Christi Kurtz, a Schirle Elementary PE teacher, cheers a student on with cowbells during a jogging lesson on Nov. 7, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Parents, students and colleagues nominated 53 local educators for Crystal Apple Awards this year. The award, given annually by the Salem-Keizer Education Foundation, recognizes staff who make a significant difference in the lives of children.
A dozen winners will be announced at an awards ceremony Thursday evening. Leading up to the event, Salem Reporter is profiling three nominees who work with students outside a classroom.
Christi Kurtz and Joel Webb held a cowbell in each hand, ringing them with vigor as students ran past them on a chilly Thursday morning.
“Come on, let’s go! Jog it out!” Kurtz called as a few stragglers rounded the final corner of their three-quarter mile run.
The fifth-graders at Schirle Elementary School were preparing for the Turkey Trot, an annual fun run organized by Kurtz and her co-teacher, Joel Webb.
It’s an event that exemplifies what the duo tries to accomplish in PE.
It’s about “finding ways to connect our curriculum to something bigger,” Kurtz said. “It’s way more fun and more meaningful.”
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In November, students learn about jogging and have a chance to win items for their own Thanksgiving dinners during the Turkey Trot, which families attend. Those awards are often prized, with students keeping canned food as trophies rather than eating it.
“Kids still have the olives with the ribbon on,” Webb said.
Back in the gym, Webb updated the class on their food drive efforts, the community-focused part of the Turkey Trot. Schirle students typically bring in 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of food for Marion-Polk Food Share before Thanksgiving. But on the first week of November, they were short of the goal.
Webb urged students to think of their gym teacher and not to wait until the last minute to bring items in.
“If I have to weigh 1,000 pounds of food on the last day, again, that’s going to take a long time,” he said, drawing laughs.
Schirle parent Cathy Gladow nominated the energetic duo for a Crystal Apple award, citing their efforts to make healthy living fun and build community with events like a sock hop, classic car show and Riverfront bike ride.
Webb brings a “dynamic personality” to the gym, she wrote in the nomination letter.
“The students feed off his enthusiasm of jiggly bells on his toes that he taps to the music playing in the gym,” Gladow wrote.
Kurtz reaches out to students who she sees having trouble, she said.
“She comes alongside the student who is struggling walking the laps or is walking alone or is emotional that day. She sees the slightest clues as to if a student may need a friend to run with or a hand to hold,” Gladow wrote.
Joel Webb, a Schirle Elementary PE teacher, goes over Turkey Trot food drive efforts with fifth-grade students on Nov. 7, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Webb and Kurtz are in their fifth year teaching together at Schirle. Webb previously worked at Richmond Elementary School and came to PE naturally. His two older brothers are also PE teachers, and he frequently borrows their ideas to bring to his students.
Kurtz began teaching as a substitute and found she enjoyed gym classes.
The two work well together, communicating through eye contact and filling in for each other if one teacher is working one-on-one with a struggling student.
“We can switch back and forth like that really easily,” Kurtz said.
The nomination is outside the comfort zone of both teachers. Webb is a self-described “shy guy” and Kurtz had to go shopping for a dress to wear to the awards ceremony. But they were touched by the stories students shared in their supporting letters.
“Kid notes are the best,” Kurtz said.
After the Turkey Trot, Kurtz and Webb will move students into a hockey unit, ending with a fifth grade versus Schirle staff game on the day before winter break begins.
All students at Schirle learn about hockey, but only fifth graders get to play, so by the time they hit the game, they have six years of practice. Still, staff are usually victorious, and wear ugly sweaters to the competition for a bit of added fun.
In February, students do a jump rope unit and gather shoes for One Thousand Soles, a Salem organization providing shoes to local homeless and low-income children.
Schirle fifth-graders organize the drive and add their shoes to those brought in by students at neighboring Sprague High School. Often, the Schirle Sharks bring in more shoes than Sprague, which has 1,600 students.
In the spring, Webb and Kurtz teach a unit on dancing ending in a sock hop where they dress up as Disco Daisy and Disco Dave and invite students to perform for their families.
Fifth-grader Ellie Gladow said the teachers know the name of each of Schirle’s nearly 500 students and make an effort to connect one-on-one.
She praised the Sock Hop in a supporting letter for the Crystal Apple nomination, saying the teachers cover a variety of dances in the unit leading up to the event.
“This does include the chicken dance,” she wrote. “This is one of my personal favorite events.”
Kurtz said their hope is to make exercise fun and give kids good memories to look back on once they grow up.
“We want kids when they’re older, when they’re adults, to have nostalgia about their elementary school years,” she said.
Reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
