A local grade 8 teacher at O.M Irwin school is using his ingenuity to teach and provide his students with a space of their own.

Brett Eltom, wanted to turn the school's old wrestling room into a fitness center and when approached by his students to do something with the space they loved the idea as he explains.

"The grade 8's that I work with, they were missing out on all kinds of opportunities this year due to all the COVID restrictions and they knew about the wrestling room and they wanted to know if there was anything they could do with the space to make it useable so they had somewhere to go to get a little physical activity besides their gym classes."

Eltom encouraged the students themselves to present a proposal to the school principal Mr. Coleman, who was so impressed he agreed.

Eltom discusses why it was important to him for his students to take the lead on this project.

"When it comes to this kind of thing, when you can get students to buy in they become more invested in it, they appreciate it more. Cause my plan was to actually involve them in the creation of the room. So they have helped with painting the floors, painting the walls, moving equipment, and selecting names and motivational phrases."

Eltom believes this will also lead the students to take ownership over the space as it won't just be an adult-created space but also designed by themselves. 

A bit of the painting done by the students so far has been done through the PAA program as they tried to tie a little into the curriculum but for the most part, the majority of the work done by the students has been in their own time. 

Eltom notes that it is expensive to start up a fitness space and they have a limited budget so they are looking for donations of used but in good condition exercise equipment. They are looking for cardio equipment such as bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals as well as weight equipment. Those that have a piece to donate can contact O.M. Irwin school at 306-778-9270 who will then get in contact with Eltom. 

The school is following tightly regulated covid rules at this time. The only students that are using the Fitness Center are Grade 8 students and they are cohorted in class 81 and class 82. Only 8 students are allowed in the space at a time and they have a strict mask policy, physical distancing, hand sanitizing, and cleaning of equipment procedures. Next year they hope to include more students in the Center as the Covid regulations relax.

 Eltom stresses the value of having spaces like this in schools as it helps to create lifelong skills when it comes to taking care of both mental and physical health.

In regards to his grade 8 students, Eltom says they wanted to leave a legacy at Irwin after they moved onto the Comp and there have been other staff that has helped create the vision for this space. It has been a real team effort.