These comments (testimonials) are from Surrey Connect P.E. students who have completed their course:

reflection topic: are there comments below that have meaning for you and your experiences/goals?

"This course has helped me achieve my goals in life from being more

independent. By not having a teacher or a class that I have to go to everyday for 1 hr &30min had made a big difference. I don’t have a teacher pushing me to do the activities everyday, or making me run for such a long time. This time it made me do my own thing. I had the chance to do everything by myself or with family/friends. It made me active by myself, by my own decisions. I found the circuits’ module interesting since I wasn’t really a type of girl who does workout circuits."

"This course help me to achieve a more balanced and active lifestyle. I think it was really good choice to take this course rather than taking PE course in my school. I learned many things. I learned how to calculate my average heart rate and the variety of exercises. I made the habit to record what I did and what I ate. There were two parts of this course that I found most interesting and personally meaningful. They were module 3 and 4."

"This course definitely gave me the directive and motivation to be more physically active. I became more aware of the specific parts of the FITT principles I was not meeting, and strove to complete them well…I found the example activity log provided very informative and instructive ….. I found that logging my activity in the activity log helped me reflect and rededicate myself for the weeks to come. I found the skill development from module 5 to be very interesting. I had been meaning to work on the skills I chose for a long time, but never got around to it. The fact that it had been a part of the course was a good excuse to work on them and improve."

"This course helped motivate me in doing physical activities and taught me the fun in trying new exercises as I mentioned before. While doing the exercises and the physical activities, I get to relax and for a couple hours, forget all the homework and tests I have to face. It actually helped me with relieving my stress and anxiety. I have also learned that humans can create miracles at the last minute. The most interesting and meaningful part of this course for me was the part where we have to make our own rubrics, and teach someone to do something. I learned a lot more about ballet than back when I took lessons."

"This course has helped me achieve a more balanced and active lifestyle because it pushed me to make changes in my not-so-good lifestyle. Before, I just lounged around and did physical activity occasionally, and did not evaluate my priorities correctly. Because of the assignments and reflections, I have better self-awareness and I have changed my lifestyle completely. I have definitely been so much more active. My lifestyle is also balanced because I know what my values and priorities are now; I don’t waste time on things that aren’t really important. In this course, I found the assignments pretty interesting and meaningful. They really got me thinking about my horrible lifestyle before this course and gave me motivation to change it. In addition, I gained a lot of knowledge and I definitely have a better perception on an active lifestyle. Even though the assignments were quite a challenge for me, since I always took a long time to complete them, I believe that they were helpful in the end and have helped me be successful in this course."

This course is pretty interesting the way it is. Focus of each modules are all different, but somehow connected in ways – they all teach us more about our own lifestyles, and how to improve the way we are living."

"This course helped me achieve a more balanced and active lifestyle by teaching me about the importance of being healthy, and also that no matter how busy life is I should always make it a point to stay active. I learned this from the activity logs, and when seeing gaps in my log I would think, “Did I really not exercise at all for four days?” Before this course I thought that the only important fitness component was cardio because it would exercise my heart and my muscles would get a work out from running, so there was no point in trying to build muscle, and since I was naturally flexible, what was the point of stretching all the time? However again I learned that it is important to work out all fitness components to maintain a healthy, working body. The reflections of this course were meaningful to me because I had never actually associated physical activity with emotions before. Through the reflections I taught myself that I shouldn’t exercise just because I want to look good, but because it makes me feel good both inside and out. The reflections also taught me self management and to take responsibility of my own learning."

"This course motivated me to become active and taught me many benefits of doing so. Through experiences through the course and research I had to do, I compiled a list for benefits of being active. Until I was active (which I got through this course), I never realized how much it can affect a person physically and mentally. Now that I have this piece of knowledge, it is even more motivating to me than the weight loss reason, to exercise. This course let me observe my fitness goals, my habits, my eating, and even helped me to figure out which activities fit my life."

"Unlike PE at school, I get to choose my activities and that made me much more excited to

start. After this activity blog, I realized I liked being active everyday because it leaves me

feeling "fresh" for the next day. And the fact that I'm getting credit for the activities I already love, like running, got me excited too. I have been working on eating healthier, and working outto get a better appearance. This is something that has motivated me greatly, because summer is practically here! I am still working on building my intrinsic motivation, but I am doing muchbetter with it than I was when I first begun. I've gotten my friends and family involved in my daily activities, and that makes working out a lot more fun"

"This course certainly helped me achieve a more balanced and active lifestyle by participating in so many different areas of fitness activities in which I had never participated previously. I found that fitness activities could be enjoyable and as I saw the changes in my body and physical health I was motivated to do even more. I became more aware of my diet and healthy food choices and found that I had much better deep and restful sleep."

"Now that this course is over, I plan on carrying my experiences with me and incorporating fitness into my everyday life. I definitely will continue working out at curves gym. I find that their circuit program is very efficient in working all major muscle groups and has the element of cardio in a nice thirty minute program that I can fit into even my most busiest day. I also became quite fond of the zumba and jazzercise classes as music is such an integral part of those classes. I would also like to continue jogging. One area that I would really like to explore is yoga. I would like to find yoga class or program that would suit my school schedule and provide me with the opportunity to participate. Yoga builds so much strength and flexibility. Increased flexibility is definitely an area that I would like to work on. I am also interested in the meditative aspects and calming effects of yoga. My mom has also expressed interest in yoga for quite some time and I think that she and I will explore this together."

Setting a New Female Ideal: Fit Instead of Fat or Thin

A.J. Walkley

"While I am happy that there is a bit of diversity in the shapeliness of our leading Hollywood women, I cannot help but be surprised that we are now going from one side of the "weight obsessed" spectrum to another. What's troubling is that we're still focusing on the scale at all. Where is the discussion of health and fitness in all of this? Isn't it time for the "ideal female figure" to be the epitome of physically fit and healthy?......The focus of beauty needs to shift to accommodate health and, until media portrayals begin to shift in the same ways, it's hard to believe that anything will change on the front of eating disorders, self-esteem, self-confidence and weight-related health concerns for all genders of all ages."

read more here you may also find the comment section of interest fro a variety of perspectives!

PE Students: Exercise is an essential component of being healthy and the focus in this course is on personal improvement. What are your thoughts about this topic and your thoughts about developing your personal fitness philosophy/approach/goals?