From the time Amy Corner left her post as a teacher of anatomy and physiology at Marana High School to teach physical education at Marana Middle School, she's known just what she wants to do with the program.
Now she has an extra boost to get there, thanks to a Carol M. White Physical Education grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Marana Middle School, 11279 W. Grier Road, is one of 77 grant recipients the department announced last summer. The school is slated to receive a little more than $647,000 over the next three years to improve its physical education program and serve as a model for other schools in the Marana Unified School District.
Corner said the school applied for the grant two years ago but didn't get it.
The second time appears to be the charm.
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"A lot of people apply and apply and apply and never get this grant, so we are extremely fortunate," she said.
Corner was a personal trainer before she began her teaching career and said her passion is wellness and fitness.
She arrived at the middle school to take over what she saw as an outdated P.E. program.
Principal Allison Murphy - who once taught alongside Corner as a science teacher at the high school - agreed.
She noted that many adolescents spend a lot of time watching TV and playing video games, while parents of young children are afraid to let them play outside unsupervised for extended periods.
If kids are home alone, Murphy said, they're generally indoors and usually grabbing convenience foods that don't have the greatest nutrition.
Corner arrived with a head full of ideas from P.E. guru Phil Lawler, who was featured in the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me," which she used to show to her high school students each year.
It so happens that Lawler also was the father of one of Corner's high school friends, who put her in touch with him.
Lawler died of cancer last year and Corner said the middle school's new grant is entirely his legacy, as her mentor.
"He's the whole reason I'm here, the grant is here, this program is here," she said.
The grant officially began Nov. 1, and among Corner's first orders of business, as the newly appointed project director, is to change how students are graded in P.E.
Historically, grades have depended on whether students showed up and dressed out, she said.
Even before the grant came through, she set about trying to change that. The grant will pay for a consultant to develop a standards-based curriculum and accompanying student assessment system.
Corner and fellow P.E. teacher Willie Dudley began offering more choices for the students, moving them from a sports-based approach to a fitness-based approach.
The kids still are required to participate, even if they don't dress out. And they learn about why their muscles do what they do, with plenty of information on nutrition as well.
Murphy said she sees far fewer students being referred to the office for not dressing out.
"The kids dress out pretty much every day," she said.
The grant will enable the school to hire a third P.E. teacher, buy modern fitness equipment and fitness monitors and expand P.E. from one semester in seventh grade to a second semester in eighth grade.
The monitors will be key to the program's success, Corner said.
Historically, kids have been penalized if they couldn't run a mile within a certain amount of time.
But if you put heart monitors on the kids, frequently you find that a child who takes 16 minutes to run a mile works just as hard as the one who finishes in six minutes, she said.
The school district must match some of the grant funds and is putting its portion toward renovating the fitness room. The grant doesn't cover facilities upgrades.
Corner hopes her students will take their P.E. lessons with them into their adult lives.
"I'm not just teaching P.E. I'm not just teaching science," she said.
"I teach kids."
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or 807-8464.
