The goal of SWIFTT is to create a blended learning platform for resources and tools to support both new and experienced health and physical education staff and teacher candidates.
Health, physical education, and wellness staff members are the frontline health workforce that supports the development of healthy minds and overall wellness of high school students. Historically, these staff members have focused on physical activity, but with our growing understanding of wellness and the impact of trauma on our youth, staff members have been challenged to expand the scope of their instruction and support. The System of Wellness Instruction for Teachers and Teens (SWIFTT) engages high school health, physical education, and wellness staff throughout southeastern Wisconsin as well as preservice teaching candidates to facilitate professional development opportunities related to physical education, mental health, and overall wellness.
Project Lead
Carlos Rodriguez, Curriculum Specialist, Physical Education and Health, Milwaukee Public Schools
Lead Academic Partner
Dr. Leslie Ruffalo, Associate Professor, Family and Community Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin
The Milwaukee Public Schools health and physical education staff is mentoring 29 teachers. Using strategies from The Art of Coaching by Elena Aguilar, our mentorship program is offered to all new teachers, teachers new to the district, and any teacher looking for additional support and guidance. We have coaches for teachers of elementary, high school, and adaptive PE classes. Below are highlights of our mentorship program.
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We have continued implementation and progress monitoring of physical education and health curriculum through our mentorship program focused on the levers of Ambitious Instruction. |
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Since the 2020–21 school year, the health and physical education team has provided curriculum guides for K–grade 12 that are aligned to state standards. They are also aligned with supplemental support from our community partners. Health curriculum guides have been updated to be skills-based. |
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We have trained 32 new physical education teachers in the SPARKTM curriculum. The curriculum is standards-based and supplements the levers of Ambitious Instruction. This training has provided teachers with best practices of physical education curriculum, which has had a direct impact on more than 8,000 students. |
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In the year to date, our coaches have mentored 68 teachers, accumulating over 900 hours of one-on-one support time. |
If you would like to receive information about our mentorship program, please contact Carlos Rodriguez, curriculum specialist for physical education and health, at rodrigcx@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.
If you are in need of wellness support or would like guidance on best practices for health and physical education, please complete the SWIFTT HPE Support Request Form.
Milwaukee Public Schools Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Supports
The MPS Violence Prevention Program provides training and support to schools in the following areas: social-emotional learning, trauma sensitivity, restorative practices, classroom management, behavior management, conflict resolution, peer mediation, and bullying.
Cook Center for Human Connection
The mission of the Cook Center for Human Connection is to bring together the best organizations, programs, and products to prevent suicide, provide mental health support, and enhance human connections that are essential for people to thrive. The Cook Center offers resources and support based on four belief systems: prevention, connections, education, and action.
The Cook Center for Human Connection's ParentGuidance.org website provides education and therapeutic assistance for parents to support their children regarding mental health. The website highlights parenting coaching lessons on how to address mental wellness concerns with your children. The website also offers an ask-a-therapist feature for parents to receive guidance on difficult health questions.
Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line
The Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line offers free help to quit smoking, vaping, or chewing tobacco. This quit line offers enrollment through calling 800-QUIT-NOW, texting READY to 200-400, or visiting quitline.wisc.edu. This quit line is an innovator in telephone counseling and medication and has conducted several research studies on how best to help people quit smoking via a quit line.
Home and Hospital Instruction Program
MPS Home and Hospital Instruction Program services are available for any child residing in a hospital or another setting that is being considered a "child's home" located in Milwaukee. Home and Hospital Instruction Program services are designed for Milwaukee residents enrolled in MPS public schools. Students confined to a hospital in the city may also be served if the parent/guardian enrolls the student in an MPS public school. Students who are confined to their home or a hospital because of illness for an extended period may be eligible for consideration for the Home and Hospital Instruction Program. The Home and Hospital Instruction Program is an education option that is intended primarily as a temporary service while the student is unable to physically attend a school building.
