SHAPE America in the News
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K12 Dive
How school coaches are prioritizing mental health for student athletes
In 2019, the Society of Health and Physical Educators, or SHAPE America, launched the health. moves. minds. program alongside Booster, an education fundraising solutions company. The program, which offers publicly accessible curricula, integrates school fundraising with physical, social, emotional and mental wellness activities.
“We like to say that we teach our students that when they take care of their body as well as their mind, they live their best life,” said SHAPE CEO Stephanie Morris. “Mental health has to be something we pay attention to through physical education and health education so that our students have the opportunity to grow holistically.”
Ed Week
Is Virtual P.E. the Future?
Using technology in P.E. is “meeting students where they’re at,” said Brandy Lynch, a member of the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America board of directors and an associate professor and physical education program coordinator at the University of Central Missouri. SHAPE America is a nonprofit that sets P.E. standards and provides support for educators in the field.
Black Press USA
Exercise and Young Children: An Expert Educator’s Advice and Ideas
We interviewed Michelle Carter, the Director of Educational Content and Programs at the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America). The nonprofit serves as the voice for over 200,000 health and physical education professionals across the United States.
Michelle says that movement for young children doesn’t need to be structured workouts or expensive programs; it’s all about creating safe spaces for play, exploration, and joyful movement each day. She says movement is a natural part of how babies and young children learn about their world, build strength, develop confidence, and lay the foundation for lifelong health. Michelle is deeply passionate about promoting healthy, active lifestyles from the very start of life.
Maine DOE Newsroom
Mountain Valley High School Health Teacher Kristen Allen Named 2025 SHAPE America Eastern District Health Teacher of the Year
On December 16, 2024, the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America) announced that Mountain Valley High School Health Education Teacher Kristen Allen was selected as the Eastern District Health Teacher of the Year. Kristen has taught health education at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford for more than 18 years.
Singletracks
Mountain biking by the book: MTB might just be the perfect physical activity
Looking over my own kids’ standards-based curriculum recently, I came across this nugget from Shape America and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE):
“The physically literate individual recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.”
Personally, I can’t think of another sport that delivers all five of these benefits in a single activity the way mountain biking does.
In the News Archives
Click the button to the right to see listings from 2024 and earlier.
NEA
How Students Literally ‘Work Out’ Behavior Problems
The weight room and boxing programs build on what Pike and Shappell do in their PE classes. Both are members of the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America.
Quality PE programs, according to SHAPE’s standards, promote positive personal and social behaviors, teaching students how to effectively communicate and resolve conflict. Kids learn to take turns, or agree on the rules of a game, for example.
Education Week
Traumatic Brain Injuries Are More Common Than You Think. Here’s What to Know
But return-to-school protocols are harder to come by. The Society of Health and Physical Educators, or SHAPE America, has reported that at least a dozen states have concussion laws on the books with language about injured students resuming normal academic activities.
SUNY Cortland
Alumni gift creates civic engagement endowment
Kratz left a noticeable mark at Cortland. She was one of two Cortland students — and just eight in New York state — named a Major of the Year by the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE).
The News-Herald
SHAPE America to host national convention in Cleveland
“It’s the largest gathering of health educators and physical educators in the country,” she added. “We really try to sort of travel the country to be able to offer the opportunity for high-quality professional development, networking, connections to exhibitors, vendors in the field and things like that.”
Education Week
Unsafe Health Claims Dominate Social Media. Health Class Can Give Students Vetting Tools
The Society for Physical Education and Health Education’s new K-12 standards, set to be released in March, include strands focused on media literacy and analyzing health influences.
The standards are aimed at “trying to help students be able to figure out not only if the sources are valid, but also figure out how to confirm information that you’re reading,” Benes said. “It’s exploring all the elements that you need in order to be able to identify a potentially not-reliable source of information, to look critically at what you’re reading and determine the extent to which the claims being made are accurate or truthful.”
Education Week
Teaching About Grief and Loss: One State’s New Requirement for Schools
While the Society of Health and Physical Educators, the professional organization for health educators, doesn’t specifically include grief in its model standards, the group hopes the skills-based approach to identifying and managing emotions it recommends will help students learn to cope, said Sarah Benes, the organization’s president.
