Hamilton Middle School students build skills, friendships through mentor PE class

Mitchell Boatman, The Holland Sentinel
·1 min read
The Mentor Physical Education class at Hamilton Middle School helps students build skills and relationships.
The Mentor Physical Education class at Hamilton Middle School helps students build skills and relationships.

FILLMORE TWP. — A class at Hamilton Middle School is building connections and friendships between different segments of the student body.

Mentor Physical Education pairs a select group of seventh- and eighth-grade student helpers with special education students from the Intensive Resource Program. Mentors help their classmates achieve individualized physical education goals.

Liz VandeWege launched the class when she started teaching at Hamilton Middle School in 2018. Each trimester, she and fellow teachers choose about 15 students to become classroom helpers. Students apply to the program and are selected based on leadership and social skills and other characteristics.

“It melts my heart,” VandeWege said of the class. “I smile so much seeing them come up with different games and ways to help each other to make it more fun — it's the best thing in the world.”

The Mentor Physical Education class at Hamilton Middle School helps students build skills and relationships.
The Mentor Physical Education class at Hamilton Middle School helps students build skills and relationships.

Student goals range from running certain distances to endurance exercises to throwing a ball.

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“It helps the Intensive Resource students learn PE skills they can hopefully translate into the rest of their life,” VandeWege said. "It's also great for my seventh and eighth grade kids, so they get experience working with other kids and learning about different disabilities.”

Often, the students become friends, building relationships that might not otherwise have blossomed.

Students in the Mentor Physical Education class often build friendships beyond the classroom.
Students in the Mentor Physical Education class often build friendships beyond the classroom.

“This class shows (the special education students) a group of kids that really care about them and will help them through times of struggle,” said eighth grader and student helper Brooke Petroelje. “They're not any different than us, they're our friends and we hang out with them every day.”

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hamilton students build skills, friendships through mentor PE class