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I found a way to bring my favorite workout to the classroom and I didn't even need to lace up my inov8s!
Tabata work outs can be summed up as 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. A goal is to not to slip below your first level of work. So if I do 8 push ups in 20 seconds I'd want to keep that pace the entire 8 founds. It sounds pretty simple, but it's not. It's so useful that it's easy to think it's not as hard as it is. I'm sure there's one out there, but I cant think of a exercise you can't do as a tabta.
Today I had my students do their regularly scheduled math drill as a tabta. I was pleasantly surprised how much they liked it. I had a 60 question single digit addition and subtraction page for them. I explained the "game" to them extensively on the front end. They picked up on it pretty well. I projected a huge tabata timer on the board. It chimed at the different rest/work intervals. They loved it.
- I didn't make them keep score, but I will in the future.
- Some spent the 10 seconds of rest looking over their previous questions to fix them when the 20 seconds of work started.
- I need to do a benchmark drill to see help them plot some growth.
- No going back over answers until they've finished every question.
Afterwards I asked the class write to me about their first tabata experience. Pretty positive for my class. They don't usually like anything new save for the overly dramatic and disruptive.
- 10 liked it and want to do their regular math drills like this
- 2 would rather do the regular 2 minute drill
I'm thinking that I could use this format for writing spelling and vocabulary words. I'm thinking that when their reading really gets better they could read 20 seconds rest 10. I'd enjoy seeing them write as much as they can and then rest and so on.
I bet I'll have them rascals out doing tabata sprints next time we get the wiggles, trust.