In the News
Huffington Post
September 29, 2009
School’s Out for… Never? ›
Classrooms are leaking minutes every day because teachers are using precious time resolving conflicts from the playground. And the slow drip, drip, drip every day is adding up — in…
The Portland Tribune
September 10, 2009
Schools try to reduce playground conflicts — Recess coach is putting the ‘play’ back in playground ›
Recess at many public schools isn’t what it used to be. Many schoolyard games – such as tag – have been discouraged because kids play too rough and the conflicts…
Boston Globe
September 9, 2009
Revamped Recess Puts Focus on the Physical ›
They would ignore the brightly colored balls left for them on the playground and the hopscotch lines painted on the pavement. Instead, in past years many students at Conservatory Lab…
NewsHour, PBS
July 24, 2009
During School Recess, New Focus on Playing Nice ›
Recess can be a chaotic, even violent, period during the course of a normal school day. Spencer Michels reports on how one non-profit is showing educators the health, and classroom…
The New York Times
June 14, 2009
Using Teamwork to Bring Girls Into the Game ›
Tes Siarnacki, a recess coordinator at a school in East Boston, regularly encourages older girls to referee boy-dominated soccer games, and assigns older boys to monitor double Dutch jump rope,…
The Star-Ledger
May 14, 2009
Nonprofit group uses recess to improve classrooms ›
Sports4Kids, which operates in about 170 schools in eight cities across the U.S., and which now hopes to expand into Newark and several other urban New Jersey districts, uses recess…
OPB News Portland
April 7, 2009
Learning to Play, An Important Lesson for Schools ›
You know it’s gotten bad for recess when teachers have to ban the most common game around. That was the situation for kids at Hartley Elementary, like 3rd grader, Audrey.
The Oregonian
April 5, 2009
Portland-area schools look to make recess fun, safe ›
Deadra Hall is holding kids back — literally. Her arms splayed, the assistant principal blocks fifth-graders from entering the crowded playground. She makes them do multiplication tables, count by sixes…
Oregon Live
April 3, 2009
Rolling out a kinder, gentler recess ›
This week, students at several Portland schools are getting something they may not experience every day — a fun, positive and playful recess.