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Proctor gym teacher awarded for special education work

After running a couple of laps, Proctor High School freshman Carly Barnstorf lay down on the gym floor, exhausted. Seniors John Pioro and Cody Hampton paused their own laps to check in with her. "You OK, Carly?" Hampton asked, as the students too...

From left: Dawson McLean, Jenna Podgornik and Morgan Stelman, students in the Unified Physical Education course at Proctor High School, perform jumping jacks during a recent gym class. Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com
From left: Dawson McLean, Jenna Podgornik and Morgan Stelman, students in the Unified Physical Education course at Proctor High School, perform jumping jacks during a recent gym class. Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com

After running a couple of laps, Proctor High School freshman Carly Barnstorf lay down on the gym floor, exhausted.

Seniors John Pioro and Cody Hampton paused their own laps to check in with her.

"You OK, Carly?" Hampton asked, as the students took her hands and helped her up.

Barnstorf, who has Down syndrome, is part of a new class at Proctor, where students with special education needs work with mainstream students - mostly seniors - on physical education. It's called Unified Physical Education, a course created by Special Olympics. Proctor teacher Lisa Smith helped start the program in Minnesota last year, with Proctor and the Wayzata school district the only districts in the state offering the course.

This year, nearly 20 more schools adopted the program, and next year, 50 schools are projected to offer it. For her efforts, Smith was named secondary physical education teacher of the year by MNSHAPE, a professional organization for health and physical education teachers.

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"Smith is a go-getter," said Nick Cedergren, schools and athlete leadership coordinator for Special Olympics Minnesota. "She not only implemented (the course), but figured out how to spread it statewide."

A big part of the class is inclusion, as it works to lessen the segregation that often happens to special education students, Cedergren said.

Minnesota offers developmental adapted physical education for students who need something other than a typical phy ed class, but the unified course puts the two student groups together. Depending on abilities, kids learn things such as basketball and floor hockey skills, how to improve balance or play games with a parachute.

It's innovative, Smith said, because in a casual setting like a gym or a pool, friendships are formed that may not in other school settings. Kids learn empathy and new ways to communicate with each other, she said, and the class teaches social skills - for both groups - as much as it does physical skills.

"People with intellectual disabilities are the largest minority in the U.S., and we need to address that," Smith said. "My biggest hope is that (students who take the course) will be champions for those who are voiceless."

'You get vulnerable'

The Proctor course, in its second year, has a waitlist. That's why Smith first enrolls seniors, especially those who can take the class the entire year. Smith spends a week at the start of the semester with the general education students - called unified partners - going over various disabilities and talking about what it looks like and feels like to be the person with that disability.

They talk about inclusion and data privacy, and what an Individualized Education Program is. The special education students who take the course all have one, and they must legally be followed. Private information from their plans is not shared with the partner students, but they learn that they are playing a role in helping students meet the goals in their plans.

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"At first it's scary," for the partner students, Smith said. "Over time we build trust and we succeed together and fail together. Things are not easy for everyone, and they learn that."

Two days of the week are spent in the gym with higher functioning special education students and one day with a more severely affected group. Another day, students swim and one day is meant for training for the general education students, to reflect and journal.

Calling it "extraordinary," the class is senior Kaitlyn Mercier's favorite part of the day. The experience has inspired her to reevaluate her intended career path, and now she's set on becoming a special education teacher.

"You get vulnerable sometimes when you are in this class," she said. "You learn patience ... You are learning how to teach. And you are learning a lot about yourself, and each other."

Mercier has bonded with Barnstorf, she said, through the class and through cheerleading - something Barnstorf tried out for because of the confidence the class helped her build, Smith said.

"We're like a family," Barnstorf said of the class.

Proctor middle and high school principal Tim Rohweder said the class is also about career exploration, because the seniors work alongside occupational and physical therapists to learn and understand the needs of the special education students.

"It's really opened up the school in terms of students accepting and understanding the fact that everybody is unique, and everybody has needs," he said.

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If Smith had her way, every student would be required to take the class to graduate.

"You become better humans," she said, "when you can walk the walk of someone else's life."

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