As a teacher within a special needs classroom of students ranging in age from 13 to 22, I observed first-hand the outcomes of unhealthy habits, behavioural issues, and academic struggles. In response to these learning and behavioral difficulties within my high school classroom, I created and implemented a Movement Matters Program consisting of a combined exercise and academic program for my students. The program produced phenomenal results within its first year. This thesis is a manuscript style thesis consisting of two embedded papers as central themes. The first paper highlights the development of Movement Matters and the challenges and successes experienced by myself, the classroom teacher, and my students. The second paper is a narrative inquiry that shares the experiences of two students engaged in Movement Matters and myself, as their teacher, and graduate student researcher. Over the course of two months I inquired into the ways that their school experiences and their relationships with the teacher, classmates, and subject matter influenced the way they composed their stories to live by. Also threaded through this thesis is an abundance of data, such as anecdotal records, pre and post academic and fitness tests, and student journals. Field notes, taped conversations and observations with each of the two youth captured stories and realities of their experiences and are inter-twined with the literature and the theory. These experiences and relationships are negotiated carefully using Noddings ethics of care. Both my experiences and my students experiences are situated alongside Deweys Criteria of Experience within a narrative framework. Using research, I wanted to understand and retell their stories as well as link Clandinin and Connellys commonplaces of narrative inquiry: place, temporality, and sociality.

As a teacher within a special needs classroom of students ranging in age from 13 to 22, I observed first-hand the outcomes of unhealthy habits, behavioural issues, and academic struggles. In response to these learning and behavioral difficulties within my high school classroom, I created and implemented a Movement Matters Program consisting of a combined exercise and academic program for my students. The program produced phenomenal results within its first year. This thesis is a manuscript style thesis consisting of two embedded papers as central themes. The first paper highlights the development of Movement Matters and the challenges and successes experienced by myself, the classroom teacher, and my students. The second paper is a narrative inquiry that shares the experiences of two students engaged in Movement Matters and myself, as their teacher, and graduate student researcher. Over the course of two months I inquired into the ways that their school experiences and their relationships with the teacher, classmates, and subject matter influenced the way they composed their stories to live by. Also threaded through this thesis is an abundance of data, such as anecdotal records, pre and post academic and fitness tests, and student journals. Field notes, taped conversations and observations with each of the two youth captured stories and realities of their experiences and are inter-twined with the literature and the theory. These experiences and relationships are negotiated carefully using Noddings ethics of care. Both my experiences and my students experiences are situated alongside Deweys Criteria of Experience within a narrative framework. Using research, I wanted to understand and retell their stories as well as link Clandinin and Connellys commonplaces of narrative inquiry: place, temporality, and sociality.