“By focusing on skills, it supports transfer across a range of emotions and building the toolbox students can access when managing difficult situations, including grief,” she said.
The Lund Report
Schools weigh priorities when tackling substance use prevention
Sarah Benes, the president of the Society of Health and Physical Educators, said the extremely limited time educators are able to spend teaching health is a national problem.
She thinks that the social and environmental factors that drive drug use play a bigger role in kids’ decisions to use than health education could. That said, she also thinks better and more health education has enormous potential to give kids the tools they need to do a good job navigating difficult choices about exercise, nutrition, sex and drugs, among other topics.
NEA Today
How PE Boosts Student Mental Health
They learn more, and stress less, says Cara Grant, president-elect of SHAPE America and PreK-12 curriculum supervisor for health, PE, and adapted PE for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.
“As young as early elementary school, students discover how physical activity helps them feel better,” Grant says.
One of SHAPE’s sample lessons for elementary PE includes an emotional check in where students select an emoji that represents how they feel at the beginning of class and at the end. More often than not, kids who first selected a sad or tired emoji chose a happier and more excited one at the end of class.
K-12 Dive
Should students have to change clothes for PE class?
“The goal of dressing in physical education has to do with [how] to facilitate movement,” said Cara Grant, a director on the board at SHAPE America, which represents health and physical education professionals. “Reduced restriction based on clothing, this just doesn’t work well when you’re trying to move your body.”
American School Board Journal
Rethink PE
SHAPE America recently held a series of roundtables focused on increasing diversity in the field. “We know how much research shows that kids learn better when they have access to a teacher or a staff person in school that looks like them, that they can identify with,” says Carly Wright. “Our national board of directors has really made a strong recommitment to EDI.” Wright is SHAPE America’s vice president of advocacy and equity, diversity and inclusion.
NIU Today
SHAPE America names Paul Wright chair of Research Council for 2022-23
Wright, the EC Lane and MN Zimmerman Endowed Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, will lead the organization’s efforts during the next year to encourage and promote research activity.
Sports Business Journal
NBA, WNBA launching Jr. NBA Leagues program in local U.S. markets
The Jr. NBA is also partnering with SHAPE America (Society of Health and Physical Educators) — a professional association serving more than 200,000 health and physical education pros nationwide — to assist 40 Title I schools, which receive financial assistance because of a high concentration of low-income students. Schools will receive Jr. NBA programming and resources at no cost. RCX Sports, a Jr. NBA partner since 2018, is the official operating partner of the program.
Washington Post
What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement.
“When money gets tight, P.E. is one of the first to go,” said Terri Drain, past president of SHAPE America, which supports professionals in P.E., health, recreation and dance. The organization provides guidance and research and leads lobbying on health issues in Congress.
Southwest News Media
Jessica Matheson named SHAPE America’s 2022 National Teacher of the Year
Jessica Matheson, of Chanhassen, has many roles at Rockford High School. From health and physical education teacher to district equity coordinator to assistant girls varsity basketball coach.
Now she can add SHAPE America 2022 National Teacher of the Year to her list of titles.
Education Week
School Sports Are Back. Where Are the Athletes?
Terri Drain, the president of the Society of Health and Physical Educators, who taught for 34 years and coached high school field hockey, said these setbacks are a “lingering effect” of the pandemic.
SweetwaterNOW
Students Get Active at Health Moves Minds
At least 292 K-6 students in School District No. 1 learned how to get active and move around on Thursday at Western Wyoming Community College.
Health Moves Minds was run by local PE teachers Annette Ice, Gina Comstock, Matthew Gardner, Katie Searle, Eric Urlacher, Kim Fouts, Kim Buston, Deb Stephenson. Twenty-five Western college athletes also volunteered throughout the day.
The stations focused on sport skills, movement, mental health and plenty of other informative and fun activities.
WORLD Digital
Post-pandemic, PE teachers warn of lost skills
“A lot of the impacts of COVID aren’t visible,” said Terri Drain, president of the Society of Health and Physical Educators, or SHAPE America, a professional organization providing national standards for health and physical education. She noted concerns like obesity are more apparent than mental needs: “All this has been going on for so long. COVID’s just accelerated things.”
