Atlanta teacher takes to social media to keep students active and engaged

ATLANTA - A local teacher is using  social media and a little good natured competition to keep students, who are now learning at home, physically active.

Health and Physical Education teacher Tayler Murray leads virtual workouts  for students at Charles R Drew Charter School Junior and Senior Academy.

With the Atlanta campus now closed for the remainder of the school year, students  are working out with Murray  via social media.

She  started posting workout challenges on Instagram as a way to encourage students to stay active and engaged.  Murray told FOX 5's Deidra Dukes,

"They love to be on social media. So I was like let me do an instagram that has to do with PE and health and that's how I came up with the idea. I started with a plank challenge and they started posting their planks with music because kids love music.  And so they played their favorite song and they were planking. And then I did a video that was a home obstacle course. So they had to use objects from their home to create an obstacle course that was a workout," she said.

Murray's workouts have proven so popular with students,  school administrators are live  streaming her IG phys ed classes to the entire Drew community this week. 
They emailed me asked me if I could do a workout, so that was kind of the self-care portion of the other programs that they had, which is kind of fun to get the kids engaged."

Murray's thrilled by the number of students taking part, noting it's good for them physcially and helps lift their spirits. 

"It's exciting.  It's exciting to see the kids respond the way they are. It's not just for them it's for me and the other teachers as well."

Murray is also encouraging students to get their families to participate in the online workouts.