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Ohio's public schools serve 1.6 million children - 90 percent of students in the state! What happens in the classroom has impacts far beyond the walls of the K-12 school building or higher ed lecture hall. So, on behalf of the 120,000 members of the Ohio Education Association, we're taking a deeper dive into some of the many education issues facing our students, educators, and communities. Originally launched in 2021 as Education Matters, Public Education Matters is your source for insightful conversations with the people who shape the education landscape in Ohio. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on Public Education Matters? Email us at educationmatters@ohea.org
Intro - Various members and students speaking 0:08
Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because every student matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters because it is the foundation of our democracy. Public Education Matters because we are stronger when we speak in one voice. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. Public Education Matters. This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.
Katie Olmsted 0:41
Thanks for joining us for Public Education Matters. I'm Katie Olmsted and it should surprise no one that I believe strongly in my heart, like the 120,000 educators that make up the Ohio Education Association statewide, that public education matters. We believe every child - of every race, background, gender, religion and ability - deserves a great public education, no exceptions. Unfortunately, when it comes to making sure children of all abilities have access to high quality public education, there's one specials area where a lot of schools may be falling short. That's physical education. And Alex Meyers, a phys ed teacher in Marietta is on a mission to change that. He wants to make sure every child can get the benefits of great physical education classes and welcoming environments that embrace differences in kids' abilities. And he wants to make sure educators have training to know how to adapt their phys ed lessons in ways that may be needed. So Alex is working to bring together educators across the state to share their experiences and ideas for adaptive phys. ed. solutions to help provide better physical education for everyone. Alex is a member ambassador for Ohio's New Educators, or ONE, and he joins us for this episode to share his thoughts and an invite for other educators to join him in this cause.
Alex Myers 2:18
So this is something that I have come into this year, where last year, I was in more of an Adapted PE setting where they were excluded from the regular ed students. And I had, I had kind of been hearing a few things that were going on in this other building where they were included, and I was a little bit disturbed by the things I was hearing. So one of the things was when the job came up, and I decided to take it and see what I could do to change that and see where I could educate other people on on how to deal with students who are on IEPs or have physical disabilities that may not always succeed in a Phys. Ed setting.
Katie Olmsted 2:59
So let's break that down. When adaptive Phys Ed is done, well, what does that look like? And what does it look like when it's not done well? What was disturbing about that situation for you?
Alex Myers 3:10
So when adaptive Phys Ed is done well, normally, the students are on an IEP that says what goals they need to reach as far as for physical education. When it's not done well, there's not really IEP, there's no goal set, there's there's no real boundaries that you go with. And it's kind of more - and I don't want to say this because it's a it's kind of a hot button word and education - but more of a babysitting setting where you're there just to give the their intervention specialist a break from their day, give them their planning period. And, and that's this kind of setting that we want to try to avoid, because we want to take it seriously, and it is something that can be important for those students. The thing that I saw that was kind of disturbing: We had a student - we still have a student - but she was in kindergarten. And I made sure I talked to this parent and let her know that I use her as an example a lot because she's amazing. But she's in a wheelchair. She has mobility, slight mobility of her arms and legs, but no strength or balance or anything like that. So I didn't know much about her. But you know, we talk to each other and bounce ideas off each other and try to figure out what we could do to help her and last year I was hearing that, instead of collaborating, she was being pushed in her wheelchair and laps around the gym. That was something that disturbed me quite a bit because obviously that does nothing for the student. That does help the attendant with her exercise, but not necessarily the student that you're there to teach. So in an environment where that's inclusive, you want to try to at least find a way to get that person involved, even if you're a little bit intimidated by it. It's a very intimidating situation to come across these students who you may not have been trained how to handle or may not have any resources available to you, but - I understand it's intimidating, but you have to find a way to service that child no matter what. Even if their IEP doesn't specifically say anything about physical education, that child is under your care, and you need to do the best that you can for them.
Alex Myers 3:47
Because at the end of the day, every child deserves the benefits of physical education. For the sake of full disclosure, I was horrible in Phys. Ed. Like it was - I had a wonderful phys ed teacher who one time told me I put the Bad in Badminton. And he was right. Even I, though, could see the benefits of phys ed, hating every second of it. Right? What do students get out of Phys? Ed, whether they need adaptations or not?