Pregnant and Parenting Youth Program
MPS Pregnant and Parenting Youth Program services are available to school-age parents (young fathers and mothers) to improve the educational, wellness, and social/emotional outcomes of school-age parents and their children. The goals of the program are to increase attendance and graduation rates, increase teen enrollment in higher education, increase parent knowledge of effective parenting practices, increase knowledge about and practices in healthy relationships, and enhance coordination of school and community services.
Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin
Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin highlights amazing tips for improving your sleep-related habits and getting a better night's sleep. The tips can easily be adapted to meet any scheduling needs. Getting the proper amount of sleep tends to be overlooked by many youths and adults. The health benefits associated with getting the proper amount of sleep are numerous, including benefits to heart health and brain development.
Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center
The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center is a collaboration between the CESA Statewide Network and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as a statewide delivery mechanism to build the knowledge, skills, and capacity of educators to positively impact the well-being of every student. The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center can provide in-district training on request on a pay-for-service basis. The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center also offers supplemental, evidence-based resources for health educators to use in enhancing their lessons.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee
This community-based model is open to Milwaukee and Waukesha counties regardless of the school. Parents or guardians can sign up their children ages 6–12 to receive mentoring services. There are traditional one-to-one mentoring options through which children and volunteer mentors meet weekly in the community and spend time together engaged in activities they choose based on mutual interest.
FoodWIse Nutritional Guide (in English and Spanish) and Teacher Wellness
FoodWIse advances healthful eating habits, active lifestyles, and healthy community environments for families with limited incomes through nutrition education at the individual, community, and district levels. The FoodWIse resource offers nutritional guidance for parents and teachers to improve the eating habits of our children. It's a great resource for picky eaters.
Confident Connections — Actions for Healthy Kids
Welcome! Confident Connections is a collection of resources designed for parents and caregivers of children in K–grade 12 to learn about and support youth mental health. Supporting youth mental health is firmly grounded in a strong relationship — a confident connection — between parent and child. Fostering a strong relationship between parent and child is essential in nurturing youth mental health. This collection of resources is designed to create a confident connection between parents and caregivers and their school-aged children. Explore our resources to engage your child in meaningful conversation, connect with your child in an authentic way, and learn more about youth mental health and wellness.
The National Health Interview Survey—Teen was an online survey of teenagers ages 12–17. According to QuickStats published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, during July 2021–December 2023, 61.1% of respondents indicated that they were active for sixty minutes most days of the week. As screen time increased, activity levels decreased. Only 54% of teens who had more than four hours per day of screen time achieved their physical activity goals. It is well known that daily physical activity supports positive overall health. Although students need to be connected to screens, this finding leads us to believe that monitoring screen and physical activity time is vital for students and parents. Use the screens to learn . . . and then engage in play!
Article in PDF format
KQED MindShift: Talking to Your Parts — Landmark College, Institute for Research and Training
Have you ever been so overwhelmed by a situation at school or in your personal life that you weren't sure what to do next? Read on to find tips on how to employ this simple self-help technique to show you how to overcome those feelings. "Talking to your parts" is the idea that each of us has multiple parts, a little like sub-personalities. Getting to know them and treating them with compassion may help us manage our lives and our stress better.
Milwaukee Public Schools Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Supports
The MPS Violence Prevention Program provides training and support to schools in the following areas: social-emotional learning, trauma sensitivity, restorative practices, classroom management, behavior management, conflict resolution, peer mediation, and bullying.
SHAPE America
The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America is the leading website for health education and physical education teachers. SHAPE America sets the standards and practices that define highly effective health and physical education.
Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center
The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center is a collaboration between the CESA Statewide Network and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as a statewide delivery mechanism to build the knowledge, skills, and capacity of educators to positively impact the well-being of every student. The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center can provide in-district training on request on a pay-for-service basis. The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center also offers supplemental, evidence-based resources for health educators to use in enhancing their lessons.
Compassion Resilience Toolkit
The Compassion Resilience Toolkit, which was created by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Rogers InHealth, and the Wisconsin Initiative for Stigma Elimination, contains information, activities, and resources for educators to recognize, understand, and minimize the experience of compassion fatigue and to increase compassion resilience perspectives and skills.
