{"id":2614,"date":"2016-01-07T11:24:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T16:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/?p=2614"},"modified":"2025-12-01T10:17:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:17:55","slug":"beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Community Charter School &#8211; Fitness Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2638 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BOKS-program-hockey-e14520125836101.jpg\" alt=\"students fitness program\" width=\"950\" height=\"604\" \/>\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools becoming fitness champions and encouraging students to live an active lifestyle. John Taylor is a physical education teacher at Beloved Community Charter School in <span class=\"_Xbe\">Jersey City, NJ<\/span>, and his life&#8217;s mission is physical fitness. Here&#8217;s his inspiring story of how he brought this mission to life at his school.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s Move! Active Schools allowed our health and safety team to come together, and review our policies regarding physical activity and nutrition. By working as a team to answer the application questions, we collectively created answers, identified deficiencies, and generated action plans to meet the health-related needs of our students. It was really eye opening to hear perceptions from other teachers regarding the effectiveness of our school health initiatives, and compared those perceptions to health screening data we obtained from our nurse and FitnessGram results. After we realized our perceptions didn&#8217;t match the data, we know it was time to implement program changes to improve student health.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2631 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BOKS-activity-e14520120685541.jpg\" alt=\"school fitness champions\" width=\"948\" height=\"580\" \/>The end of the year FitnessGram test outcomes were very powerful for our students. We experienced a 35% improvement in the PACER test in grades 3-5 from September 2014 to May 2015. These same grade levels also experienced a 17% improvement in push-ups, and a 22% improvement in curl-ups. By being more physically active and eating healthier food, our students learned first-hand how wellness levels can be improved through making better choices. There were two physical education teachers, one school nurse, the principal, and one after school coordinator involved in this fitness program. I led the efforts to implement the Let&#8217;s Move Active Schools programs.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2632\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Fuel-up-to-play-60-pic1.jpg\" alt=\"healthy lifestyle in school\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/>The program has really grown since it was started two years ago. At first, our wellness team performed the online Let\u2019s Move! Active Schools assessment, and didn&#8217;t realize how deficient we were in many areas. However, after developing and executing our action plans, we were able to be in compliance with all Let\u2019s Move! Active Schools objectives, thus earning the Let&#8217;s Move Active Schools National Recognition Award in 2014.We earned this same award again in 2015, but because we already implemented all of the action plans, we were immediately in compliance with Let\u2019s Move! Active Schools objectives.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2633 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Baseketball-e14520137917411.jpg\" alt=\"students getting active\" width=\"711\" height=\"760\" \/>The response from students was fantastic. They were very eager to get involved. Many\u00a0participated in before and after school physical activity programs, and even created their own healthy menus with in their health classes. They gained a great deal of satisfaction when we hung the Let\u2019s Move! Active Schools National Award banners in the gym, because they knew they earned it based on their involvement.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing that we as educators play a pivotal role in helping students learn and develop lifetime physical activity and health eating habits is a tremendous responsibility. But with Let\u2019s Move! Active Schools, we are provided a blueprint for a program we can implement to help students improve their wellness levels, and in turn, lead a healthy and active lifestyle well into their elderly years.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2634 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Girls-on-the-Run-e14520121496901.jpg\" alt=\"fitness champions \" width=\"952\" height=\"590\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/letsmoveschools.org\/\" class=\"broken_link\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2639\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BOKS1.jpg\" alt=\"students getting active\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>For more Active Schools success stories, visit <a href=\"\/blog\/tag\/lets-move-active-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.ssww.com\/blog\/tag\/lets-move-active-schools<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>About Active Schools<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.activeschoolsus.org\/\" class=\"broken_link\">Active Schools<\/a> is a sub-initiative of Michelle Obama\u2019s <em>Let\u2019s Move!<\/em>\u00a0campaign. They announced the 2015 National Award recipients which included 525 U.S. schools, recognized for their efforts of increasing physical activity for their students and creating an Active School environment. They are truly School Champions, making a difference in the world of physical education.\u00a0S&amp;S Worldwide joined <em>Let\u2019s Move!<\/em> Active Schools to support their goal that Active Kids Do Better.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2640 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014-LMAS-e14520124664911.jpg\" alt=\"physical activity at school\" width=\"284\" height=\"342\" \/><\/p>\n<p>About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm4497340\/?ref_=tt_cl_t1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2626\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/John-41.jpg\" alt=\"physical education \" width=\"293\" height=\"389\" \/>John Taylor received a\u00a0Master of Science\u00a0in Sports Studies and his\u00a0teaching certificate\u00a0in\u00a0physical education\u00a0in 2009. John Taylor then starred on the weight loss reality show <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1695741\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back<\/a> as a physical trainer and coach. Since 2012, he has been the physical education teacher at <a href=\"http:\/\/belovedccs.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Beloved Community Charter School<\/a> in Jersey City, NJ, and has served as the Vice President of the state physical educators association, NJAHPERD. Beloved has won numerous awards during his tenure including the NFL Play 60 Touchdown School Award (twice), Let&#8217;s Move Active Schools National Recognition Award (twice), and 2014 SPARK Dance National Championship. In 2015, Taylor helped\u00a0Beloved receive recognition from the Presidential Youth Fitness Program as a success story schools, an honor only given to four schools in the United States. Along with his teaching duties, Taylor runs Beloved&#8217;s after school intramural sports programs, the BOKS Kids (Reebok-sponsored) before school physical activity program, and he coaches female students in the Girls on the Run program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools becoming fitness champions and encouraging students to live an active lifestyle. John Taylor is a physical education teacher at Beloved Community Charter School in Jersey City, NJ, and his life&#8217;s mission &hellip; <a class=\"read-more-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[136,18],"tags":[438,322,2164,436,444,410,435,20,437],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Beloved Community Charter School - Fitness Champions - S&amp;S Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beloved Community Charter School - Fitness Champions - S&amp;S Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools becoming fitness champions and encouraging students to live an active lifestyle. John Taylor is a physical education teacher at Beloved Community Charter School in Jersey City, NJ, and his life&#8217;s mission &hellip; Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"S&amp;S Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SSWorldwideCatalog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-07T16:24:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-01T15:17:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BOKS-program-hockey-e1452012583610.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"604\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ssworldwide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ssworldwide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"S&amp;S Worldwide\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"S&amp;S Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BOKS-program-hockey-e1452012583610.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/BOKS-program-hockey-e1452012583610.jpg\",\"width\":950,\"height\":604,\"caption\":\"students fitness program\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/\",\"name\":\"Beloved Community Charter School - Fitness Champions - S&amp;S Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-07T16:24:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-01T15:17:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/12b4fa1eca646ce50f8cdbfdccb2f1dc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Beloved Community Charter School &#8211; Fitness Champions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/12b4fa1eca646ce50f8cdbfdccb2f1dc\",\"name\":\"S&amp;S Worldwide\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13fddae63d6f28c29294df0528274b24?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/13fddae63d6f28c29294df0528274b24?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"S&amp;S Worldwide\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beloved Community Charter School - Fitness Champions - S&amp;S Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/beloved-community-charter-school-fitness-champions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beloved Community Charter School - Fitness Champions - S&amp;S Blog","og_description":"\u00a0We love to share amazing success stories of schools becoming fitness champions and encouraging students to live an active lifestyle. 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