The Wii teaches P.E. at Arlington high school

Published 12:14 am Friday, November 21, 2008

ARLINGTON — Josh Pearson connected with a punch on Principal Maurene Stanton.

The Weston High School junior didn’t get in trouble. Rather, the principal gave him a grudging smile.

“He knocked me down twice and knocked me out the second time,” Stanton said. “I will demand a rematch.”

In a sign of the times, the small alternative high school in Arlington this fall has weaved the popular Nintendo Wii game console into its physical education curriculum.

Students box, bowl, golf and play tennis and baseball with virtual characters on Wii Sports, which uses a combination of motion sensors and computer screens. Classrooms are a blur of flailing and swinging arms mixed with groans and laughter as the students play with characters on screens in front of them.

Wii Fitness programs, which include yoga poses, pushups and other exercises, are on order.

“The No. 1 goal is they aren’t going to realize they are really doing a physical activity,” said P.E. teacher Dewaine Craig, whose daily schedule also includes teaching biology, physical science, government, an advisory period and a senior seminar class.

The school could be a pioneer.

“We have not heard of a Wii being used in a physical education class before,” said Nathan Olson, a spokesman for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

With 134 students, Weston doesn’t have the resources of traditional high schools.

The tree-lined campus off of 172nd Street NE in Smokey Point was converted from the business offices of B/E Aerospace Inc’s Flight Structures Group into the high school in 2004. There are no gyms, weight rooms, tennis courts or fields.

The track is the parking lot where five laps around the asphalt perimeter equals a mile. Volleyball is played outside on a patch of grass near some evergreens. Whiffle baseball, kickball and Frisbee golf have limited space and depend on whether it’s windy.

Given the limited space, Stanton wanted students to have another outlet for exercise that might engage them.

She used part of a long-term, no-interest federal loan that paid for the remodeling work at the school to buy 15 Wiis. The cost was around $5,000.

She wanted a comfortable form of exercise for students who might have an aversion to traditional P.E. classes they experienced in middle school or large high schools.

“P.E. can be very, very threatening to kids and we’re trying to take some of that out of it,” she said.

Students like playing the Wii games, but understand it isn’t the same as the real thing.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Pearson, whose face reddened after a couple of bouts in the virtual ring. “Boxing with this works both arms and your upper body but not your legs.”

“We’re outside walking and doing the fitness work and other active stuff before we do the Wii,” he said. “We are using our legs for the other stuff.”

Classmate Andy Baker agreed that the Wii is fun, but it’s not a P.E. panacea.

“I would rather choose this over a traditional P.E. class, but you can’t just do (the Wii),” said Baker, a junior, who bowled and boxed in jeans held up by orange loggers suspenders while wearing a cap with a giant fish hook on the bill.

A few students wore slippers while playing tennis.

Senior Kirsten Brinkman prefers outdoor P.E. classes when the weather allows because there is more physical activity, but she is glad to have Wii for a rainy day.

“It’s nice given the weather to be able to do things inside because we don’t have a gym,” she said. “I thought it was a good idea because it does get us up and active.”

Their P.E. teacher makes sure they stay active. Craig has devised a series of low-tech forms of exercise that emphasize teamwork and physical conditioning. Being creative comes with the territory of a small school.

In groups of four, for instance, students follow obstacle courses while walking in tandem on two-by-fours held together by ropes and plastic pipe. On another day, while holding hands in a large circle, they bend and stretch while passing three sizes of hula hoops over their bodies without letting go of the person next to them. They do aerobics and walk and run.

At times, students also have been able to work out at the Stillaguamish Athletic Club nearby.

Craig, 61, broke into teaching in 1968. He’s coached high school sports and was a teacher, principal and district superintendent at small rural schools in Maine.

He, too, is realistic about what to expect out of the Wiis.

“I look at it as a part of the whole program,” he said. “It offers me some things that I can’ t do otherwise. Kids can get for a feel of what it’s like to do bowling without going to a bowling alley. Without a facility, I’ll take everything I can get.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.