A wide range of new extracurricular activities allows our students to release stress, have fun and burn energy for a healthy lifestyle!
As part of our holistic educative approach, Passerelles numériques (PN) Vietnam has decided to develop more sports and outdoors activities for this new academic year.
Did you know that research has shown that youth who participate in sports benefit intellectually and perform better in their studies?
PN is convinced that practicing sports and spending time outdoors contributes widely to a healthy development for our young adults, especially as they spend a large part of their day in front of a computer screen!
Moreover, it’s a great way of increasing group cohesion, solidarity among students and strong friendships. Physical activity also helps student to reach emotional balance and build self-confidence.
But, to be fair, we could not have done it alone! We had the chance to benefit from Céline’s support, a volunteer and well-experienced Physical Education Teacher full of energy, creativity and always keen on taking up new challenges.
“Through sports activities the students can find a very good balance between hard studies, fun and energy! It was challenging to organize sports with no field, no material, and tropical weather (too hot, too much rain, etc.), but we managed to find solutions each time thanks to the students and the Education Team’s motivation! I was impressed by the students’ curiosity and good will. They never give up and always keep smiling. Let’s keep on!” says Céline, 6 months’ volunteer with PNV Education Team.
So, with very limited means and material, what can you do?
Here are some tips tested and approved by PN Vietnam’s Education Team!
Do you remember Flashmobs?
They appeared in the early 2000’s and became really popular with the rise of social media. A group of people suddenly gather in a public space, perform an unusual act for a brief time and quickly disperse.
Well, it is actually a very fun and useful activity! By dancing, students are both physically active and creative. Organized at the very beginning of the year, it helped a lot to establish good collaboration among students. And guess what? All you need are loudspeakers, a catchy song and a camera to keep a souvenir from this event!
Swimming, an essential life skill
Danang offers a very long sandy beach with clear water… however, most of our students couldn’t swim and were afraid of the water!
An experienced lifeguard and swimming teacher from Australia, Alex, volunteered with us and gave basic swimming lessons to our 2nd year students. They might not be ready for the next Olympics Games, but they surely had a lot of fun!
Discover the Ultimate Frisbee!
All you need to practice Frisbee is one of these light and popular flying disks and a wide open space! Ultimate Frisbee is cheap and a great way for students to develop their self-governing skills.
(Re)-Discover Võ Đạo
We also had the amazing opportunity to meet François, a French Master of Vietnamese Martial Art, who volunteered to introduce his art to PN Vietnam’s students. Võ Đạo doesn’t require much equipment but it does demand a strict discipline. One of François’ main challenges was to keep the students interested through fun exercises, while maintaining rigor and respect in the class. He was really keen on sharing the values of Võ Đạo and being with our students was a really interesting experience for him as well.
Just dance!
A nice pop song, a few steps and you are ready to hit the dance floor! Passerelles numériques Vietnam’s best dancer, Vi, from External Relations Team, was kind enough to share her talents with the students. After many rehearsals, the 88 students knew a choreography and were ready for a real dance battle. Mixing coordination, team building but also creativity and competitive spirit, dancing really is a great activity!
Regularity is the key
A regular and complete workout does not have to be long nor require special equipment. Céline defined a few basic exercises, easy to practice outdoors, or indoors on a long rainy day. She shared this routine with the Education Team and created technical sheets so that students can practice by themselves.
Setting up a regular, consistent and diversified physical training program was not an easy task, especially with our student’s busy schedules, a minimized budget and an unpredictable climate. But our answer to this is: imagination, and a good help from Passerelles numériques’ friends!