Health Course #3

How do you see the physical health, or lack of health, impacting your classroom? What are the explicit and implicit messages you give youth about their health and physical development, both positive and (inadvertently) negative? What efforts does your school make to support physical health and education?

I think I see more of the negative on this topic; lack of time for movement and play really impacting my classroom. It is hard to strike a balance at our school sometimes; I feel pressure to mold my students into perfect little scholars, but at the same time, I know students need more time to be physically active.

This is one area where I have always felt kind of a conflict between my own thinking and the school's philosophy. Having worked in schools at the opposite end of the SES spectrum, where movement, free play and creativity were paramount, I know that both systems can have immense payoff. It has been hard to strike a balance between what I feel comfortable with and the cultural expectations of the school. I am definitely still working on this.

Last year, I would often take my students outside to do our daily Read Aloud-- especially as we began reading chapter books together as a class. They would still need to be in LEARN position, still focused and listening attentively... but it made me feel at least a little bit better that they were spending time outdoors. Honestly, I think our 20 minute recess + their time with Coach Jessica is just not enough. They need more activity, more time exploring and enjoying the outdoors. I am so glad that the camping trip exists, but I wish we had hte funding and ability to do smaller-scale outdoor experience type of programs for the younger grades. If has made me think of our grade-level parent-family meeting being something outdoor/hiking/exercise related, just to give students that exposure that they may not necessarily be getting at home.

One thing I have been asking parents on my home visits is what their students are doing afterschool, especially since some of them now do get home at a reasonable hour. I have been advocating giving their students a break from homework to go outside and play after school, instead of doing homework and then staying inside to watch TV. Most parents have been pretty receptive of this, and it seems like most students are capable of getting their homework done in a reasonable amount of time independently this year. I have been happy that some parents have enrolled students in other activities; church afterschool programs where the students get to use the playground equipment, cheerleading, dance, football, soccer, karate, swimming, It is nice to hear that parents are taking the initiative to have hteir students involved in these activities.

I feel like I was much better about being explicit about healthy living last year than I am this year; I probably should put in more of an effort. My students last year all knew that they should be drinking water or milk with lunch instead of soda, that they should be eating fruits and veggies, etc. I took the opportunity, whenever possible, to remind them about healthy choices. This year I have only talked about it in relation to the core value of responsibility; working in messages about healthy diet and exercise into my morning message and their journal prompts will probably be a good way to get these points across without "loosing" learning time.

The yardsticks article really gave me a lot of proverbial food for thought; there were elements of it that Alicia and I were laughing about (i.e. my chewed up pencil bin being a natural thing for a six year old- we have often referred to them as goats since they WILL chew anything) but lots more that I just don't feel like quite fit with our cultural expectations and 100 culture items. Striking a healthy balance is not easy and I know I will need to keep working on this.