Alex Myers 5:45
Right, so I think it's a such a broad range of things, it really depends on their individual needs. Some of it is for the social aspect of it. You know, they're not probably going to be interested in sports, or, or anything like that, but getting them to socialize with another student, that can be their goal. Just getting them moving and learning more about their body and just exploring how fun physical activity can be. I know we have standards and all these things that come from the state, but at the same time, you have to look at what those children need. And it's not - 99% of the kids don't need sports skills as much, but those sports skills do lead into joining leagues that they can socialize, build friendships. They can, you know, just learn more about their body and how they can explore that more. It's just there's so many things to it that I just love. You can incorporate other skills from different areas. We really like to look at each child and see what their needs are. Right now, the social aspect is probably the biggest part of it. Especially with COVID being so recent, kids are not joining leaks as much as they used to. But that's also because they were kind of separated from sports. They weren't around other students, and they don't know how to behave around each other or talk to each other. So just getting them socializing, and teaching how to even start up a game at recess. And I could go on forever about all the benefits of it. But it's much more than just getting the moving or just getting making better athletes. I don't want better athletes, I just want better humans is what I say. So I'm not looking - I'm not calling up ESPN and saying 'hey, come to my class to see this kid,' I'm just seeing if they are improving, if they are working to be a better person, interact with more people than they did before, and making it fun for everybody. A lot of things that I learned from Phys Ed was sportsmanship and teamwork. And I tell the kids that sportsmanship isn't always just, you know, saying good game, at the end, it's, it's making the game enjoyable for the other person, so that they would want to play with you again. Because you're not winning any trophies in here. There's no point in bragging, it's - you want this game, beginning, middle and end to be fun for everybody. And I think we have to get away from the sports focus on it a little bit. Because in general, when students get into sports, they play, you know, middle school, high school, maybe college, that's probably 10% of our students that go to college and play. And then beyond that, it's 1% of 1% that go beyond college. So it's really not realistic to only focus on sports. But that's why I try to also, you know, expose them to as many activities as I possibly can. I know it's kind of a roundabout answer. And there's a lot of different things. But there's no real one concise way to say the benefits of phys ed, it's just so many things that go into it that are unseen. And even when you look into a classroom, you think they're not learning anything, even if the teacher doesn't say, Hey, you're specifically learning this, each activity has a reason and a motive behind it for them to learn.
Katie Olmsted 8:57
And really what you're saying there makes it all the more important to have inclusive, adaptive phys ed for every student so that every student can thrive in that environment. I have to imagine whether you're, you know, going on to play college ball or something, there's a level of empowerment that every student can achieve. There's a level of confidence that every student can benefit from when they have appropriate activities that that allow them to participate. Even me. I didn't need adaptive sports, but when the sports were adapted to my terrible skill levels, it was, it was awesome. I enjoyed participating.
Alex Myers 9:37
Yeah, and I went to a training last year that was really amazing because it wasn't about, you know, teaching students how to become better basketball players, and it was mostly basketball focused. It was about changing the game of basketball to be the same but work for all kids. Like for example, you know, you score point if you put the ball in the hoop through the net, but in this version, you might use volleyball because it's lighter and you might just be trying to hit the backboard. And that can be the goal of the game. And that evens it out. Because the basketball players want to try to shoot it in the hoop every time, they may not be used to aiming for the backboard. They may not be used to handling a volleyball. So it kind of evens it out for everybody, keeping everybody on their toes, and just leveling the playing field so that everybody gets a chance to succeed. And when we started doing it that way, we saw a lot of more smiling faces and happy faces that - the basketball players weren't super happy with it, they didn't really enjoy it, but I got more, more students who are saying that was their favorite activity of the year. And it's just one of those things where just leveling the playing field for everybody. We want everyone to have fun, not just just like kids that genuinely already enjoy it and already look at themselves as athletes that want to play sports for their whole lives. You know, we had the other 95% there.
Katie Olmsted 10:55
Now, you mentioned the training. Especially when it comes to the adaptive physical education, that training is so important to give the educators the confidence to do this. What should that training look like?
