Vergennes PE Educator Robyn Newton Coaches Fitness and Fun as Vermont’s Teacher of the Year 

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• Caleb Kenna
• Robyn Newton teaching gym class

Robyn Newton starts her day as the crossing guard at Vergennes Union Elementary School, encouraging students to walk and helping them arrive safely. By the time she assumes her afterschool post in the same gig, she's clocked more than 20,000 steps on her Fitbit and taught students about ball control, fitness, focus and vowel sounds.

A physical education teacher, Newton begins her term as Vermont Teacher of the Year this month. The award has been presented annually by the state Agency of Education since 1964. During her tenure, Newton will serve as an advocate for physical education.

"She's a teacher who believes that learning can take place anywhere — in the classroom, in this gym, on the playing field and out in the community," Education Secretary Dan French said during a Vergennes Elementary assembly in September.

While providing instruction in what Newton hopes will become a lifelong interest in and enjoyment of physical activity, she also gives kids a chance to play and run around.

"She teaches us games that we don't know about, but we get better each time," fourth grader Oliver Tembreull said. "She's just a fun teacher."

Newton, 49, is in her 28th year of teaching physical education at Vergennes Elementary, a kindergarten through sixth-grade school with about 300 students. She started the job after graduating from the University of Vermont as a 22-year-old education major and athlete who played first base on the UVM softball team.

Though she was certified to teach PE to students from kindergarten through high school, "I knew I wanted to stay with the little kids," Newton said. "I felt like it was the best age to influence kids to be active and make it fun. They love you, and they love coming to class." She also worked with older students for 18 years as the softball coach at Saint Michael's College in Colchester.

Newton grew up in Fairlee as the oldest of three siblings and spent her free time running around outside, hiking in the woods, biking and swimming in Lake Morey. She was a three-sport athlete at Oxbow High School in Bradford, where she ran cross-country in the fall to stay in shape and played basketball in the winter under late, legendary coach Mona Garone, an inductee in the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame, and softball in the spring. She was a pitcher and a first basewoman, a self-described "very competitive" athlete and a "little bit of a hothead." She credits her Oxbow softball coach, Cindy Day, with teaching her to stay focused and master the mental side of the game.

In her own teaching, Newton begins class with a quick warm-up that encompasses three key areas: cardio, muscle strength and flexibility. She ends by checking in with each student as they assess themselves on a scale of 1 to 3, a rating in which effort and cooperation rank above skill. "They usually have it right on the money," she said. "It gives them ownership and pride in the class."

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• Caleb Kenna
• Robyn Newton

Physical education, Newton believes, should motivate children and build their confidence, as well as bring them joy and nurture friendships and social engagement. She makes a point of exposing kids to a variety of sports, including those they can play on their own: golf, swimming, Rollerblading and tennis.

"With all of the sports I'm going to teach you," she tells her students, "I want you to learn them and find one that you love."

Newton prefers to teach outdoors, and that's mostly where she holds her classes. But due to an early January thaw, the ice rink behind the school was off-limits for skating, and a snowless spell ruled out snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. These are activities Newton teaches in the winter, using gear purchased as part of a nearly $1 million federal grant she won for her school district in 2008. Springtime brings (chilly) swim lessons in the outdoor town pool near the school.

"I'd rather be outside all the time," Newton said. "Just because it's cold, [it] doesn't mean we don't move," she tells kids. "We gotta be active."

But last week, still snowless, phys ed was held in the gym, which doubles as the lunchroom. A banner on the wall announces Newton's Teacher of the Year title. A sign by the door describes expectations and guidelines under the acronym ROARS: respect, ownership, attitude, responsibility, safety.

On the job, Newton looks confident and collected in athletic pants, a school jersey and sneakers. She's tall and enthusiastic, and her voice can be heard over 18 bouncing basketballs and 36 sneakers running a dribble drill. But Newton can make her point without talking, modeling a perfect basketball shot: Her eyes are fixed on the basket, she squares up before she shoots, and her follow-through is textbook.

Newton also demonstrates skills she didn't use as a high school state basketball champion in 1991 or a runner-up that year in softball. She sits on the floor to show kindergartners how to stack a set of plastic cups in descending numerical order. She folds her body in half to squeeze through a rectangular frame that's an easy fit for the little kids. As if she's a circus performer, not a PE teacher, Newton tosses colored scarves across her body from one hand to the other.

These activities are part of a kindergarten class, called Action Based Learning, that Newton teaches in collaboration with other educators at the school. The curriculum is based on research that indicates engaging in physical activity while learning academics can boost children's comprehension of the material. In particular, certain physical skills — including ones that involve crossing the body's midline, balancing and visual tracking — are fundamental in helping kids gain language proficiency, Newton and kindergarten teacher Beth Bearor said. The class also gives kids an opportunity to practice classroom work in a different environment.

Eight teachers and paraeducators work together in the Action Based Learning class, each overseeing a station that kindergartners visit in pairs. The adults observe and assess the students as they walk on upside-down disc cones; run to a spot in the gym and pair pictures with matching vowel sounds; and practice writing a letter of the alphabet standing up, as opposed to sitting down, on paper taped to a wall.

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• Caleb Kenna
• Robyn Newton teaching gym class

"It's almost like an academic intervention that everybody gets, and we're doing it in a fun way," Bearor said.

The program helps identify students who need extra help and indicates what supports could be beneficial, she said. The assessments made from the physical activities were "mind-blowing" to Bearor when she encountered them in her first years at Vergennes Elementary.

"The same kids that have difficulty with the motor skills are the same kids that are having trouble with academic skills in my classroom," she said.

The work with kindergartners underscores the value of what Newton offers all students at the school.

"She's a very dynamic person," Bearor said. "She's always striving to get the kids to be their best, and she does the same for us as a staff."

Fourth grader Ansley Montgomery observed the benefits of PE class in relation to other subjects. When she and her classmates can "get our energy out," she said, they're calmer and better prepared for the next class. "It's a good balance."

As crossing guard, Newton finishes her day at Vergennes Elementary championing kids who walk and ride their bikes to school. On the first Wednesday of the month, the school participates in a program called Walk and Roll to School. The goal is to get as many kids as possible to walk or bike to school. For kids who live far away, the school bus lets them off a short distance from the building so they can walk a portion of their journey. About 80 percent of students get in on the fun, Newton estimated, and one fifth-grade class has achieved 100 percent participation.

It's all part of Newton's effort to encourage physical activity and its associated benefits, a message her Teacher of the Year honor could help promote.

"It's pretty cool that I can stand out in that way," Newton said. "The fact that I was chosen is pretty incredible to push my field and the importance of movement."