Ten jumping jacks, ten sit-ups, ten push-ups! At home? Yes. With the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought upon all Arcadia Unified schools comes distance learning for all of the classes at AHS, including physical education (P.E.).

A regular week in Ms. Ashley Frandsen’s class consists of workouts and cooldowns on Tuesdays and Thursdays (or Wednesdays and Fridays), and occasional assignments. Every other week, she picks a topic to teach students about, like the five physical fitness components, and they do an assignment about it. 

 “The main goal is to get the students moving. They are sitting and taking notes for their other classes for a long time, and we want to help them stay active during the time they are with us,” said Ms. Frandsen.

Mr. Jason Franz, another P.E. teacher at AHS and Ms. Frandsen’s colleague, concedes with the goal. “It’s hard for them, it’s hard for us,” said Jason, “but we’re trying our best. I think that the biggest challenge is that we have to change everything we do, more than other classes. We don’t have the equipment, and we don’t have the facilities. Whatever the students can work with is what we work with.”

The students will begin taking health class online through Gradpoint soon, the same program used for online summer school at AHS. Both Mr. Franz and Ms. Frandsen said that it should be easy for students to pass swiftly as long as they do all of the work.

Kenneth Martinez is a freshman in Ms. Frandsen’s class. He takes P.E. class in his living room, ready to go with his basketball shorts and Nike tee. Kenneth said that a con of distance learning P.E. is that they watch videos instead of doing everything in person, but he still looks at the brighter side.

 “Nothing is bad about distance learning; I just wish it could be a little different sometimes,” he said. Kenneth said he had fun writing the get-to-know-you essay assigned to him, that he loves having AC while exercising, and that in distance learning, he doesn’t feel embarrassed to give himself encouraging words like: “Come on, you got this” while he is doing the workouts.

Minnoli Shukla is also a freshman in one of Ms. Frandsen’s classes. She does P.E. in her bedroom and wears appropriate work-out clothes like they are “required to.” She would “much rather have P.E. in person” and thinks “P.E. online can be mentally tiring,” but acknowledged that being in the comfort of her home is a pro. “I would like to thank my P.E teacher for still trying to make P.E a more enjoyable experience for us,” Minnoli said.

Aaron Serrano is a freshman in the class of Mr. Nicholas Lemas, who is a P.E. teacher and baseball coach at AHS. Aaron said that P.E. “is way different, in my opinion, due to the online class. It’s really weird to do P.E. inside a house compared to being on a track.” Two cons for him are that there is no human physical contact and no sun indoors, but he likes having the AC working while working out.

Mr. Franz said that it felt like he “had never taught before,” and Ms. Frandsen agreed with a nod and laugh, but then acknowledged that “they were able to come up with a good plan” and that “when day one came, there were a few hiccups here and there,” but that she’s very thankful that everything is going well so far.

Graphic courtesy of RESTREAM.IO