How Waltham Educators Are Combating Technology Fatigue: Fresh Air

WALTHAM, MA — If you've been seeing some kids around town filming themselves on skateboard loops or walks that involve the occasional dance break, no, it's not just the pandemic getting to us, it's part of the McDevitt Middle School's Physical Education"Fresh Air Challenge" to get students outside and moving and away from screens.

PE teacher Tedd Markos, who has been teaching middle school physical education for the past three years at McDevitt, works each day to get his students thinking about being healthy and getting moving amid the pandemic. And, as any middle-school teacher might need to do, he tends to think about creative ways to keep his students engaged.

"Being outside with nature, I’ve read, helps children sustain their attention and even work on regulation," he said. "I just see them through the screens and wanted to get them outside."

He got an idea that he hoped would keep them physically active, battle technology fatigue, while using their own creativity to foster community with their classmates: He challenged students to complete a mile of exercise but with creative flair — and they have to film themselves.

He sent it out to his students, and his department sent it out to the rest of the school. Several hundred teachers and students have received an invitation to participate in the challenge.

And it seems like its catching on.

So far, students have been involving their parents, biking, narrating their walks and uploading them. Staff has been participating too. Markos said he wasn't sure how interested students would be, so he threw in some extra credit points and to-be-announced prizes for those who took part.

Markos said he left much of the challenge up to them, to encourage creativity.

"And that’s something you can’t get from a digital worksheet," he said.

He asks that the participants stay safe, and mask up and get their family involved if they can.

Staff has been getting into the challenge, too, he said, sending in some funny videos where they’re dancing with their kids, or marching around the city in a "band."

And that kind of leadership is exactly the point.

"We’re in a different situation right now and trying to have fun with it," Markos said. "You got to remember they’re kids, and they … they are missing out on that socializing they would have in person, so us as teachers have to do as much as we can help build that community."

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how.