The Hechinger Report
How PE teachers are tackling ‘physical learning loss’
“Terri Drain, the president of SHAPE [America], argued that schools fail students when they treat physical learning loss as less serious than its academic counterpart.”
K-12 Dive
Curricular Counsel: Trust, options key to navigating PE amid COVID-19
“Education is all about building relationships,” Brett Fuller, curriculum specialist for health and physical education at Milwaukee Public Schools and president of the Society of Health and Physical Educators, told K-12 Dive. “If you build relationships with your students and those students know you’re sincere and you’re consistent with them, and at the end they trust what you’re doing, you’re going to have a much better chance of getting the purchase rate in your activities.”
Washington Post
Kids are shooting hoops with rolled up socks, but pandemic physical education is not canceled
“We’re disguising fitness,” said Brett Fuller, the president of SHAPE [America’s] national board of directors and a curriculum specialist for health and physical education in Milwaukee Public Schools.
Newsday
Longtime PE professor isn’t giving up on fitness in retirement
SHAPE America member and Active Start co-author Steve Virgilio has dedicated his life to his passion in physical activity and physical education. As he prepares for retirement from Adelphi University, the longtime professor looks to continue practicing what he preaches.
Education Dive
PE adapts for social distancing and virtual learning
Carly Wright, vice president for advocacy and equity, diversity and inclusion at SHAPE, said P.E. instructors are being creative in their efforts to continue instruction during the pandemic. “Students still need to be able to receive high-quality, standards-based physical education. We wanted to see that continue no matter what type of learning is taking place,” she said.
Media Planet / USA Today
How New Learning Models Can Help Us Have Healthy, Active Students by Stephanie Morris
The COVID-19 crisis has affected young people of all ages, with many experiencing a level of trauma that can’t be ignored. As we enter a new school year, it’s vital that we consider students’ physical, mental, and social-emotional health above all else.
CNN
What school [physical education] class looks like in pandemic times
“We hope that through this horrible situation that we can raise the value and role that health and PE teachers play in the school,” said Michelle Carter, director of educational content and programs at the Society of Health and Physical Educators America. “There’s a connection between the mind and the body. Now more than ever, that connection is something we must celebrate.”
Missouri State
COVID-19 and physical education: Working it out
Sean Nevills, physical education and sports management alumnus, is ready to help schools across America work around COVID-19. At the start of August, he was appointed project director for the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America‘s COVID-19 project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control.
In his role, a year-long cooperative agreement, Nevills will lead efforts to create resources focused on distance learning, trauma-informed practice, teacher self-care and cultural sensitivity in physical education.
hottytoddy.com
UM Graduate Student Honored for Health Analytics Work
Seungho Ryu, a University of Mississippi doctoral student in health and kinesiology, has been named the 2020 Measurement and Evaluation Graduate Student of the Year by the Society of Health and Physical Educators, known as SHAPE America.
Pleasanton Weekly
Cindi Chase wins 2020 SHAPE America National Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year
A Pleasanton teacher won a top national title in physical fitness instruction as the 2020 SHAPE America National Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year this week.
Chicago Tribune
A long way from dodgeball: How the coronavirus school shutdown has changed PE class
Across the U.S., there are roughly 200,000 physical education and health teachers in kindergarten to 12th grade schools, according to the Maryland-based Society of Health and Physical Educators, and many of them are now teaching virtually.
Senior Program Manager Michelle Carter said that in addition to wide disparities in students’ access to digital resources, the ability to lead a successful online PE class also varies dramatically, and often hinges on a teacher’s level of expertise and confidence with using the technology.
Washington Post
The ultimate parents’ guide to education and activity resources
SHAPE America has instructions for an arts and crafts project (you have to create your own deck of fitness cards) that can provide kids with the option of several screen-free games for one to five players. Some games are suitable for young kids and others for middle-schoolers and older. For the youngest kids, this project requires older-sibling or parent involvement.
OregonLive
Portland PE teacher shares fun ways to get kids moving at home: Chalk, jump rope, geocaching
Oregon Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE): Has downloadable Health Move and Mind fitness calendars with suggestions in English and Spanish.
Khan Academy
