At the start of each school year, the Seattle School District gives each Roosevelt staff member a gift, usually oriented towards health and fitness. This year, the gift to each teacher was a fit bit. Fit bits are a popular fitness watch which track data such as your steps, calories burned throughout the day, and can connect to an app on your smart phone. The goal of the watches was to inspire staff to stay active, and be able to clearly track activeness throughout the day.
“I like how the district and our school is really trying to remind us teachers about work, life balance, and also to focus on our health,” commented Mr. Von Pohle. “Last year they gave us water bottles, with the idea that we’re going to hydrate more, which is an amazing thing for us to be thinking about because you don’t drink enough water. And then this idea with fit bit is just to be more active, physically active, which is difficult but trying to have us focus on improving our health I think is beneficial.”
The idea of teachers staying active seems to be widely supported by the staff. Various teachers, such as Mrs. Barnes, have been using a fit bit for multiple years now, so for some staff members the fitness watch is not a new part of their routine. On the other hand, other teachers such as Mr. Masaoka have decided to forgo the use of their new fit bits. Although he commented that he had re-gifted the watch to his wife, Masaoka was very supportive of the fit bits, saying that he believes the watches will be
“Helpful for teachers who like to chase seniors on sprint day.”
Von Pohle, although also in support of the idea of the gift, stopped using his as well when he was dissatisfied with the products performance.
“Personally, I don’t understand the craze of just normal fit bits, but I was like “whatever, I’m gonna do it.” I wore it the first day, wore it playing soccer, hit my ten thousand plus steps, and then I think the calorie count was off, I think it measured only my normal steps. Not the fact that I was running. So it said “you burned 500 calories”, and I was like, Is that all?”
Across the board, it seems as though Roosevelt Staff appreciate that the District and Roosevelt care about their health and fitness, and are pushing to keep them motivated and active, even as Roosevelt Staff and its students enter into one of the busiest times of the year. Fit bit or no fit bit, self care should always be top priority, no matter how many papers there are to grade or APUSH reading guides there are to fill out. Stay healthy and stay movin’ Roosevelt!
Featured photo: Taylor Powers
