2020 Mileage Club hits 250,000 miles!

Listen to Amy Nieuwenhuis (Teacher and Mileage Club Leader) tell us about her Mileage Club reaching a huge Milestone.

Developing a Reward System for Her Dyslexia Treatment Plan - Fitness Finders Charms

An Interview with a Dyslexia Therapist

How a Visual Reminder of Their Accomplishments Keeps Her Students Motivated

An Interview with a Second Grade Teacher and Run Club Leader

Motivating Students to Do Their Very Best Every Day - Mileage Club

An Interview with PE Instructors from Shady Hill Elementary in Florida 

Mileage Club: Motivation and Habit Formation

I met a young middle school teacher a few months ago who wants to be successful. She has visions of her students coming back to visit her after they graduate high school and thanking her for the impact she made on their lives. 

Unfortunately, her day-to-day teaching experience makes her feel ineffective and frustrated. More and more of her students are disinterested, and sometimes even disobedient. To be a great instructor you need students who listen and desire to learn.

The solution to this problem is not new but requires planning, purpose, and some discipline. Successful students cultivate some or all of the habits that almost all successful people have: They exercise, read, show up (attendance), and eat healthily. The more habits students cultivate from this list, the more successful they will be.

A proven way to help create such “successful habits” is to create goals and then reward students when they attain the desired behavior. Teachers across the country find this works very well, and research bears this out.

That’s why we created the #1 selling award for run clubs, Toe Tokens® – colorful, plastic feet that kids love to collect. Kids run miles and love it J, so they can get a Toe Token.

Due to the success of Mileage Club, and because of requests from teachers, we quickly followed up with awards for reading, attendance, and nutrition – which is also helping kids reach their goals.

 

Here is How it Works:

1. Develop a plan to create routine activities around the desired goals for your classroom.
2. Layout the prescribed activities based on your goals and circumstances.
3. Following the idea of cue-habit-rewards made popular recently by Charles Duhigg (2012) and  now James Clear (2018), you then create:
1. A cue that tells the student when it is time to begin the habit/activity.
2. Clear instructions on what the activity consists of, without uncertainty.
3. An incentive plan to reward students at fixed intervals.
4. Design a system to measure progress.
5. Celebrate the goals met by distributing the awards earned.

Let’s Look at How This Works With Mileage Club (Run Club):

 

1.  Goal - my students will exercise more to increase their learning readiness and improve their health and mood.

 

• Create a program that allows every student to participate. 
• Allow each student to feel accomplished.

 

2.  Prescribed Activity – Start a running/walking club (Mileage Club).

• Create a course/track for the Mileage Club. (Our example will be a ¼ mile course around the playground.)
• Students run two times a week during recess (with an optional third day on Friday).
• Provide 20 minutes for each run.

3.  Cue - the recess bell.

• On Tuesday and Thursday, the students move around the track at whatever pace they can.
• Music can be played during this time to create a fun atmosphere.
• Incentive plan- every 5 miles (20 laps), a student earns a Toe Token.

 4.  Measuring – laps and total mileage will be tracked with the EZ Scan tracking software. 

5.  Celebration – awards day every Friday.

• On Friday, at lunch, all students who earned awards receive their Toe Tokens.
• A lanyard is also provided with the first Toe Token so a student can display their awards.
• Students who desire to run more may do so on Friday.

This goal/reward method has worked for decades across the country for run clubs, as well as reading plans, and behavior programs. Such programs are easy to create and implement. And, they help students create those necessary “successful habits.”

Stop being frustrated with your current efforts and start making a massive difference in your students' lives - just like you dreamed about in college - with Mileage Club, EZ Scan, and Toe Tokens! Fitness Finders has decades of experience to help you begin today.

References:

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg from 2012

Atomic Habits by James Clear from 2018

Meeting SHAPE Distance Learning Guidelines

We have selected a handful of action points from the SHAPE Distance Learning Guidelines on the left and show how Fitness Finders can help you meet them on the right.

Curriculum

“Continually assess and revise online courses to keep up with trends, technology, and content.”

Fitness Finders does this for you! Our EZ Scan® app automatically updates at no extra cost and works with the latest devices. Content changes are based on current trends in physical education and feedback from users in all 50 states.

“Address all state and/or national physical education content standards, including any other required standards (Common Core, ELA, Technology, etc.).”

Getting the recommended 60 minutes of activity a day is no problem with Mileage Club®. Mileage Club works before, during, or after school. It can be done outdoors, indoors, and even at home. And it’s an easy, low-cost way to get and keep kids moving. Mileage Club is flexible, accommodates all students, and kids love the rewards. It is the best way to meet multiple state and national standards for physical activity.

