Keeping Focus

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits."

Satchel Paige
US baseball player (1906 - 1982)

There's sitting, and then there's sitting.

A growing number of elementary school teachers are experimenting with a different seat for their students -- a stability ball.

Yes, those ubiquitous personal fitness devices, found at gyms and work out studios everywhere, and finding their way under the bottoms of energetic grade school students.

By discarding the desk chairs for the big, brightly-colored rubbery spheres, kids are able to work off some of their fidgets while concentrating on their work.

Grand Haven Michigan third grade teacher Tammy Beswick said she can already see the difference in the students in her Griffin Elementary School classroom who are using the balls as chairs.

"They seem to be able to focus better on what we're teaching them," she said. "This is just another alternative to help kids."

The theory is that when your whole body's engaged, your brain is more engaged.

Beswick told the Grand Haven Tribune that the balls are not for everybody, and that students have the option of using the stability balls or regular classroom chairs.

How is your mind/body connection working for you?