Teacher Hopes To Make NMS Students ‘Physically’ Ready For CMTs

By Eliza Hallabeck

A morning program, implemented and overseen by Newtown Middle School teacher Matthew Memoli last year, had students waiting at the school to participate in morning physical education warm-ups to prepare them for the Connecticut Mastery Test, when it was implemented in March.

Now, Mr Memoli said he is looking to do the same thing this year, because a noticeable difference could be seen in the students’ preparedness for the test.

The CMT is a yearly test through the state that tests students in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and science.

Students arrive at school early, and Mr Memoli said that made him think, “Why not give these kids the opportunity to participate in physical activity instead of just sitting there?”

So he hung flyers around the school, and other staff members signed up to help.

“They were amazing,” said Mr Memoli about his co-workers. “They were so receptive to the idea, and they helped out in any way they could, as far as supervision and supervising activities and things like that. It was great to have everyone on board and to have everyone working together for the same cause.”

While the morning program had some team sports, such as indoor soccer, team handball, flag football, it also had warm-up activities like an agility course, which included using cones with letters for the students to move into words. He said activities like this prepare students by crossing curricula with physical fitness. “Which, I think is great,” said Mr Memoli. “The students get up, they get a chance to have physical activity and their brains are more ready to learn when they are finished with physical activity. The stress, anxiety, all that just fades away. More blood is flowing to their brains and lungs. They are just going to be in a better position to take the test.”

Mr Memoli said the program will be implemented again this year. Last year 26 students attended the morning program each day.

While working toward his master’s thesis at Southern Connecticut State University in the School of Health on how exercise influences academics, Mr Memoli realized he wanted to implement a program on his own.

“Right when I thought of the idea,” he said. “I just went around to the students and asked them how they would feel about this, especially the ones I would see in the cafeteria early every morning. I said, ‘What do you think about, instead of sitting in the cafeteria coming up and playing basketball or playing team handball?’ And some kids were like, ‘Oh. That would be sweet, that would be awesome.’ I went right with it.”

He said one book he read for work on his thesis really pinpointed the type of program he wanted to implement. In Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by John J. Retay, MD, the author investigates the effects of exercise on the brain.

“All he did was research on a school in Naperville, Ill., and it was amazing the stuff they did in phys ed,” said Mr Memoli. “And their test scores are some of the highest in the world. So I thought we could try to do something like that here. They have what they call ‘Zero Hour Phys Ed,’ which is phys ed before school, and the kids absolutely love it. Eventually, I am going to try to implement something like that here.”

Mr Memoli said he is entering his third full year at Newtown Middle School.

After working with the students for the CMT morning program last year, he said there was a noticeable change in the students.

“You could just tell they would be in a better position to take those tests,” said Mr Memoli. “The kids loved it. They had a great time.”

This year the program will be run from 6:45 until about 7:25 in the morning, according to Mr Memoli, and students can look for signup sheets to be posted at the school closer to when the CMTs are scheduled.

Mr Memoli said the next thing he would like to add to the program would be a nutritious breakfast for students to have along with the program.

 “The people in the phys ed department and the entire staff were very receptive and supportive of it, which made it run so smooth,” he said.