Alex Myers 11:07
I mean, it has to be very broad. Because no two disabilities look the same. No two students look the same. But no two students with disabilities look the same. They might have the same diagnosis, but it's not going to be, it's not going to be the same in your classroom. I like to use autism as an example. It's a spectrum. Everything is a spectrum. Even the skills of our typical students, you know, it's broad. A good training is not necessarily telling them what to do, but where to find resources. That's what we're trying to set up a little bit is some kind of avenue to talk to each other and collaborate with each other across Ohio, or even across the United States. But the problem is that we go to these trainings, and they tell us these things, and then we're just done. But for me, I get these ideas, but it works for one student, and then I have this equipment that works for the student, and then the next one comes along, and I don't know what to do with them. So I have to retrain myself every year. But we want to find a way that tells people the training should be why is it important for that, that child, that singular child, and then where are the resources where I can find that stuff? And what does it look like in a classroom to be fully inclusive? Because I believe in the inclusivity of them. I do believe that there are circumstances where an adaptive, separate adaptive physical education class is necessary, but I believe fully in being inclusive with every every student.
Katie Olmsted 12:40
And it sounds like one of the big things that everyone can benefit from is just bouncing ideas off of each other. Because you may have had a student like that this year, and, and they may have had a student like that last year, and and you can sort of grow from each other's experiences.
Alex Myers 12:55
Right. Yeah. And that's, that's very important is the collaboration. Because even within your own district, you get to talk to those people. But within that district, it's a very small sample size. You may not get the full view of what all is out there. And I think that's the point of the collaboration is that you don't know what someone else, you know, even just a town over has dealt with that is similar to what you have. And another thing it's like you have to deal with it, but it's the student that you're in charge of. But things that you may not have ever thought of that they may have thought of, maybe they have a resource that you could use, maybe they have in an OT or PT, a physical therapist, that has worked with similar students, and they're very willing to talk to you or give you ideas. And I think that's the best part is like right now we have a student, my first student ever who is blind, he also has autism. And that's been a huge challenge for me. I have absolutely no idea how to do physical activities with someone who is visually impaired. But we have a visual therapist and I just ask her 1000 questions a week just to see what I can do for for him that's going to benefit him in some way. And it's looking at who you can talk to within your district and beyond your district and just find those friends because making those connections is very important. I have luckily had a few people that I've been able to reach out to to find ideas, but a lot of people don't have that or know where to find that. So.
Katie Olmsted 14:34
And that's something you're hoping to change. You are sort of spearheading an effort to put together an ongoing group of educators who are working towards that same goal, right?
Alex Myers 14:44
Right. Yeah. So our our goal is to find as many people who are physical educators or even physical therapists, occupational therapists, anyone we can find who is willing to just be a part of this group, whether it's through Facebook, Twitter, or whatever it's called now, X, and any other social media platforms where we can get together and just share ideas. You know, not not send pictures, but maybe just hey, I did this activity with the student and it worked really well, they really enjoyed it, you can try it too, if you want to. And there's just a big database that people can go back to, to look at and, and find ideas for their own kids when they're struggling, because we all struggle, and it's intimidating sometimes to have someone in there that you have no idea what their experience is like, you can't empathize with them in any way. But you have people that have now experienced that, and they've gone through it, and they can kind of help you out. It's just sharing knowledge. And I think that's the most important part about education. We're teachers. We want to share knowledge. So if we can get that, get people that could be more involved and learn from it, and even the person that had my job last year, who, you know, obviously was intimidated and struggled with that, maybe in the future, he will learn, you know, these techniques, and it won't be as intimidated, and it can help a lot more kids. So it's all about really the students, not necessarily about the teachers, the educators.
Katie Olmsted 16:14
And having these conversations with educators, have you encountered a lot of resistance when, when presented with some possibilities and some innovative solutions, have you really encountered anyone who's like, No, I don't want to try?
