\u201cSo my perspective is, I really like it. It gets you healthy. Your heart beats, and then you get ready for the day you have after you’re done doing it. Like you get to take all your energy out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Asked what would happen if he didn\u2019t get his energy out, Dillin replies, \u201cOh, it\u2019d be different. I\u2019d be annoying. \u2026 With Power Hour, my brain is ready to learn – it, like, observes more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This 30 minutes of daily movement is called Power Hour (along with 15 minutes of breakfast and a 15 minute morning meeting). The school started it this year along with Exploratory Fridays, which devotes a half day each week to activities such as hiking, canoeing, or skiing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These programs are having a positive impact already. Students seem to love it, especially students like Dillin who need to “get their energy out” or others who aren’t able to regularly access these activities because of cost or other barriers. The school has seen benefits in terms of student engagement, academic achievement, and behavior. Let\u2019s take a look at how it works and why it is readily replicable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The structure for Power Hour is simple: every day starts with 20-30 minutes of a movement-based activity. For K-2 students, it is similar to a recess. For students in grades 3-8, they get to choose among a number of activities. During warmer seasons, the choices could include biking, walking, running, or playground games. During the winter, there\u2019s snow shoeing, cross country skiing, calisthenics, and sports in the gym.<\/span><\/p>\n After exercising, students have breakfast and then circle up for morning meetings to get ready for the rest of the school day. In several interviews with students and adults, there was widespread agreement that Power Hour carries benefits throughout the school day in terms of focus and social connection. More on that later.<\/span><\/p>\n Once a week, students spend half of their school day engaging in experiential activities that often have a recreational or creative emphasis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In some cases Exploratory Fridays are extensions of Power Hour. For example, students might bike each day around the school, and then head to the Kingdom Trail network on Fridays. I accompanied one of these trips and students conveyed that the daily biking was fun but that the Friday trips were the place where they got to see their skill and stamina gains pay off.<\/span><\/p>\n In many cases, Exploratory Fridays involve community partners to provide more supervision and structure. Many of the activities plug students into established offerings that in past years may have been accessed more as one shot field trips.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tatum, an 8th grade student, noted that while Power Hour is all about exercise, Exploratory Fridays was better described as \u201cpersonalized learning.\u201d It is less about getting the heart rate up as it is about leveling up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is solid scientific evidence behind the theory that daily movement prepares the brain for learning. Tim Mulligan, principal of NSS, had encountered this evidence in the book Spark, written by Dr. John J. Ratey. In a recent presentation at the Middle Grades Conference, Tim summarized Ratey\u2019s evidence for the benefits of daily movement:<\/span><\/p>\nPower Hour<\/b><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Exploratory Fridays<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Why does it work<\/b><\/h2>\n
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