Creating classroom calisthenics

Jeff Benson

Hiba Shublak’s students are so excited to learn that they’re jumping

up and down about it.

Shublak, a 30-year-old Costa Mesa resident, was upset that

physical education and health were taking a back seat to test score

improvement. So, she decided to take an active approach.

She’s reaching out to preschool-age through sixth-grade students

and Orange County teachers with her Active Learning program, merging

academics with physical education.

The program was created to mix literary arts, math, science and

comprehensive curriculum with planned physical activity.

“There are a few programs out there that teach physical

activities, but I don’t know of any program that integrates as much

academics as mine does,” she said.

Her lessons typically include stretching and aerobics, mixed in

with a bit of geography, some critical reading and various

inspirational quotes.

As founder and chief executive officer of the program, Shublak

provides teachers with useful tips to get their students moving

around during their lessons, even getting the teachers active

themselves while they’re in front of the class.

“It’s fun for the kids when they get to see their teacher moving

around,” she said. “They get excited about it because he or she is

their role model.”

She teaches four classes each day, for 30 to 45 minutes per class.

After a month or so, when the teachers have had some time to practice

the program in their classrooms, Shublak comes back to each of them

and critiques them.

Shublak bases Active Learning’s creation on two main concerns

affecting students nationwide.

First, childhood obesity is becoming a nationwide epidemic.

“It’s really bad and getting worse,” she said. “This is what the

problem is, that people are trying to provide all these different

solutions for obesity. Some people say you should educate kids on

nutrition, and others say you should educate them on physical

activity.

“You have to hit on every aspect. A lot of kids have no movement;

they just sit all day.”

Second, many students are dropping on their academic scores, she

said.

“Without physical activity, the students don’t get enough blood

flow to the brain,” she said. “That allows the mind to clear out so

students can have more energy to study. When they’re confined to the

classroom and they don’t even have 15 minutes of movement, they start

getting stressed out.”

She usually has the older children group up in different stations,

where they perform jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups and other

exercises for points. After they’ve completed their stations, they’re

asked to add up their points and to calculate the median and mean of

their scores.

Younger children perform similar exercises but may only be

required to count the dots on a die they roll when they’re done, she

said.

Shublak, a 13-year health and fitness expert with an educational

background in Child and Adolescent Studies, Psychotherapy and

Education, also teaches workshops independently to teachers and

parents in order to encourage healthy habits.

The Active Learning program has latched on with schools in

Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana and Westminster, Shublak said, and

she’s already spoken with Newport-Mesa Unified School district

officials about incorporating the program into the local area.

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 .