Gyms

Did you notice the number of new gyms and fitness centers that  have popped up in the past few years?  It is hard to find a town that does not have a fitness center…or two…or three. Fitness equipment has come a long way since the “Charles Atlas” days or when a 110 pound barbell set was the perfect gift for an athletically-minded 13 year old.  There are treadmills for cardiovascular fitness that have multiple speeds, elevations, virtual running routes, and satellite television.  They are elliptical machines that also develop cardiovascular fitness while saving your joints from the repeated pounding of running.  There are stationary bikes, recumbent bikes and elevated bikes so that you can pedal but go nowhere.  They are squat racks and free weights, leg press machines, military press machines and a few hundred others – all designed to get you in great physical condition.  Equipment of these types are used every day throughout the world to pump you up, develop your VO2, flatten your abs, tone you up and whatever else is your desire.  Here’s what I have found – the most underutilized piece of equipment at a fitness center is the front door!  Just looking at the equipment doesn’t turn you into an Adonis.

Poor teaching is easy.  Great teaching is not. Great teaching takes a lot of work with and without the kids present.  There is a lot of equipment at your disposal. We have technology today that was not even conceived 30 years ago.  It is difficult to find a piece or chalk…or a chalkboard for that matter.  The “equipment” available to teachers today is outstanding (yes, I know – when it works).   But if the equipment is not used, then it is essentially a “educational clothes rack”.  The most important piece of equipment we have at our disposal is our minds. The mind has always been the most important tool available.  We can think very “paint by numbers” or we can color outside the lines.  We can stay with “canned” ideas or we can think outside the box.  Part of physical training is the repetition of movement.  A main tenet of teaching is repetition to the point where kid achieve fluency.  Exciting, imaginative classes are like gyms with a good membership – people are there and moving. The front door gets worn out.  It the same way with creativity in teaching.  You have to open your mind to creativity.  Don’t let the door to your creative imagination be the least used piece of equipment in your toolbox.