Elmhurst P.E. teacher helps kids with mental, physical health
Stephen Fijor is a physical education teacher at Jackson Elementary School in Elmhurst and a boys JV lacrosse coach at York High School. He's in his fourth year at Jackson and in Elmhurst Unit District 205.
He jokingly calls himself a physical enthusiast. "My friends know my passion that I impose upon them as well as my students," he says.
Q. What approaches do you take to help your students become interested in lifelong fitness?
A. I think my passion for movement is contagious, and having a vast knowledge of different exercises and activities make it more engaging for students.
I like to use small-sided games and remind students that fitness should not be feared, it should be fun. Using a lot of modified childhood games, I always have students moving and participating in physical activity without even knowing that they are improving their strength or fitness.
Changing the mindset about fitness is important to show how students need to be heart healthy without having to make fitness a chore.
Q. Not every student is particularly excited about P.E. How do you try to reach those kids who would rather sit on the sidelines?
A. It is my mission to make positive relations with the students first and figure out what is going to motivate them intrinsically. I need to build trust with the students so they know I am committed to helping them.
I know not every student loves to play the same sports, and I think it is important that students have a choice in what goals they want to set and my job is providing them with the tools so they can accomplish them.
I emphasize how the mind and body are connected and that working out the body is also a workout for the mind. I will show them different ways fitness improves their mood as well as their health and help them with the skills to become lifelong movers.
Q. What was your favorite P.E.-related activity as a kid, and what's your favorite now that you're teaching?
A. My favorite activity was a game called Bombardment. It involved similar rules to dodgeball. Granted, dodgeball is a developmentally inappropriate game, I have modified it to hone in on the skills of hand-eye coordination with mechanics of throwing and catching for students to be more successful without having to be victimized by getting pelted with a ball.
The students instead work toward throwing at stationary pins to improve their skills. I also incorporate some team-building aspects by assigning jobs and rotating positions.
Q. Have you invented any of your own games or activities for your students?
A. My favorite made up activity that I piloted during student teaching was a four-week unit based on survival and reading a book about zombies. After reading this book, I had students brainstorm skills they would utilize in surviving a zombie outbreak.
They came up with the skills and worked on improving their agility, endurance, strength, striking, throwing and kickboxing all in a few weeks.
At the end of the unit, we had a quarter-mile obstacle course on Halloween where some students were zombies and the others were survivors, making it through the obstacle course without getting tagged by a sluggish zombie.
Q. What's one aspect of your job that would most surprise people?
A. I was a heavier-set kid and hated running and couldn't keep up with my friends in games like basketball or soccer. So just like the fox and grapes, I thought running was not good for me, until I realized how my health was being affected.
Being obese as a freshman in high school, it was hard for me to like myself because I couldn't move myself. Once I started conditioning for football, I began to change mentally and physically. Soon I was in control of my body more than I ever dreamed of.
It is my hope that I can find a reason for students to improve their health and fitness so that one day, physical activity can help improve their physical as well as mental health.