Focus on TUSD - November 2007

Adapting to Her Job
Monroy Wins State P.E. Teacher Award
Lynn Monroy sings all day long to her students and she's not even a music teacher.

She's an adaptive physical education teacher, who took up singing to help her exceptional education classes learn. Because she goes to about 15 schools at least once a week, that's a lot of singing.

"All the singing I do is as close to music therapy as I can get," she explained. "I figure if they get the tune, they might get the verb."

That "learn as I go" theory is part of what helped Monroy win the Arizona Adaptive Physical Education Teacher of the Year Award this fall. The Arizona Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance gave her the award.

Monroy has had the adaptive P.E. job for 20 years. When she agreed to take the position, she had a bachelor's degree in physical education and a master's degree in special education, but had no other preparation. "The teachers helped me," she remembered. "I read the textbooks the summer before I started and there weren't many books out there on this. Only three universities at the time had adaptive P.E. programs. I cried every day for two weeks. I didn't realize there were so many kids like this."

By "like this," she means children diagnosed with multiple conditions, mental and physical, grouped into classes. She loads equipment for one day's lessons in her vehicle and travels to the sites.

"When I come, it makes their day different," Monroy said. "It makes it shine and makes it special for them. I enjoy it. It's the best job. I get paid to play all day long and I have toys. The kids are anxious to have me come. Some learned the days of the week so they know what day I will be there."

Every school and class she visits is unique so she constantly adjusts to the environments. She takes entire classes, but does individual education plans for only 65 of the approximately 200 students she sees. "I have a fabulous short-term memory so I can remember their names while I'm there," she said. "Sometimes I have to relearn them when I see them again."

By teaching students how to act individually and in groups, Monroy prepares them to integrate in a middle school. "Some can be pretty successful," she said. "But it takes my having them from the first-grade through the fifth-grade."

When she started, she worked almost totally on the west side of TUSD, but now she has a mix of schools across the District. She introduces a lesson in the first session and reinforces it in the second session, watching it unfold. As one of six TUSD adaptive P.E. teachers, she is certified to see students aged 3 through 23.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

TUSD - Proud Supporter of Small Classes

Photos in the November issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the December Focus is Friday, Nov. 7. The Focus will be published Monday, Nov. 17. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.