Submitted by Rachel Turetsky
“My own personal running program has inspired me to improve our running unit,” said Berlin Elementary School physical education teacher, Mrs. Stacey Sausville, who has completed two half marathons in the past year
The students of BES have recently completed their track unit in physical education class. With mile tokens and merging technology into the unit, PE teachers Mrs. Sausville and Mr. Kasson Sauer found the students highly motivated.
Each student was given a running badge with a barcode, and as they completed a course lap their barcode was scanned into the EZtally system on an IPad. EZtally is software that tracks the distance run and gives words of encouragement each time the student scans their badge. The incorporation of the eztally software helped students see their progress individually, as a class and school-wide.
Tokens were collected by the students each time they completed a mile. The token system was carried over from the original run club that was started a few years ago. The tokens were motivators back then, and according to Mrs. Sausville, proved to be once again. They get to bring their tokens home at the end of the unit as a reward for their effort and to mark their total miles run.
Together, the 328 students from kindergarten through fifth grade at Berlin elementary ran the distance from Western New York to California, 2,226 miles. Mrs. Nichols and Mrs. Bersaw’s second-grade class ran the farthest, with 188. Mrs. Demagistris’ fifth-grade class came in second with a distance of 184 miles, and Mrs. Healy’s second-grade class was third with a total of 179 miles.
The top five distance runners for the school were Nicholas Neet (fourth grade) 16.5 miles; Cale Maxon (fourth grade) 15.5 miles; Lilly Meyers (fifth grade) 14.75 miles; and tied for fourth were Carl Cahn (fifth grade) and Lucas Zuke (fourth grade) with 13.75 miles. Fifth place was Jacob Bonesteel (first grade), 13 miles.
Mrs. Sausville and Mr. Sauer completed the unit with a timed mile for fourth and fifth graders, half mile for third and second graders and quarter mile for first graders and kindergarten.
During the BES June assembly medals and certificates were handed out to the fastest boy and girl from each grade level. The awards went to: fifth graders Lilly Meyers and Cameron Van Dyk, fourth graders Elliot Smith, with Noah Bonesteel and Ethan Chestnut tying for the boys, third graders Markell Popov and Clair Schaaphok, second graders Sawyer Goodermote and Mia MacMillen, first graders Nicholas Meyers, with Grace Danish, Olivia Gates and Aela-Rose Anson tying for the girls, and kindergarteners Madison Miner and Daniel Hart.
The student’s motivation and progress has not only been inspiring to their peers but also to their P.E. teacher Mr. Sauer who has started running 5k (3.1 miles) daily.
“The results have been wonderful, I want to make every unit going forward as spectacular as this one was,” said Mrs. Sausville.