Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, South’s Physical Education (P.E.) Department will offer a new junior and senior yoga P.E. class, Joshua Stanton, Instructional Supervisor of P.E., Health, and Driver’s Education, said. 

 The class will be structured similarly to all of South’s other P.E. classes, including a 45-minute fitness section that adds to the yoga and fulfills the P.E. requirement, Stanton said.

“The focus of the course is going to be working on flexibility, mobility, [and] mindfulness,” Stanton said. 

The yoga class will be beneficial to students as it will work to identify mental health stressors and help students find ways to center themselves, Stanton said. 

“[We will] identify where we are in our own mental state, and figure out the triggers and stressors that influence us daily,” Stanton said. “[We will] find ways to work through those, through things like meta moments, breathing, and  emotional learning.”

Focusing on physical and mental benefits, students can practice stress relief, concentration, and emotional skills, P.E. Teacher Kelley Oziminski said. 

“Yoga integrates fitness with mental clarity and provides tools that can benefit students long after they leave [South],” Oziminski said. 

The addition of the yoga class was due to the high student demand, Stanton said. Google forms, surveys, and direct questioning have all shown the P.E. Department that South’s students would benefit from a yoga class.

“[The yoga class] is a course that students have been wanting for a long time, and we want to provide opportunities for our students that they’re passionate about,” Stanton said. “We’ve had the opportunity to collect data, and [the yoga class] was always the one where students said, ‘We really want this class.’”

Another way that the class will be different from others is the progressive sequencing, featuring different kinds of yoga that students have not been introduced to in their other P.E. classes, Stanton said. The class will also use new equipment that will enhance flexibility, Stanton added.

“Each unit will be a different style of yoga, to give students a variety, because there are [many] ways that we can engage in yoga,” Stanton said.

In order to prepare themselves for teaching the course, South’s P.E. teachers visited yoga programs at neighboring school districts, Oziminski explained. They also visited GBN, who South is modeling their class after.

“I have done yoga and have experienced the benefits,” Oziminski said. “We are excited to create a  curriculum that gives these opportunities to  our students.”

The activities in the yoga class will be student centered, keeping them active and letting them dive into a new class they will enjoy, Oziminski explained. 

“[We will focus] on enhancing physical fitness through foundational yoga poses and encouraging a long-term commitment to physical activity and mental health practices,” Oziminski said.