Alex Myers 16:28
Well, there are times, there are times where you might run into people and I love all educators, and I understand that it's all about their background, and their experience, and maybe just being a little intimidated, or even a little embarrassed to say that they don't know. And they make excuses where it's like, well, you know, they shouldn't they don't belong in my class anyway, I don't know, I shouldn't be teach them because they don't belong there.So the people I've talked to recently, I haven't seen any resistance, they just may not, they may not have students in their district that are our high need. So their need for this kind of program isn't high. But the the resistance is not super, super strong. I don't see a whole lot of people who are saying no, I don't need this. They're just saying, you know, well, I don't know how I can get these resources. How am I supposed to get this equipment? How am I supposed to get this or that? And that's where I come in and just try to help them along and say, Well, these are the resources I used, or this is the person I talked to, maybe you can try that first. I've only had one who said no, I'm not really interested. I think I do okay as it is. And I think that's okay, as well. You know, they if they feel like they're confident enough to do it themselves, that's great. But I like to collaborate.
Katie Olmsted 17:48
That person if they're, if they're already confident in their skills would be exactly the kind of person we want in this community of educators to share their experience. Right?
Alex Myers 17:56
Yeah, that's, that's what I was trying I'm trying to go for is, you know, I'm not just looking for the people who need help the people that are willing to help as well, that have that knowledge and say, Well, what is it you do that you're so confident? And what is the thing that you do that you think you do the best? And can you share that, and then we can share it among our group, our team. We're all colleagues, you know. We're all in it for the same reasons, hopefully. And I just want, I just want to make sure that they're all doing the best for those students.
Katie Olmsted 18:25
Alex, what is the thing that you do the best? What is that, like, I am just so proud of what I've been able to accomplish when it comes to this particular thing?
Alex Myers 18:36
For my particular thing, so I have to admit, I am married to an intervention specialist. So I have kind of a soft side for kids with disabilities, just from hearing stories. And I have an uncle, or had an uncle, he passed away a couple years ago, but he had a disability. And just seeing, just just seeing the need for getting to know them. And I make it a point and not just for them, but every kid make it a point to go up to them and make sure that they know that they are welcomed there and that I want them there. And I think that's the thing, I do the best. I try my best to make sure that they know that I want them there and that they're not a burden on me. And then it's just trying to be creative. When I talk to people, I'm very proud of the fact that I come up with things that with my current equipment that I have that I don't have to go and buy, I come up with ideas that are going to work for them. And I'm also proud of the fact that I try. Because even if it fails, they see that you're trying and that's all that really matters to those students, and any student, is that you're trying. I think what you said was my most proud I think I'm most proud of failing. I feel a lot and I think that is okay. And I've learned most from all my failures and that the kids see that even though I may have failed on an activity or trying something new, that they're seeing, I failed, but I'm going to keep on trying. And I try, I was trying for them. It wasn't for me, it was for, you know, my principal or, you know, even a podcast. It was for, for them, I'm trying to do it for them. And they, I think they know that they that I want them there. And I think that's what I really enjoy about it is, is in other environments, they're not welcomed, and or at least if they are, they don't feel welcomed. And I That's my one thing is I want them to know, I want them there at all times.
Katie Olmsted 20:45
And coming back to those benefits of phys ed in general, when they feel welcome in your class, what does that do for their lives outside of your class?
Alex Myers 20:54
Right, so for outside of their class, if they feel welcome in my class, I feel like they're just going to have a little more confidence. There's a lot of times when we do these surveys as to, do you have one person that voting that you can trust? And I want them to know that like there's always at least one person I am one person you can trust and one person that you can go to one person that wants you there. And that those that conference because they may not have that outside of school but if they come to school and know that at least one person there wants them there and enjoys having them and welcomes and them in, I think that they'll just have that confidence to go out into the world and be like, Okay, I am wanted. As far as for phys ed in general, with me welcoming them in, they might feel a little more comfortable with doing physical activities, knowing that they're welcome into a gym. You know, that's a big thing is when they go to beyond high school and whatnot, when they've tried to find their gym that they can go to or their place where they can go to the stay active, just having that in the back of their mind that they had a good time and enjoyed it and that they were loved in that moment, and they weren't screamed at and a whistle blowing at them all the time and, and all that stuff. There's no trauma involved in it. It's all fun and enjoyable. And it gets them going back in. One of the biggest parts of people dropping out of workout programs is, is usually just the discomfort and the worry that they're going to be embarrassed but I allow for embarrassment. You can be embarrassed but we're gonna bounce back and keep going. It's not gonna matter. We're gonna fail, but we're gonna learn from it. You know, it's just, I think that they, they benefit from that a lot. There's a lot of different things. Yeah.
