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Recreational Games

Recreational Games is one of the many physical education classes at CCHS and is taught by Coach Burgess. The students in the class are made up of sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

“We do these exercises that help us with playing sports and games, for example, we do push-ups and curl-ups. we’d walk around the gym track and we usually do like games like kickball,” said sophomore Mya Barnwell.

For students looking for a class with less effort than others, they will be happy to hear that the Recreational Games class doesn’t even have any homework or writing assignments.

“There’s never homework [and] it’s just physical exercises,” said Barnwell.

Coach Burgess was described by students as more lenient than other teachers.

“Coach Burgess is really nice […] he will give us off time on the days we need it,” said sophomore Avery Hamilton.

An average day in his class involves playing various games or walking laps around the gym.

“He’ll take attendance. And then we’ll have an assignment to do, which is like walking laps or running or playing games,” said student Olivia Tabron.

Overall, students recommend taking Recreational Games if you have the opportunity to and called it an easy class to get an A in.

“People should know that it’s a fun class to just play sports with your friends and hang out,” said upperclassman Jason Lynch.

Body Sculpting/Weight Training

Body Sculpting / Weight Training is one of the various physical education courses that students can choose to take as an elective. The course is taught by Coach Swank and open to everyone but freshman. A large part of the class is seeing how your strength can improve during the school year.

“We measure our strengths at the beginning of the year, where to improve them throughout the year. And at the end of the year, we measure how much we’ve improved,” said sophomore Caleb Carlton.

Each day of the class involves doing a different workout focusing on strengthening a different part of the body.

“Coach Swank has a set workout for us every day that we follow. And it helps each person work on different parts of their body. So we have leg days and arm days, and then on Fridays, we have a day where we do five exercises of our own that works on whatever we would like,” said sophomore Taylor Flowers.

Students in the class have quizzes monthly and sometimes have to find an article on a certain topic, but there are not other writing assignments given in class.

“We get a quiz once or twice every month. […] Sometimes we’ll have like a test where we have to look up a health article for losing weight or gaining weight. And then we email it to him,” said sophomore Lauren Peoples.

Coach Swank was described as more strict in regards to behavior due to being in the weight room. Students also described a lot of engagement between students and the teacher.

“The teacher engages with the students by helping some of the students learn how to do a certain lift or make sure that they’re okay. And they’re being, spotted with the weight. So I feel like it’s pretty engaging of a teacher,” said upperclassman Jacob Bedsoler.

Students described the class as a lot more physical work than other physical education classes, but recommend for other students to take it if they have the opportunity.

Personal Fitness

Personal Fitness is the first physical education class at CCHS that freshmen are required to take, though other students may take the class also. The class is taught by Coach Ireland and Coach Uzoh. The class covers the basics of personal fitness, exercising, and staying fit.

“Basically, it’s like weightlifting but less focused on just your muscles, but also your aerobics and like, how far you can like how far you can run, your stamina, etc.,” said sophomore Christian Beck.

An average day of Personal Fitness involves doing stretches, followed by small exercises and an activity.

“Each day we dress out and we’ll go and do some stretches for about 10 minutes and then we’ll do small exercising like 15 push-ups [and] 15 sit-ups. Then we’ll do some endurance work, and then it’s about time to leave,” said freshman Maggie Council.

People interested in taking the class should also know that there is no homework or written assignments if you have Coach Ireland.

“We don’t have written work in the class. […] I have not had homework for that class yet,” said Maggie Council.

However, if you have Coach Uzoh, there is one written assignment for homework every month.

“It was the first time I had homework in a gym class. Granted, it wasn’t hard. She gave one assignment per month,” said sophomore Turjoy Paul.

Students described this class as an “easy A,” but cautioned that you have to remember to dress out into gym clothes in order to maintain your grade. Students interviewed recommended that other students take this class if they have the chance.

JROTC

JROTC is a rather unique class. Based on the military, it focuses on providing students with exercise, leadership, and discipline. Student’s who participated often viewed it as a unique and sometimes life-changing experience.

“I believe that I learn a lot in this class about leadership,” said sophomore Jeremiah Brown. “It’s helped me through a lot since I was in eighth grade. I wasn’t making the right choices and ever since I joined JROTC I started making the right choices.”

In addition to leadership training, students participate in community service outside of school.

“Every semester you have to do nine volunteer hours, which is a great way to get us out into the community,” said sophomore Alexander Jovanovic.

While some community service is mandatory, there are also lots of other options available through JROTC, including color guard and raider team.

“The best part is the raiders team,” said Brown. “It’s like an athletic thing. You do obstacle courses, you flip tires and stuff. It’s all about leadership and teamwork. You can never do it by yourself.”

The coursework itself was not considered to be too difficult. While some activities, such as memorizing military ranks, could be considered tedious, the tests are not too demanding.

Students also spoke of a welcoming and encouraging environment, both from fellow students and from the teachers.

Aquatics

Chamblee’s on-campus pool gives students the opportunity to take a water-based PE elective. Aquatics takes place in seventh period every year to limit student’s hair being wet throughout the day. The Intro and Advanced classes are merged together and the course is described as fairly low stress.

“Aquatics is a really chill class,” said student Claire Turney. “There are some days when we don’t even swim. On Tuesdays, every week, we go to the multipurpose room and work on homework and other things. Really the only grades are participation, so you really only need to get in the water most days.”

The class is typically rather social. 

“It is a nice class to end the day with a fun group,” said Andrew Stowe. 

Applicants should note, however, that the class is popular and space is limited to about 20 kids.

“It’s kind of selective because there are a bunch of people who want to be in aquatics, “ said Turney. “Reynolds just has to check off a lot of names. You’re not necessarily going to get into aquatics.”

Many of the students are members of Chamblee’s swim team looking to fulfill practice requirements.

“I did the class so I could earn swim team practices during the school day,” said swim team member Walker Greene.

The class is open to swimmers of all levels, though Turney recommended at least knowing how to swim. 

“I know people who have gone into the class not being able to swim, so they just want to learn how to swim through the class,” said Turney. “I feel like, since most of the kids do know how to swim, it’s not a great class to take if you don’t know.”