. Then Wednesday I leave to head to Maui, HI for a training there on Friday. My business partner, Bruce Sorensen, and I will be in Hawaii for a couple of days for a Board Meeting and other fun stuff.

I know, my life is tough. If you need to get in touch with me this week, please make sure you email me and leave me a voicemail. I will most likely get back to you via email because of the time differences.

New Announcements

So I heard from one of my school districts that I submitted in March 2009 that they had received a phone call from one of their Senate Offices that they were are recipient of the PEP grant. So wait a minute, they did not fund in the first round of funding, so could this be possible?

I actually started calling around and one of the other grant development people that I know and one of them had a district that had heard the same thing. So does that mean there is another round of funding? Could be. Stay tuned, especially if you submitted an application that did not fund...

Upcoming Professional Development

It is time to start making your plans for the professional development sessions that are budgeted for this summer. The sessions were initially budgeted for the SPARK Summer Institute, which is always fantastic. However, I have gotten some feedback from some of you that you would prefer to keep the SPARK training sessions that are scheduled during the school year and use the summer training money for another function.

Sportime hosts a Technology Conference every summer that will instruct you in the optimal use of your Suunto Heart Rate Monitor systems. The conference has been in the Atlanta area in the past, and I believe it will be in the same spot this coming summer. The conference instructors will include individuals who have used the product the same way that you are -- in a classroom setting. You will also receive training on the HeartZones curriculum. That in and of itself is worth the registration cost.

The costs are real close between the two conferences and there would be no additional district money that would be required for the Technology Conference. Please let me know if you would like additional information regarding this particular event.

Back in the Saddle

I just got back from the national AAHPERD meeting and had a fantastic time. I got to spend time with most of you while I was there...I did miss seeing a couple of you and wish I could have gotten in touch with you while we were both in town. For those of you who I did get to meet, thanks for taking time out of your conference and beach (just kidding project directors) schedules to meet with me. Howl at the Moon in Tampa is one of the best dueling piano bars in the country. I will tell you this about that night, South Dakota PE teachers know how to rip up the town. Texas A&M associate professors are way too cute, way too fun.

So a couple of deadlines that you need to be aware of:
May 15th - For those of you who did not get the data for the Progress Report completed (and you know who you are), please make sure you work with me to get the right data in my hands so I can get the reports completed in a timely fashion.
May 21st - The is the deadline for you to request your funding from the Federal Government. The real deadline is May 30th, but we need to make sure we get the funding requested a little early just in case.
June 1st - The date we can cut PO's for the 2009-10 school year implementation. I will be on the road for most of April and May, so make sure I contact you to get a date to sit down to plan your implementation for next year. Let's be more aggressive with the evaluation calendar so we can get most of the data turned in during January 2010.

The main reason I go to the national AAHPERD conference is to meet with you, my clients. I did take the chance to meander through the trade show and attend some sessions that I think may be of value to you. I did find some new resources for equipment. The more I look around, the more I like SPARK, StationPE, and FitnessWise as the curriculum platforms to be used for the implementation of PEP programs. The curriculum for each of the programs is good, but the people behind the programs are also fantastic. I am still in awe at how well they know their jobs and the programs. I love working with the vendors that I have.

If you have any feedback on the show or ideas that have come up, please email me and let me do some research before I come out to your site this spring. I would love to talk them through with you to see if they fit within the scope and sequence of your program. I prefer to stick to the plan that was originally proposed, but small deviations in equipment, for example, are alright as long as they fit within the plan.

I am looking forward to meeting with all of you soon!