Kathy Tronvig’s Teaching Philosophy
 I have been teaching physical education for 26 years. For the past
seven years, I have been the physical education teacher at Roosevelt
Elementary School. From a young age, I have loved physical activity
and especially enjoy being fit and active. I share that joy with
my elementary school children, who are at the beginning stages
of learning  about their bodies, how they work, and what they
can accomplish.
A core part of my philosophy is to encourage
every child to feel successful through physical exercise. Children
bring varying levels of physical skills to my classes. I use
a variety of tools and approaches to ensure they all have challenges
they can meet and thus feel successful. Having engaging, well-designed
tools such as those Project Fit America provides, makes physical
activity fun for the children and helps me, as their teacher,
work toward a standards-based curriculum. Through that curriculum,
children become happier, healthier, more active individuals.
My core belief is that every child deserves the opportunity to
succeed in physical education. My ultimate goal is to build in
every child a life-long habit of healthy physical activity.
Use of the PFA Program
 I
use the PFA Equipment’s stations for fitness development.
For example, students increase their upper body coordination through
throwing and catching, and develop upper body strength with the
pole climb. My students love the pole climb and it has helped them.
One year ago, when we implemented the PFA Program, my fourth graders
could not climb the pole. Now, as fifth graders, they can master
it. Their enthusiastic use of this equipment, focused through my
core curriculum, has resulted in an increase in our school's
state fitness gram scores.
I incorporate the Project Fit Core Curriculum
into my lesson plans throughout the school year. In those plans,
I have the students engage in cooperative games, movement skills,
throwing and catching, tumbling and balance, jump rope, aerobic
activities, and more. The PFA core activities support my learning
and physical fitness outcome goals. Not only am I succeeding
in teaching—but more
critically, my students are succeeding in learning. They are healthier
and more active without experiencing exercise as an unpleasant
effort. They enjoy the PFA curriculum activities, movements, and
skills. Some activities that my students particularly love are:
Ten Dollars & a Bone, PFA Cards,
Indy500, and the Tennis Ball Warm Up.
  One
of the PFA challenges that is most successful at my school is the
Star Challenge. At the beginning of this year, I developed a plan
and a tracking system where all students in each grade could begin
to challenge themselves by developing, over time, their physical
skills and strengths at selected stations. It was successful for
several reasons. First, I did not try to have students master all
the stations at once—I selected
two pieces of equipment for the Challenge.  This was in part because
the PFA was new to my school and in part because I had to ensure
I could train, encourage, and track their work as their instructor.
As a result of the first Star Challenge, over 200
students received either gold, silver, or bronze medals for their
achievements. All the participants felt proud of what they’d accomplished—as shown by the fact
that they willingly posed for the group photographs and everyone
smiled!
Beyond the Project Fit America Program
This semester is the start of my second year with the Project Fit
America Program. What has evolved to date is a great deal of
informal and enthusiastic use of the equipment and games. However,
I have plans for extending the program in two areas.
Students, teachers, and parents are all using
the equipment outside of the program. Project Fit America's
stations, games, and equipment are extremely popular with students
in all grades. On their own, during recesses and lunch time,
the children want to use it, asking for my help in testing them
and taking the Star Challenge. Faculty received in-service training
on the use and safety of Project Fit America. Some use it during
off-school hours. In addition, I have reached out to the parents
in our community by encouraging students to train their parents
on its use.
 This year, I plan to formalize my community outreach by holding
two parent training sessions, one during a lunch period so the
children can encourage their parents to participate and one after
5pm to involve working parents.
My corporate sponsorship has been with Cliff
Bar. This year I plan to work with their newly appointed liaison
to Roosevelt Elementary School's Project Fit America Program.
Together, we will plan and implement co-coordination and testing
of the children as they work through the Star Challenge and the
many other activities that encourage quality, healthy lifestyles.
Conclusion:
 There are two unique aspects of Project Fit America that have helped
me make it such a success at my school. In this program each
child has a piece of equipment that they use during the activities
and exercises. Having their own equipment may not seem special,
but it is because it motivates them. They can master that equipment
without competition or distraction. By being able to work with
that equipment individually, they can improve their skills faster
and feel more successful.
A second unique aspect of the Project Fit America program is that
its design enables each child to start at his or her own physical
fitness level and then progress. The only competition they are
in is with themselves. In many physical activities, children have
to compete against others. Because the program is designed to build
self-mastery, success is individual. The beauty of this program
is that every child has the opportunity to succeed.
 Project Fit America’s activities and
equipment are genuinely fun to use. The program is self-motivating
and through it my children have become more physically fit. Hopefully,
they will remain motivated throughout their lives to continue
an active and healthy lifestyle.
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