We Are Teachers
This website is a proud community of educators sharing ideas, resources, and awesome freebies and giveaways. It provides classroom ideas, teaching strategies, and actionable tips for the subjects being taught every day that can be applied to your practice.
Resilient Wisconsin
This website provides support and tools to promote the health and safety of the people of Wisconsin. It addresses health disparities and needs of the people that it serves by supporting residents in building a strong community of resilient students, teachers, and families. It looks at the four major types of resilience: (1) physical resilience, (2) mental resilience, (3) emotional resilience, and (4) social resilience.
FoodWIse Nutritional Guide (in English and Spanish) and Teacher Wellness
FoodWIse advances healthful eating habits, active lifestyles, and healthy community environments for families with limited incomes through nutrition education at the individual, community, and district levels. The FoodWIse resource offers nutritional guidance for parents and teachers to improve the eating habits of our children. It's a great resource for picky eaters.
Confident Connections — Actions for Healthy Kids
Welcome! Confident Connections is a collection of resources designed for parents and caregivers of children in K–grade 12 to learn about and support youth mental health. Supporting youth mental health is firmly grounded in a strong relationship — a confident connection — between parent and child. Fostering a strong relationship between parent and child is essential in nurturing youth mental health. This collection of resources is designed to create a confident connection between parents and caregivers and their school-aged children. Explore our resources to engage your child in meaningful conversation, connect with your child in an authentic way, and learn more about youth mental health and wellness.
The Resilient Classroom Project is an evidence-based program for students that cultivates resilience. The program centers on self-awareness, self-regulation, positive relationships, emotional well-being, and building protective factors in youth and educators. There is free access to the asynchronous training for all educators in Milwaukee Public Schools until capacity is reached.
Resilient Classroom Project information flyer
The National Health Interview Survey—Teen was an online survey of teenagers ages 12–17. According to QuickStats published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, during July 2021–December 2023, 61.1% of respondents indicated that they were active for sixty minutes most days of the week. As screen time increased, activity levels decreased. Only 54% of teens who had more than four hours per day of screen time achieved their physical activity goals. It is well known that daily physical activity supports positive overall health. Although students need to be connected to screens, this finding leads us to believe that monitoring screen and physical activity time is vital for students and parents. Use the screens to learn . . . and then engage in play!
Article in PDF format
KQED MindShift: Talking to Your Parts — Landmark College, Institute for Research and Training
Have you ever been so overwhelmed by a situation at school or in your personal life that you weren't sure what to do next? Read on to find tips on how to employ this simple self-help technique to show you how to overcome those feelings. "Talking to your parts" is the idea that each of us has multiple parts, a little like sub-personalities. Getting to know them and treating them with compassion may help us manage our lives and our stress better.
Brian Culp's Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Modules
These modules are centered on equity, diversity, and inclusion, and they focus on the latest trends affecting our youth today. These modules will provide you with background research on the topic while also sharing strategies for overcoming that barrier—for example, "trends in social media," and "cultural humility in education."
Equity vs. Equality: What's the Difference?
This tool from the Milken Institute School of Public Health of the George Washington University gives useful visuals and literature on the benefits and importance of providing an equitable education for all students.
The SWIFTT team presented at the SHAPE America Seattle—National Health and Physical Education Convention.
The panel-style session provided opportunities to learn about what teachers are facing in a post-pandemic education era. Participants were led through five strategies for fostering resilience and reducing burnout. Each strategy was linked to the ways that it can help with wellness both for teachers and for their students. Opportunities to share strategies were provided. The session was followed by a talk session that allowed for additional collaboration and discussions about professional development opportunities and support systems that can be created for school districts.
Please view the coping strategies in the presentation that includes the five strategies with their related tools.
The SWIFTT team presented at the Wisconsin Health and Physical Education state convention. The panel-style session provided opportunities to hear about and talk with (rather than talk at) teachers about five strategies for fostering resilience and reducing burnout. Five strategies from research and practice were presented by the team composed of MPS teachers, MPS school social workers, and university instructors from Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Each strategy was linked to the ways that it can help with wellness both for teachers and their students. Opportunities to share strategies were provided. Please view the self-care PowerPoint presentation that includes the five strategies.