New RVMS physical education teacher Nathan Sunderman faces a big challenge in the gym – getting kids to be and remain active in a world that has provided them every excuse to lead sedentary lives.
TV, video games and computers have meant more kids are staying inside, which is leading to obesity among today’s youth.
Sunderman hopes, through his physical education classes, to help find ways those students can become more active and can learn to have fun.
No, one does not have to be a marathon runner to be active. Rather, it is about finding a sport or activity one enjoys doing. After all, if it is fun for the student, the likelihood they are going to do it on a regular basis increases significantly.
“I want to introduce them to activities they can do on their own,” said Sunderman, who earned a degree in physical education with a minor in adaptive phy-ed from St. Cloud State University in 2008.
Sunderman, who grew up in Sauk Centre, said he wanted to become a teacher, because it gave him the opportunity to have an impact on kids.
Helping students learn to set goals and then watching them strive toward achieving them is something Sunder-man said appealed to him, and teaching was the avenue through which he could do that.
Looking back at his time in Sauk Centre, where he played hockey and baseball, Sunderman said he had a physical education teacher and coach who always seemed to be there for the students.
He wanted to emulate that in his classes.
While Sunderman is helping students find ways to be active in school, he is also helping athletes improve their skills.
This fall Sunderman is coaching the seventh and eighth grade football team, and this winter he is going to be working with the hockey program.
While both phy-ed and coaching center around athletics, Sunderman said there is a difference.
In physical education, the student is taught general concepts about a variety of activities, while in coaching the athlete is being taught to hone the abilities they have in that one sport.
Sunderman said he wanted to work with middle school students, because they have so much energy.
“They are ready to try anything,” he said. “These students are at a point in their life where I can have an influence on them.”
The son of Mark and Sue Sunderman said he opted for a teaching position in Redwood Falls, because it is a similar community to the one where he grew up.
“It’s fun to see the kids in the grocery store,” he said.
Sunderman said being part of a small community means being involved in that community.
“The school is the heart of the community,” said Sun-derman, adding he likes the closeness one experiences from small town life.
In addition to teaching phy-ed, Sunderman is also co-teaching a reading program for middle school students called Read 180.
Through that program students are being taught one of the fundamental aspects of education – literacy.
As a teacher, Sunderman has the chance to have an impact on the lives of the students he meets daily.
Through helping them learn to read and to remain active, he can help shape what goes on during the rest of their lives. That is a challenge he doesn’t take lightly.
