I Am What I Teach: Jump Rope for Heart

Wahooo! I LOVE Jump Rope for Heart!!

I have been doing this fundraiser event since I was in kindergarten, and then came back to help once I was out of elementary school, thanks to a very cool P.E. teacher, Ms. Shippey. She made the event so much fun that I was always excited to get donations for the Heart Association and improve my jump roping skills.

Now as a teacher myself, I have had the opportunity to share my excitement. Over the past 7 years, with the support of Theresa Hoge, AHA Youth Market Director, I have had the privilege of bringing this event to three schools, and encouraged over a thousand kids (and teachers) to exercise and support the American Heart Association.

Here's how I run my event:

Rosters - I get the rosters for all students at the school and make a color pattern throughout the classes to make teams. My school is about 700 students, so I have 8 teams - red, yellow, green, blue, orange, white, gray, and purple. Every student is notified of their team color a week in advance so they can get a shirt.

Rotations - since my event is during school and there are 8 rotations, they are all timed for 6 minutes. After they do all rotations twice it's about an hour and a half.

Name Tags - Lets face it, not every kid gets a shirt in their color or even tells their parents about it, so name tags are important. I copy this on colored paper and hand write the names on them with a code to show a students grade level. I have been fortunate the last 2 years to have volunteers help me write all of them.