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Learning Life (and Math) Lessons in the Gym

Liz Franco-Spano teaches physical education in East Haven schools, but that doesn’t stop her from bringing math and even language arts to her gymnasium. As with everything she does, teaching is a collaborative effort.

“I taught middle school, high school, and elementary,” Liz says. “I enjoyed it at every level…every time I went to a different spot, I was like, ‘I don’t want to leave.’”

Now, Liz teaches PE at the Ferrara and Momaguin elementary schools. Wherever she is, Liz is invested in education.

“I won’t ever leave elementary now,” she says.

She even married her husband, David Spano, in the Joseph Melillo Middle School gymnasium and had her students in the wedding.

Liz has used PE class to boost attendance in school. They throw a March Madness event during which kids with high attendance can play in two-on-two competitions against her and Michael Yates, a 4th grade teacher at Momaguin.

“Studies have shown that test scores do increase when kids aren’t absent in school,” Liz says, noting her effort paid off. “There were less kids that were absent because they wanted to participate.”

But that’s just one way that classroom education makes it into Liz’s PE classes. She works with the math and reading coaches to bring those subjects to gym class.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as having the kids divide into teams, but often Liz will give the kids a problem to solve before they move on to the next activity.

“They have to work together and collaborate to work on a project so we’re using a lot of strategies…that we use in math and also in the gym,” Liz says.

She says one little girl actually told Liz that she’d gotten a high score on a math test by using the strategies they used in gym class.

“I try to collaborate with teachers,” Liz says. “The kids really do learn.”

It’s all part of a program to improve test scores in math and reading. Language arts come into play with sight reading exercises and vocabulary relays. The kids will spell out a sight word as they exercise or pass on and define vocabulary words.

“Because you’re making it fun and it’s hands-on…half the time they don’t know that we’re doing math,” Liz says. “We’re playing and we’re doing stuff and they don’t even realize it.”

Liz says that hands-on learning is great for teaching kids. Principal Diane MacKinnon recently secured a $3,000 grant from Audubon Connecticut to turn a vacant lot near Momaguin into a Schoolyard Habitat.

“Kids are going to take their lessons outside and they’re going to engage with students in conversations with the school community, the families, and focus on topics that we take from our curriculum,” Liz says. “The kids can go out there and learn about wildlife.”

Though the project is still in the early stages, Liz is already involved planning more fundraising to get the project going.

She intends for the project to be a collaborative process, too.

“Every class in this building is going to go out and have 20 to 30 minutes of cleaning the area…and then we’re going to get the community involved,” Liz says.

She’s looking forward to showing the kids pictures of them working on the project against pictures of the completed job. The project will be its own lesson for the kids.

“School’s not just about math, arithmetic, reading and writing. It’s about life lessons…that you can carry on,” Liz says.

“I kind of volunteer for a lot, when I’m asked,” Liz says. “I thought, [my sons] both being in school now, I’d have a lot of time now, but I feel like I’m doing more.”

Throughout her 34 years teaching, Liz has gotten involved with everything from the PTO to the East Haven High School Hall of Fame.

“I do a lot and I fundraise a lot…but it’s my colleagues and my students that are there to support it,” Liz says. “The kids raise the money.”

She once helped to fundraise for tsunami relief in Southeast Asia. Kids throughout the district made and sold bracelets, earning $20,000 that went on to help rebuild a school.

“We received a handwritten poem from the students in Asia a year later and I literally cried,” Liz says.

She also operates fundraisers for scholarships in the names of Rusty Zoaski, a school custodian who passed away, and John Pallace, a high school student who passed away during her time at the school.

“I like being involved, I like helping the less fortunate and I just love kids. I love what I do,” she says. “It makes it easy.”

To nominate a Person of the Week, email Nathan Hughart at n.hughart@Zip06.com.