Rhea Nelson, a Sinclairville Elementary School teacher, began her first year as a general education teacher last fall but has earned much experience already early in her teaching career. Nelson earned her teaching certification in 2012 from SUNY Fredonia where she also ran track. In her classroom at Sinclairville, she incorporates exercise into the curriculum as much as possible. P-J photo by Jordan W. Patterson

SINCLAIRVILLE — From special education to general education, Rhea Nelson is incorporating exercise to improve classroom progress with younger students.

The Sinclairville Elementary teacher switched to general education as a first-grade teacher in the fall of 2017. Previously, Nelson was a special education teacher at Sinclairville.

“Having my own classroom was something I always had looked forward to,” Nelson said. “With special education you don’t always have that opportunity to have your own classroom and it’s just nice to have a group of my own kids.”

The biggest difference for Nelson from switching to teaching general education is maintaining a larger group of kids. In special education, she usually dealt with students one-on-one or in smaller groups. Nelson said the two roles are very different in certain ways but enjoys doing both.

Last year, Nelson had 15 students, but didn’t see them all at once. This year, she is teaching 18 kids at the same time. Nelson said she thought the day went by fast last year but changed her mind upon experiencing the first year of running her own classroom.

Nelson began as a fourth-grade co-teacher, where she shared a classroom with a general education teacher in a mixed population of general education and special education. She later did the same job in second grade for three years and worked as a consultant teacher. As a consultant teacher, Nelson would “push-in” for special education students to provide assistance and support their needs.

Nelson said experience and teaching second grade for a number of years gave her the confidence she could teach her own class in first grade and prepare them for second grade.

“I’m enjoying that,” she said.

Nelson praised the team of other teachers she works with who supported her at the beginning of the year when she switched her role.

Joshua Gilevski, Sinclairville Elementary School principal, gave high praise of Nelson since teaching at the elementary school.

“She is an extremely hard working teacher (and) mother who works well with her first-grade students,” he said.

She began student teaching and substitute teaching while she was at the State University of New York at Fredonia in 2011 and 2012.

“I was fortunate enough to get a number of long-term positions before being hired full-time,” Nelson said.

EXERCISE IN EDUCATION

“Mrs. Nelson is a huge advocate for physical activity in the class,” Gilevski said. “She has presented at faculty meetings research that agrees with her thinking that students perform better in class when they are allowed to be more active throughout the school day.”

While earning her bachelor’s degree, Nelson ran track for Fredonia. Combining her love for education and running, Nelson wrote her master’s thesis on how exercise improves student performance and the connection between the two. While she was teaching second grade at the beginning of her career at the school, she would implement exercises early in the morning and track student performance after the work-out. Nelson then compared days with exercise and days without.

“My findings were that it significantly improved their performance,” she said,”not really on assessments, but just classroom activities they were more able to focus.”

Now, in her own classroom, Nelson is incorporating exercise into the daily routine for her students. She prefers to avoid having her students sit in their seats for the entire day. She would track the amount of times a student talked out of turn, appeared off task at their desk and the amount correct answers during discussion. Nelson said there was a drastic increase in improvement.

Nelson attributed the improvement to “just getting the blood flowing” early in the morning and the body and mind responding positively.

“You’re just ready to sit down and kind of relax and takes (information) in better if you’ve burned that energy off in the morning,” Nelson said.

“They’re 6 year old you can’t expect them to sit for seven hours a day,” she said. “We do a lot of moving.”

Exercise devices include stability ball chairs, doing lessons away out from the desk, weighted-lap pads and participating in “Go-Noodle” learning videos that incorporate dance routines.

Nelson will also have her first grade students do exercises in between math-sprints (timed math quizzes). Once one side of the math-sprint is completed, one student will pick an exercise everyone must do before completing the opposite side of the quiz. Exercises students usually pick include jumping-jacks, lunges and stair climbers, among various other work outs.

“I’ll have a few brave ones pick push-ups,” she said. “It just gets their blood flowing and hopefully that helps them to do better on the next side.”

She said there are typically improvements from one side to the other after an exercise is conducted. Nelson said that other teachers in the school are also incorporating exercises into their routines as well.

OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Nelson has always been interested in exercising and continues to remain as active as she can.

“I personally feel the best if I get up a half an hour earlier and exercise in the morning,” she said. “If I can hit these kids up with some exercises early it’ll make them feel a little bit better.”

Nelson and her husband are currently training for a half-marathon in Binghamton. Once completed, it will mark her third half-marathon she has finished. She admitted training was much easier before she and her husband had their 1-year-old daughter.

“It’ll be interesting trying to train for that with (her) at home,” she said. “It’s not easy. Doing (both) is like another full-time job in itself.”

On top of teaching, raising a child and training for half-marathons, Nelson also works part-time at the Tri-County Country Club in Forestville.

Nelson admitted balancing of facets of her life is “rough” but noted that she enjoys each one.

“It’s fun,” she added.

THE DISTRICT

“What stands out about Mrs. Nelson is her passion for teaching and her dedication to her students,” Gilevski said. “She creates great relationships with parents and the community as well as the staff.”

With a certification in special education and general education from first through sixth grade, Nelson wants to continue working at Sinclairville Elementary for the forseeable future.

“I don’t really have a reason to want to leave,” Nelson said.

Originally from Binghamton, Nelson said working in Cassadaga is “similar, but different” feel to her home growing up. She’s used to a dirt road but was still closer to the movie theater and the grocery store than most of the population in her current district.

“I had a lot more available to me than these kids do,” she said.

Nelson compared her five minute drive to the movie theater when she was growing up to the 30-40 minute drive students in her district have to a movie theater in either Dunkirk/Fredonia or Lakewood.

“This district is huge,” she said.

While the district is large in size, the population is smaller and Nelson said this allows her to get to know all of the students and their families.

“You don’t lose touch around here because it’s a rural area and everyone knows everyone and you have a connection with all of them at some point,” Nelson said.

HER STUDENTS

Nelson said the one thing her students have taught her is that there isn’t one perfect way for every student to learn. She said while one student might understand a lesson by explaining it the first time, but a another student might understand better if she explains it in a completely different way.

“They’re all going to have it work one way,” she said. “They might need multiple ways of explanation.”

She also said she has learned that teaching takes time and patience.

“They’re busy little people,” Nelson said smiling. “But we have come a long way since September.”

Nelson’s favorite aspect of teaching she admitted might sound cliche, but nonetheless it is her most prized perk of educating.

“Just when something clicks,” Nelson said of teaching her students. “That one kid you might have who struggles with decoding words or subtracting and then after you work and work and work and one day it’s finally there because of the repetition of teaching and finally it clicks and they get it. It’s just rewarding and eye-opening.”

For Nelson, her love for education and exercise – while not yet running its course – has come full-circle.