Nick Laws, Prince Rupert Northern View

A teacher at Charles Hays secondary school is trying something new to fight back against poor attendance at his northern B.C. school.

Dane Waldal although relatively new to Charles Hays, has been teaching for quite some time and he has noticed a pattern, a pattern he is trying to change.

鈥� Every school I鈥檝e worked at has always had its issues with attendance, so I figured I could contribute a little bit in my own way.鈥�

Waldal鈥檚 way is a kickboxing class that gets the kids off their seats and on their feet. The catch? Attendance is mandatory, but not for his class, for all of the student鈥檚 other classes.

In order for kids to participate in the twice-weekly class, they will have to attend all other classes, and have their slips signed by their teachers. The results speak for themselves.

Anna Ashley, a fellow teacher at Charles Hays has noticed a change in the students enrolled in Waldal鈥檚 class.

鈥淚 have noticed that since he has had an incentive program with them, they are doing more of their work and they are paying attention in class because they want to participate in his class.鈥�

The school switched from a semester program to a trimester program, which gave teachers the opportunity to open up two 45-minute classes per week. Waldal鈥檚 love of martial arts is what drove him to start the class.

鈥淚鈥檝e been a martial artist for over a decade, I鈥檝e competed in wrestling, jiu-jitsu, boxing and kickboxing, so I wanted to give the kids an opportunity to participate in the same thing that I love.鈥�

Waldal has tweaked the traditional kickboxing training techniques, for a more school safe environment. Instead of the traditional heavy bags, pads and mats, Waldal has implemented the use of shortened pool noodles as instruction tools.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have the equipment for wrestling or jiu-jitsu, but with kickboxing, we鈥檝e got a big open space and some tools we can use to modify it.鈥�

Waldal says that he chose martial arts partly because of his love for the sport, but also for the discipline factor involved in martial arts, taking years of repetition to reach your potential. Something he equates to school and life in general.

鈥淚鈥檓 encouraging them to get to class, get there on time and put the work in every day and then good things are going to come from there.鈥�

Although the early stages have yielded positive results for both sides, Ashley warns that too many incentive-based programs may not be the path to go down just yet.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a win-win for both sides right now and I think there鈥檚 always room for things that incentivize children to do different things. That being said, I don鈥檛 know if we always want to say in order to get this, you have to do that.鈥�

For Waldal, as long as the kids continue to have fun and keep their attendance up he is going to keep the class going.

鈥� I can鈥檛 be happier with the direction it鈥檚 going, just hoping more kids get into it and more kids want to sign up.鈥�

nick.laws@thenorthernview.com
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