Pilates helps students learn in Munford classroom | News

(WMC-TV) - A Mid-South teacher is taking exercise to the extreme - and he says students are actually liking it and learning at the same time. 

Exercise balls are replacing chairs in Darren Walker's Munford Middle School classroom. 

"We call them stability balls, but for classroom purposes, we call them yogi's," said Walker, a seventh grade teacher.

To some outsiders, what's going on inside the classroom may seem a little strange. That's because there are no desks. Each student sits on a Pilate's ball at a table.

"It cuts down on classroom distractions and helps with discipline too, because if kids don't act right, I have a crutch to get the kids to act better," Walker said.

Walker says he learned about the concept several years ago. He says the balls not only serve as great exercise, but also help students focus more on the lessons being taught. 

"You have a lot of kids in trouble for clicking pens in class," he said. "I don't have clicking pens, I have bouncing balls, rolling back and forth on yoga balls."

Walker has a classroom full of Pilate's balls, and now, his school's PE and health teachers are using them, too.

Walker started using the Pilate's balls last year, and Munford Middle is one of three schools in the Tipton County school system currently using them.

Walker hopes the concept catches on elsewhere very soon.

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