By WMBD TV
NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — A Unit 5 school district teacher is receiving a $10,000 grant to build a wellness room, focused on physical education.
The wellness room will be called Wellness in Motion, and will aim to help students regulate their mind and body to focus on learning.
“We happened to notice kind of an uptick in a lot of kids being disregulated, and that pulls them out of classrooms, takes them out of learning time,” said Dawn Odell, the grant recipient and a physical education teacher at Kingsley Junior High School. “They can find what works for them to help reset themselves for the rest of the day.”
“It is giving the department the funds to set up a space for students during class, during PE class, for students who are in in-school suspension, or any student who is just disregulated throughout the day.”
The wellness room is not just for the students in the school, but for the teachers as well.
“Teachers can come in and use the space, too, because just like the students get disregulated, teachers get disregulated, and that would be very helpful for all of us,” Odell said.
The room will include physical education equipment like resistance bands, rowing machines and treadmills, while also including a Wii system and a virtual reality headset to play physical education games.
They hope the new space will raise more awareness of mental health among their students.
“The grant came out of the need to redo a space, but also the need to bring awareness to mental health and to help our students navigate a time where they’re struggling. I think this space is going to be perfect for that,” Odell said.
The space will be for the 2026-2027 school year and will serve around 800 students who attend the school.
WMBD TV first reported on this story. You can read the original story online at CIProud.com.
