Warrior Wellness: An inside look at Willowbrook’s junior and senior physical education classes

Willowbrook students are working hard every day to become more educated with their health and wellness, and we are thrilled to feature those accomplishments through this monthly column.

In this edition of Warrior Wellness, the Physical Education Department is proud to highlight junior and senior physical education (PE 11/12) courses at Willowbrook and the department’s continued efforts to create a lifetime-of-fitness mindset in each and every student.

The second semester of the 2021-22 school year has been jampacked with fun-filled, student-centered, teamwork-based activities. Students have been highly engaged in a learning environment that requires maximum amounts of effort socially, emotionally and physically. This semester, pupils have participated in the following activities:

  • Games and teamwork icebreakers
  • Badminton
  • Basketball
  • Tchoukball
  • Fitness-based learning days (pictured above)
  • Friday group-fitness days

One day a week also has been dedicated to cognitive concepts and principles in the classroom. We used a variety of assessment tools to check for understanding, including Google Forms, Edpuzzle, Go Formative and Pear Deck. We have discussed the following topics:

  • Dietary guidelines and research
  • FITT principle
  • SMART goals
  • Muscle identification 
  • Exercise techniques and proper form

Students have done a great job in the classroom creating their SMART goals. These goals will serve as motivation throughout the semester and will give pupils a target to achieve with the upcoming fitness testing. It is always nice to see students push themselves during fitness testing to show improvement and reach their goals. 

With the remaining time this semester, we will engage in two primary activities – our fitness testing and our semiannual Willowbrook Volleyball Tournament. These activities are highly sought after by our students, and we look forward to seeing them participate! Along with these two events, we are excited to get outside as we transition to spring later this month. With the warmer temperatures, students will enjoy sports such as kickball, flag football, ultimate frisbee, tennis and pickleball.

Thank you for your continued support of Willowbrook, and be sure to keep an eye out for the next Warrior Wellness column on April 8!

With Warrior Pride,
Tim Ortiz, Benjamin Maher and Anthony Gebhart
Willowbrook physical education teachers

  • The Warrior Wellness column provides an inside look into the physical education, health and driver education classes at Willowbrook. This feature highlights what students are working on in class, as well as student successes in those departments.