Katie Olmsted 22:49
Everyone learning from it together. Everyone being welcome to learn.
Alex Myers 22:54
Yeah.
Katie Olmsted 22:55
Alex, thank you so so much for sitting down with us today.
Alex Myers 22:58
Oh, yeah, no problem. Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it.
Katie Olmsted 23:03
If you'd like to join the community of educators who are working with Alex to improve access to adaptive physical education for Ohio students. You can email him at Myersa@oeaone.org. That contact information is in the show notes for this episode. And while you're there, as always, I invite you to go back and listen to past episodes you may have missed, including an episode not too long ago when we announced OEA's legislative scorecard was getting a major revamp and we looked at the changes in the works. Well, those changes have now been made. And any member who goes to scorecard.ohea.org can take a great deep dive into how our legislators have voted on issues that matter for Ohio's public school educators and the students they serve. Issues like those covered by Senate Bill 83, which has come to be called the Higher Education Destruction Act. Unfortunately, that recently passed in a House committee, thanks to Representative Gayle Manning's changed vote on that issue. Now, while committee votes don't affect a legislator's score on OEA's scorecard, we will be watching to see how she votes on 83 if it comes up for a full House vote. And thanks to the great tracking on OEA's legislative scorecard, OEA members will not forget how she voted come Election Day. To walk us through the updates to OEA's legislative scorecard and to show us why it is such a powerful tool, we're joined now by OEA Vice President Jeff Wensing and OEA's Manager of Government Relations. Dan Ramos.
Katie Olmsted 24:48
Dan Ramos, Jeff Wensing, thank you so much for sitting down with us to walk us through what's new, and how we got here. Let's start with that second question, Jeff. Why is this legislative scorecard something that has been in the works for so long?
Jeff Wensing 25:04
Yeah. Great question, Katie. Thanks. Our delegates at last year's fall representative assembly, so December 2022 put together a new business item outlining their wants for a new legislative scorecard. The reference they made was back to a website called Knowyourcharter.com. You would go to the website, punch in the information, and it would give you pretty detailed information about how your school district was losing money to charter schools. So our delegates said, We want something really cool like that for know your legislator. And I think we were able to not only meet their needs, but I think our our final product goes above and beyond that. And I just think it's a really, really cool tool to be able to use for our members.
Katie Olmsted 25:54
And Jeff, you were able to show off this cool tool at the Fall RA in 2023. Dan, what can you tell me about what is on the legislative scorecard now?
Dan Ramos 26:06
Yeah, thanks, Katie. And thanks, Jeff, for that lead in and the work that was done over the course of this past year, you know, really, we dug into the functionality. And we really wanted to make sure that our members and those that are interested in looking at how the General Assembly votes on education related issues, you know, can see what their legislators do. So some of the new things we have extended data, you know that we allow individuals to do a deep dive into legislative actions on public education, on a collective bargaining bills, on bills that we are tracking that are currently before the General Assembly. The nice thing about the new functionality is that it provides real time updates. So we don't have to go in and manually update the status of a bill. The system that this sits on, that the new scorecard sits on looks at the General Assembly, and it updates information in almost real time when a vote occurs, or a bill is introduced, we can only you know, see it almost almost automatically on the back end or on the actual page. And it's extremely user friendly. You know, the previous page, you can only really look up your legislators when you put in your address. Now, you can filter it by, you know, alphabetical, so you can see every legislator, every member of the Ohio General Assembly, you can filter it by party, you can filter by chamber, you can filter by district, you can see how the scorecard, you know how legislators rank, you know, in a descending order or ascending order. So it's pretty a pretty nifty tool, if I might add.
Katie Olmsted 27:30
And these scores are a really good indication of whether somebody is a friend of public education or somebody who perhaps come Election Day would be better to have a better front of education in, right? There's a there's a really important accountability element on this one.
