Time to Stay Fit

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 10

Thank You for Helping Our Students Stay Fit and On Time!

We are deeply grateful for your generous support through the “Time to Stay Fit” grant, which made a meaningful and lasting impact on ten of our Learning Independent Functional Employment (L.I.F.E.) interns, ages 18 to 22. Your contribution helped us motivate and reward each intern for wearing their watch and monitoring their daily steps. This helped support both their professional development and personal wellness.

Thanks to your donation, two main impacts of the grants were:

1. Time Management & Professionalism
   Interns learned to wear and rely on their watches daily to manage their schedules independently. They used their watches to determine when to report to their departments, take lunch breaks, return to work, and sign out at the end of the day. This practice not only reinforced punctuality and responsibility but also aligned with the professional standards of Royal Poinciana Golf Club, where cell phone use is not permitted.
2. Fitness Awareness & Wellness Habits
   The fitness-tracking feature of the watches encouraged interns to monitor their daily steps and set personal fitness goals. They began by calculating their average steps over a two-week period and then tracked their progress daily. This initiative promoted healthy habits, peer encouragement, and the use of functional math skills as they calculated weekly totals and compared them to their goals.

Key outcomes were:

• Interns demonstrated increased responsibility by remembering to wear and charge their watches each day.
• They became more independent and confident in managing their daily routines without relying on prompts.

• The watches helped reduce distractions by replacing cell phones as timekeeping tools, keeping students more focused on their tasks.
• Interns became more aware of their physical activity, and many were motivated to walk more to meet their step goals.
• Many even asked if they could get rewarded for walking steps on the weekends and days when they weren’t at work
• At the end of each month, students submitted a “fit sheet” along with their timesheet. These L.I.F.E. Bucks were later exchanged for gift cards during our biannual Curriculum Based Instruction shopping trips.
• The grant was originally written to reward a $5 bonus when they meet their step goal for 10-14 days a month and a $10 bonus if they meet their step goal for 14 or more workdays a month,but I found that it was more beneficial to reward $1 per day step goal met.

Your support helped us create a system that not only rewarded hard work and healthy habits but also built essential life skills that our interns will carry into future employment. Many of our interns want to carry this practice beyond the classroom and wear their watches at home and on the weekends. Being able to reward them for wearing their watches and monitoring their steps has also increased their independence, accountability, and self-improvement.

On behalf of our students, staff, and families, thank you for believing in our mission and investing in the success of our interns. Your generosity has truly made a lasting difference.