Rockwood South PE Class Encourages Students to Form Connections Through Fitness

October is Disability History and Awareness Month nationally, a time during which the Rockwood School District encourages our schools to provide instruction on disability history, people with disabilities and the disability rights movement. There are approximately 117,000 students with disabilities educated by Missouri public schools, and we value the importance of our schools recognizing the contributions by people with disabilities to our society through school curriculum, assemblies and other school activities.

The Best Buddies physical education class at Rockwood South Middle provides students the opportunity to learn and practice a variety of fundamental movement skills while participating in various games, sports and team-building activities.

Beyond that, though, teacher Joe Jackson said the students in his class are forming friendships that extend beyond the walls of the gymnasium.

“The kids get to form relationships, get a better understanding of the world in general, develop empathy and work on their social-emotional skills,” Jackson said. “It’s awesome. It warms my heart every other morning that I get to have this class. I’m loving it.”

Best Buddies International is a nonprofit dedicated to creating opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This is the first year Rockwood South has offered this course. Jackson and fellow physical education teacher Chris Moore started the momentum behind the idea and enlisted principal Dr. Laurie Birkenmeier and Dr. Carrie Page, the school’s special education coordinator, to bring it to Rockwood South for the 2023-2024 school year.

Birkenmeier said she has seen great results in the course’s first year.

“All of our kids deserve to be engaged and get to enjoy exercise, fitness and socialization,” she said. “It feels right and good that we have a community of educators who love every one of our kids and want every one of our kids to have a sense of belonging, pride and fun. The students in the class connect with each other and seek each other out throughout the day. It’s apparent how much these students mean to each other. It’s had a great impact on every kid that’s participating.”

Jackson and adaptive PE teacher Brian Carroll lead the class. Each period is structured similarly. The class starts with “walk-and-talk” time to get the students conversing about a topic of the day. After that, the six students in the class lead warm-up exercises for their peers, then they engage in some fitness activities before going into the day’s main game.

A recent Friday included a flying-centric walk-and-talk, superhero freeze tag, bowling and a parachute game.

“It’s helping me grow as an active learner, and it’s helping all of us grow and achieve more of our goals,” said Bailey, a seventh-grader in the class. “It makes me feel happy and good knowing that everyone is welcome in a school and a community that we love.”