Jeff Wensing 27:47
Yeah, absolutely. When you look at the scorecard, it's a green and red situation. If your score is between zero and 49, you're highlighted in red. And if your score is between 50 and 100, you're highlighted in green. I think another very interesting piece of the website is the fact that you are able to look up OEA's testimony on any given piece of legislation. So if you're talking to your members in your local about OEA's position on a certain bill, or why we're endorsing certain legislators, you can actually pull up either our written testimony or actual in person testimony. You have great talking points at your fingertips that you can use with members at your work sites.
Katie Olmsted 28:36
And is that really the big hope for how this tool is going to be used? It's not just about Election Day. It's all year round, making sure that educators are on the same page using our united voice to create the public schools our students deserve.
Dan Ramos 28:50
1,000% Katie. One of the things that, you know, we made sure, and we wanted to make sure we're included in this tool was data that members can access to help inform their advocacy. You know, oftentimes we asked members to call their legislators or send a letter to their legislators when a big issue is before the General Assembly. What this will allow a member to do, as Vice President Wensing said, is they can go on the scorecard. They can find our legislator, they can find a specific bill that we're tracking on a scorecard, download that testimony and talk to their colleagues and say, hey, look like, Legislator A or you know, Legislator B, they voted the wrong way on this. Let's talk to them about why and see if we can build this relationship and move them on another bill in the future. And I know there are already members across the state that have emailed us about how they're using it. We know of a member in the Canton area that shared with her legislators their scores. And when one pushback and that's why it was not good enough, her response was well work on doing better for us. You know, make better votes for public education and for working people.
Jeff Wensing 29:55
One of the things that I believe our members were very interested in and we're able to deliver is the fact that we don't forget about what you've done in the past either. So there are, there's a score on the scorecard for the current General Assembly, as well as a lifetime score for that for that legislator.
Katie Olmsted 30:14
Highly recommend people get in there and check it out for themselves, not only for their legislator, but every legislator to see who is truly pro public education.
Jeff Wensing 30:24
Katie, do we have time maybe we could walk you through one in particular, maybe even two particular legislators in the General Assembly?
Katie Olmsted 30:30
Let's stick with one and do it fast. But I'm already way over time.
Dan Ramos 30:35
Well, obviously, as you know, since we're talking about public education and collective bargaining issues, you know, let's look at a friend that comes from the Republican caucus in the Ohio House that, you know, was very influential in our ability to pass pro-public education policy in the last budget. This is State Representative Jay Edwards. He represents the Athens area. He's currently in his final term in the Ohio House. His lifetime score, as vice president, once mentioned, we have one of these is 74. And that's over the last three General Assemblies. His current score in this General Assembly is 96. So it's actually one of the one of the higher scoring members of the General Assembly. You know, these legislators sometimes will vote other ways than what we want them to, but on big issues, you know, for example, Representative Edwards voted against both times that we score carded Senate Joint Resolution 2, which was the joint resolution that gave us Issue 1 in August, he voted no amending back in the August special election, and then ultimately voted no on the bill. And recently has supported the concurrent resolution to call for the repeal of GPO/WEP. So additionally, and just one final item on the score itself, while majority of the score is based on their vote, we also have an access and support score built in on the back end of the system. And legislators like Rep. Edwards and many other many other legislators in the General Assembly, we will give them the ranking of a one, two or three, that's an additive score. A three being the most coveted in that they talk with us they talk with our members, they're champions of our issues behind the scenes. Rep. Edwards definitely was one of those as we were moving through the state budget cycle.
Katie Olmsted 32:20
Absolutely. And he was a really good ally on the school lunches issue. He truly understands a lot of these public education issues, and he's he's a good friend to public schools. And at the end of the day, this scorecard proves that OEA members are watching. Jeff. Dan, thank you so much for taking the time to walk us through.
Jeff Wensing 32:40
Thank you for having me.
Dan Ramos 32:41
Thank you, Katie.
Katie Olmsted 32:45
Again, the link for the updated legislative scorecard is in the show notes for this episode. And while you're online, send me an email at educationmatters@ohea.org to let me know what you think of the podcast and what you'd like to hear on a future episode. Until next time, stay well. And remember, in Ohio, public Education Matters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai