Laurie Guikema, one of our BCCS Physical Education (PE) teachers, shares this about her classroom this school year:

My Storyline is “Step Up to the Plate in PE.” I have played softball competitively since I was in 5th grade, so including a ball diamond in my Storyline only seemed to make sense. To continue the baseball metaphor, the most important position is the pitcher, God. He is the center of our class and is the one who gets to throw out every first pitch. God is the one who initiates any change in my students’ hearts. The students’ job is to simply step up to the plate and get swinging. Students can honor God with their bodies, learn how to love to move, and learn to be kind to others in all cooperative play.

I ask my students, “What does it mean to step up to the plate in PE, in our school, in your immediate family, and in our community?” I hope that the discussion that follows will be thoughtful, challenging, and practical. I believe that each one of my students has a role in God’s big story and that story includes our gym. Each teacher has content that is unique to his/her class or subject. We are not only forming our students’ minds, but we are transforming hearts. I desire for my students to enter the gym and ask, “How does my learning today fit into His story?” My hope has always been that my students are seeing what is valued in our class–kindness over competition. I thought by being a caring and empathetic teacher, my students would learn good character traits through some sort of sweaty gym osmosis. But values don’t become habits just by observation. Students must practice them and write their own good story. I am excited to see them “step up to the plate” as I continue teaching this year.