At a Thursday afternoon practice of the Lady Raiders Step Squad, at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, in Greenbelt, Md., coach Jonelle Argus walks through orderly lines of 21 team members, calling out moves like a drill instructor, each call punctuated by a sharp clap.
“Right D!” Clap!
Credit: Alphanmadou Jallow
The girls’ arms snap to form a diagonal line—right arm up, left arm down, torsos forward, eyes looking down at their left fingers.
“Left D!” Clap!
Arms snap to the opposite diagonal, left arm up, eyes on right fingers.
As the coach shouts out more positions, she reminds the girls to breathe and move with tension and precision.
“We’re not swimming, we’re stepping!” she calls.
To do it right, the girls must move with quick, percussive, and synchronized movements that emulate rhythmic drumming.
The Lady Raiders’ staff sponsor, Krystal Covington, is a health teacher and also an alum of the school. She was a stepper herself, joining the team in 2000, just three years after it was founded.
Credit: Alphanmadou Jallow
“I loved the art, the energy, and the sisterhood,” Covington says. “That’s what we strive for today—sisterhood and strong team bonds—but also life lessons on how to conduct yourself in school and outside the school’s walls.”
Across the country, educators like Covington are shaping afterschool athletic clubs and physical education (PE) classes into bodypositive, inclusive experiences. The goal is to help students manage stress and develop confidence, healthy habits, and lifelong well-being.
When students join the Lady Raiders, they must sign a contract agreeing to the rules and standards about everything from behavior and respectfulness to social media use and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Members must also keep a 3.0 grade point average (other school athletic programs require a 2.0).
“Stepping has changed me as a person, inside and out. I’m stronger and much more confident. I see myself very differently now than I used to.”
—Angie Ramirez-Alvarez, Lady Raiders Step Squad captain, Greenbelt, Md.
“We realize it can be a struggle. It’s a big commitment of three-hour practices twice a week, plus competitions,” Covington says. “In addition to Tuesday and Thursday practices, we have Workshop Wednesdays where the girls meet in my classroom to study and tutor each other.”
It’s also a safe space where they can talk openly about anything that’s troubling them, she adds.
Angie Ramirez-Alvarez, a junior and captain of the Lady Raiders, values the support she and her teammates get from each other. “High school can be chaotic,” she says. “But the team draws us close. There’s a support system that really helps.”
Stepping boosts mental and physical health, Ramirez-Alvarez says. She used to suffer from severe asthma, but she has learned new breathing techniques in step, and her asthma is much better.
“Stepping has changed me as a person, inside and out. I’m stronger and much more confident,” she says. “I see myself very differently now than I used to.”
That’s what movement is all about, Covington says. The earlier students learn about the benefits of physical activity, research shows, the more likely they are to adopt active lifestyles.
Exercise eases stress
Credit: James Lawson
“Movement can help students get through the stress of friendships and relationships, the pressures of schoolwork, and even traumatic situations outside of school,” says Sheila Peterson, a physical education teacher at Wachter Middle School, in Bismarck, N.D. “It releases dopamine, and there are reams of research showing how moving your body produces calm and well-being.”
Peterson also tracks a lot of research about the student mental health crisis. It first spiked in 2012, she says, with the rise of social media, and then the pandemic exacerbated the situation. Instead of exercising and getting outside to play, kids began spending more time alone with their devices.
“If kids are sedentary and isolated, it’s not surprising that mental health suffers,” she says.
Peterson aims to help her students achieve their personal best, build self-confidence, and embrace a life-long commitment to healthy movement. She wants students to begin to see themselves differently.
“My goal as a PE teacher is not to encourage anyone to be a college athlete or even to be good at sports,” she says. “Instead, I want them to understand what their body is telling them and how movement will feel.”
She wants students to learn that they all have the inner strength and resilience necessary to build physical strength.
“The reward is when students create a relationship with being active because it makes them feel good in body and mind. I see that in kids. I see that joy.”
—Sheila Peterson, North Dakota PE teacher
She introduces them to a wide variety of activities—some they’ll love, some they’ll hate. But the idea is to help them find something they enjoy doing and that makes them feel successful, she explains.
Credit: James Lawson
“It’s not about being the best, it’s about feeling good,” Peterson adds. If a student makes a mistake, she encourages them to keep trying. When they achieve a new skill, she tells them to stop and celebrate and be proud in that moment.
In her class, there are a lot of smiles and laughter. “See how much better you feel after class? How many times did you laugh today?” she asks them.
The real payoff, Peterson adds, is when students decide to go out for sports they learned about in PE, or when Peterson sees a student out in the community on a walk with family or riding a bike.
“The reward is when students create a relationship with being active because it makes them feel good in body and mind,” she says. “I see that in kids. I see that joy.”
PE class can be a safe place
PE has evolved from the days when a gym teacher wearing shorts and tube socks constantly blew a whistle and forced students to climb a rope hanging from the ceiling.
“It’s now more inclusive and infused with SEL and body positivity,” says Michigan middle school PE teacher Emilee Pike.
Creating an environment where everyone feels safe enough to try the physical activities is her top priority.
“There is something very gendered about PE that many students find intimidating, so I foster inclusivity and awareness about gender and gender expression.”
Students who are LGBTQ+ are a growing area of concern among PE teachers, Pike says, because they feel they’re at risk.
“They come in with a history of distrust. Creating a sense of safety makes all the difference,” says Pike, who has taken continuing education courses on embracing diversity in PE.
“The anxiety levels in middle school students are high, but if they feel safe enough to participate, you can actually see the stress leave their bodies,” Pike says. “Their shoulders go down. The worry is erased from their faces.”
Credit: James Lawson
She knows, too, that middle school is fraught with new social dynamics and peer comparisons. Adolescence in general is a time of forming and questioning identities, and Pike doesn’t want to add to the anxiety with locker room and shower concerns.
“I don’t make them go to the locker room if they don’t want to, and I definitely don’t force anyone to shower,” she says.
Pike teaches in a rural farming community, where families don’t have a lot of extras. Some kids don’t change into gym clothes because they don’t own any. Others have only one pair of shoes—often, those are cowboy boots.
“Students can wear whatever they choose in class, as long as they can participate safely.”
There are kids who don’t want to shower, but some who do because they have no access to water at home. For those students, Pike and the school counselors will find times for them to shower whenever they are most comfortable.
“Getting the students to reap the benefits of exercise is the most important thing,” she says.
Pike received district funding to provide heart monitors for her students, so she can get a better understanding of their health and fitness. The monitors also allow students to see when they reach their target heart rate and what that feels like.
“They push themselves to get into their zone for at least 20 to 30 minutes, which has benefits that last all day—it increases test scores, and they perform better in class,” she says. “With technology, inclusivity, and SEL, we’re taking gym class to places it’s never been.”