Learning Environment

“Get parents involved with their child’s learning.”	Parents can be involved in Mileage Club in many ways! From simple encouragement as children reach their goals to walking laps with them. Parents can be there for their kids every step of the way! With EZ Scan, teachers can share their child’s individual reports with parents to keep them up-to-date on progress. For greater involvement, teachers can send the EZ Scan Activity Recording Sheet & Instruction or a QR Card with instructions home to parents.
“Allow for student choice so students can choose where, when, and how to be physically active.”	Flexibility is a critical component of Mileage Club® and EZ Scan®. Complete laps any time of day - anywhere! Set a course anywhere you’d like and record laps, reps, and minutes of activity – anyway, they can be done! A great resource we offer is our EZ Scan Activity Recording Sheet & Instruction has the equivalency chart with the purpose of allowing the choice of exercise by converting any activity to minutes of walking/running. Available online or by mail.
“Balance screen time and physical activity time.”	With EZ Scan®, you can access reports that give time stamps and quickly let you see the amount of time spent walking/running!

Assessment

“Utilize technology to verify participation and support learning gains in physical activity to meet the CDC physical activity recommendations of 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous physical activity per day.”

As mentioned before - EZ Scan® will do this job for you! Just have the students scan their laps or minutes of activity. You’ll be able to generate reports with all of the information needed to know if students are getting their 60 minutes of exercise per day.

Standards-Based Instruction

“Students compare and contrast data collected (e.g., heart rate, video of the performance) against criteria and/or previous analyses.”	EZ Scan reports can be generated in any time frame that you’d like. So, comparing results from day-to-day or week-to-week will be a breeze. As an account administrator, you will just need to send them the data, such as the individual student report and timed run reports. Both of these would allow students to compare and contrast their progress over time.
“Students generate data (e.g., heart rate, number of sit-ups, etc.) by performing health-related physical fitness assessments.”	Let EZ Scan make your timed run very EZ. Students simply scan a QR card with each completed lap. The report details the # of laps, total time, and splits for each student.
“Students choose, present and/or discuss relevant assessments to measure a physical fitness component (e.g., muscular strength, agility, coordination)”	EZ Scan reports provide relevant metrics related to distance and frequency as well as progress overtime. Also, equivalencies give a great framework for time-based, calorie-based, and distance-based comparisons.

More Takeaways!

“One of the four essential components of physical education is assessment — the gathering of evidence about student achievement in all areas of instruction to make inferences about student progress.”	An assessment has never been such a quick task! The reports generated from an EZ Scan account can give you all the data you need to present to students, parents, and administration showing off how much they have accomplished in your run club in a given timeframe. One great example is the Timed Run reports.
“Activity tracker - Activity trackers are wearable devices or computer applications that record daily physical activity along with other data relating to fitness or health, such as heart rate, the number of steps taken, or even calories burned.”	EZ Scan is the #1 lap tracking software on the market. Not to mention it is affordable – only $149.95/year and handles up to 1,500 students! Plus, if you ever need help, we offer free tech support Mon-Fri during our office hours.
“Verification of learning is perhaps one of the teachers’ biggest concerns with OLPE (Daum & Buscher, 2012; Trent 2016), while students struggle with the meaningfulness and challenge of assignments. Creators of online courses need to pay special attention to meaningful assessments that challenge students in real-world contexts.”	Verify that your students are learning by allowing them to complete the same exercises at school as they will at home. This can quickly be done with Mileage Club and equivalencies because, as we’ve mentioned, they can be completed anytime, anywhere, to give your students real-world context through independent work! When you choose to start a Mileage Club, it will be the last curriculum choice you have to make for incorporating structured physical activity. Mileage Club is so simple that you will only need to teach the lesson once. After that, students know to get their QR Scan card and scan as they complete laps to earn their awards. No more worrying about coming up with new lesson plans on the fly.
“All students must be afforded the same opportunities to participate in public school programs. The students must be provided accommodations and modifications as necessary, based on the individualized education program (IEP) team decisions.”	Mileage Club can be done by anyone, anywhere, any time of the day and our equivalencies make this even more true as they can turn any activity into minutes walked/ran, such as pushups if they are unable to go outside. You can accommodate all interests and abilities.
“Teachers must make more of a concerted effort to connect when in a distance learning environment. Students need to feel like part of their school community and that they are cared for to learn. Develop strategies to connect with students if your school/ district will not be facilitating online learning or if students will not be able to meet online due to limited accessibility at home (e.g., create assignments focused on getting to know each other, facilitate pen pals).”	Connect with students by achieving personal and group goals together! Start a Mileage Club program and keep track of their awards and data with EZ Scan. You can do this for one school, or connect your entire district! Plus, they will be able to participate in the same program from home or at school. When they have reached their goals, be sure to give them a physical reminder of their success, such as a Toe Token and a necklace to display it on.

