Rain or Shine, BikeTexas SuperCyclist Training for Elementary PE Teachers Goes On!

Wednesday, February 7, 2007 dawned as a beautiful, mild, winter day as fourteen elementary P.E. teachers from the surrounding counties drove to San Angelo to participate in the BikeTexas SuperCyclist Certification Training hosted by the Texas Education Agency Region 15 Center. The farthest travelers were from Del Rio ISD, 160 miles one-way!

Jenni Price, Region 15 School Health Specialist, was a wonderful site host and made sure everyone’s needs were met. The evening before, TBC Staff used their bicycles to explore the seven-mile long series of trails and park roads that follow the Concho River Greenbelt from the west side through downtown San Angelo to the east side.

The SuperCyclist Certification Training is a Texas Bicycle Coalition (TBC) Education Fund program that provides P.E. teachers with bicycle safety skills, curriculum and other teaching aids needed to educate 4th and 5th grade children on life-saving bicycle lessons. TBC staff, Brenda Chuleewah and Mark Stine, presented the training, which provides 6 professional continuing-education credits to each attendee.

In addition to fitting helmets, the teachers played the SuperCyclist Turnover Game and SuperChaos Corner to become familiar with the curriculum. Outside, they rode the Skills course on bikes.

Teachers also performed the Decision Making Course, using virtual handlebars, the bicycle equivalent of the broomstick horse. The virtual handlebars, made with PVC pipe and grips, enable teachers to teach bike skills at school when bikes are not available. This also helps the students concentrate completely on the basic traffic rules including signaling and obeying road signs.

Thirteen teachers also completed the previous SuperCyclist training on January 15 at New Caney ISD (just north of Houston) on a rainy day with an ice storm bearing down. The course component was completed in the gym.

New Caney PE teacher Mary Lou Ford was a great site host for this training. Dan Raine, bicycle/pedestrian coordinator for the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments, taught the class with Stine assisting.

TBC trains about 300 elementary school PE teachers and other youth program professionals annually through the TxDOT-funded Texas SuperCyclist program. This program addresses the Education Component of the “Five E’s” of the Safe Routes to School program. More information about these programs are available on the TBC website.