Gym Class Gets Technology Boost As School Starts Heart Monitors, At $169 A Pop, Will Let Kids Track Their Own Conditioning

Kids aren’t the only ones whose hearts pound at the thought of going back to school next week. How about those gym teachers?

Spokane’s physical education teachers have been racing up and down staircases, trying out new heart rate monitors they’ll soon strap on students.

District 81 kids will learn to count their heartbeats the same way Olympic athletes and astronauts do.

Along with their homework, they’ll tote home jagged-line printouts to show parents how hard they’re working out (or not) and what fine shape they’re in (or not).

“You now have every kid wired. You now have every kid accountable,” said Beth Kirkpatrick, who trained teachers on the Polar Electro equipment.

Administrators purchased about 190 monitors, at a cost of $169 each, which teachers will share.

The technology will surely change the look of gym classes, where kids for decades have pressed two fingers against their throats to check their heart rates.

Now they’ll strap bands around their chests and watch-like monitors on their wrists. They’ll do math to map progress. They’ll use computers to print results.

Jim Travis, a football and baseball coach at Lewis and Clark High School, predicts teachers and students will be lining up to use the monitors.

“It’ll help tremendously,” said Cathy Edgren, a Chase Middle School teacher and cross country coach. “The kids, rather than having teachers harping at them all the time, will be able to see where they’re at.”

Now, Edgren said she’s never sure if she’s pushing kids too hard or if they’re just whining.

She hopes parents, too, will take an interest in the monitors and help children break the sedentary cycle she so often sees.

“I am amazed at the kids’ families who basically do nothing,” Edgren said.

While the gym teachers climb stairs, thousands of other teachers are spending these last few days of summer break rearranging desks, learning new curriculum and generally losing their tans.

Schools in Medical Lake and Liberty school districts started last week. But school starts for most kids next week.

Students in Freeman and Cheney school districts go back Monday. On Tuesday, they’ll be joined by kids from Spokane, West Valley, East Valley, Deer Park, Mead and Nine Mile Falls districts.

Students from Riverside and Central Valley districts go back Wednesday.

New Spokane schools employees spent the week learning a few lessons of their own - from spotting harassment, to keeping students safe, to joining the teachers union.

In Central Valley, teachers sponsored workshops for student leaders and orientation sessions where 10th-graders picked up tips on high school life.

Construction workers and teachers criss-crossed paths at Bowdish Junior High School, trying to stay out of each others’ way.

The school was extensively remodeled during the past year. Workers scrambled to finish a few last-minute-but-critical projects, such as telephone and intercom installation.

“We’re trying to complete construction, move into classrooms,” said Assistant Principal Gordon Grassy. “The building is beautiful and we’re just going full-speed to be ready for kids.”

At Lakeside High School in Nine Mile Falls, two new top administrators - Principal Mike Parker and Assistant Principal Jim Missel - spent Friday making last-minute plans and getting to know colleagues.

“The clocks are being set. The fields have been marked for football. The pop machines have been filled,” Missel said.

He and Parker weren’t too worried about learning the ropes. They were getting plenty of tips from a drop-in visitor.

“I just came up to see if they needed anything,” said Larry Guenther, who spent eight years as the school’s principal before retiring in June. “After you’ve been around here, you know a lot of little idiosyncracies.”

And, yes, Guenther admitted, it’s a bit tough to let go.

“You bet,” he said. “It’ll hit home in the middle of September.”