Bonus Thoughts from Fitness Finders

“Do an inventory of your current curriculum and determine which lessons or activities can be repurposed as at-home work or for online use (depending on students’ access to technology). There may be lessons or activities within your current curriculum that can easily be adapted for students to complete at home or online.”	Mileage Club seamlessly adapts to a home learning setting. With EZ Scan, you just make sure your students have their QR card and can log in, and they can get moving. Parents are also able to help out by becoming scanners and supervisors. As an administrator, you can securely give parents access to EZ Scan to allow students to use the same software to complete laps like they would at school.
“Make sure expectations are realistic for students, especially for younger students if they require assistance from an adult to complete assignments. Consider the home dynamics of your students as referenced earlier in the section on Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.”	Setting realistic expectations to be met from home can be a tough job. However, EZ Scan and Mileage club make this easy! Mileage Club can be done by anyone at any time. If they’re unable to complete laps, just have them use the equivalency chart. If they can complete laps, have them use EZ Scan to record their data. If they can’t use EZ Scan, just have them send you a recording sheet that you can manually enter into the system. Because EZ Scan is so simple and because we have you covered for all situations, you can expect all of your students to get the proper amount of activity at home without making it unrealistic.
“Can special events or activities still be done remotely (e.g., At-Home Family Field Day)?”	Mileage Club creates consistency because it can be done both at school and at home. So, if the time comes where you have a shift to online learning, your curriculum is already setup, and the students know exactly what to do! The program can be done at the same time each day, and completing laps for mileage is a consistent activity by nature as each can be done the same way each time. Special events and activities can still be done at home, just like at school. Host field days, award days, jog-a-thons, or even just daily sessions remotely with ease. This allows you to maintain critical ESL components of teaching and will give your students structured activities that can be done when they are away from school. This is also true even if some students are learning from home while some are in class.

Mileage Club: Kilometre Club Spotlight

Mileage Club® is the #1 Run Club for kids in North America. But have you ever wondered how our Canadian neighbors, who use the metric system, run a Mileage Club? We talked to Claudine Lukawesky in Toronto, Ontario who was happy to share information about her school’s Kilometer Club (KC)!




"Kilometer Club was started at our school, Northlea EMS, approximately 10 years ago! It started as a pre-practice to help students prepare for Track & Field tryouts but quickly became a Club for any child. Our school has approximately 800 students from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 8. It is French Immersion, English, and Developmentally Delayed tracked."




"KC is run solely with parent and student volunteers, although we have staff members present for liability reasons. We only purchase our goods through Fitness Finders® due to safety reasons – we like that you make your products with no lead in the chains or plastic charms and that you now offer the safe LaceLink™ Lanyards."




"We always start KC on a Wednesday so we can make reminder announcements on Monday and Tuesday. (Many people would forget if we started on a Monday. 😊) KC “runs” for 13 mornings from 8-8:30, always ending on a Friday."




"Students are encouraged to run, walk, hop – we’ve even had kids in wheelchairs being pushed – around our 200-meter track. Every time they go around the track, they receive a popsicle stick. When I ring my cowbell at 8:30, students finish the lap they’re on and head to the “Attendance Table” where we record their number of sticks under their classroom teacher’s name. We do this for two reasons: to track the number of kilometers and to track KC attendance. At the end of the 13 days, the class with the most attendance wins a pizza lunch!"




"After the Attendance Table, students head over to the “Charm Table,” and pick out one charm for their bracelet. It doesn’t matter how many laps they’ve completed, all the children receive one charm per day of participation. This is done because we want ALL kids to participate and feel equal. Not everyone is an elite athlete, but at Kilometer Club you are treated like an athlete! We are just so proud of the effort from all the kids and want to focus on that instead of making it all about competition. Although, we do still encourage competition within yourself – and to get your class to participate to win the pizza lunch!"




"I have had so many parents thank me because of how our program has made their child feel included. Knowing that one charm is given out per day of participation, and not by number of laps, makes children feel so special that they are happy to come out for exercise. We have had kids with anxiety issues, and doing Kilometer Club before school helps them feel more relaxed. Children with ADD/ADHD burn off some extra energy so they can focus better in class."




"I'm going into my 10th year of Kilometer Club, and each year it is an honor to have kids in the neighborhood see me and come thank me for doing this program that they look forward to every year! The benefits of KC are that children are encouraging one another to participate; they are completing laps with friends; and, the older grades get to do a lot of the organizing and help out with the younger grades. Thanks to Fitness Finders for making safe products that encourage children to be active and do something!!"