Stability balls a success story
By Cheri Tuxen | Winona

The Winona community came together to make a big difference in the academic lives of local students. Thanks to our many partners, school staff saw an opportunity for improvement, identified a possible solution and spread the news of our success.

First, Patricia Beckman, the district’s occupational therapist, listened to staff concerns about distractions in the classroom. Her creative solution was to have students sit on stability balls instead of chairs — an idea that research shows could be successful.
Next, board and staff at the Winona Community Foundation provided an opportunity for funding from their program, Youth In Philanthropy.

Through the program, Luke Merchlewitz’s second grade class at W-K chose to award our project the money needed to purchase exercise balls.

By providing additional funds, the Foundation for Winona Area Public Schools achieved its mission to enrich the lives of Winona students.

Finally, Nolan Rosenkrans and the Winona Daily News took our study and its success to a wider audience. The feature article in the Learning section of the April 16 paper focused on one of the many positive projects happening in the Winona school district.

My students and I truly appreciate your support. By completing this study, we hoped to improve concentration in our classroom. With our partners and the news coverage, we hope our success will inspire teachers and students in the area to try using stability balls instead of chairs.

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