Volleying around better health

Suzie Harrison

He has a philosophy and a way of communicating with children that

makes them want to do their best, and he speaks in terms they can

understand and respond to.

Physical education teacher Scott Finn at Thurston Middle School

clearly cares about his students, which showed in his volleyball

class on Tuesday.

He encourages his students to do more than just run around during

class -- he says he wants to see them eat healthy and take care of

their bodies.

“For them to make positive decisions about what they are putting

into their bodies, how they want to take care of their bodies,” Finn

said.

As a comparison, he asked the students how many of their parents

lease their cars. He then asked if they had ever turned in a car for

a newer model and pointed out they couldn’t do that with their

bodies.

“Underneath it all, I try to communicate that they matter, not

that they just matter to me or to the class,” Finn said. “But that

they matter to themselves.”

He points out that their bodies are the one thing that they can

make a decision about and that they’re in charge of taking care of

themselves.

“Our goal here at Thurston is to equip them to do that on an

individual level,” Finn said. “We put it all out there and let them

see what works best for them.”

Practicing the volleyball skills they have been learning the past

few weeks, the students exuded confidence as they were doing drills.

“We’re learning a lot of teamwork, how you play and communicate a

lot, helping each other,” Alex Palmer 12, said.

They worked on their blocks, hits and bumps, spikes and passing.

After finishing the fundamentals they got to play a game.

“Mr. Finn is really cool and nice -- he really gets into his

teaching,” Nikolas Bergum, 11, said. “All he wants us to do is to get

in shape and to get into the different sports are available.”

He said he has learned a lot about playing volleyball.

“We’re trying to do the ideal form which is the bump, the set and

the spike,” Nikolas said.