Almost done!

Can you believe that this wonderful experience is coming to an end? I certainly cannot. Taylor and I were talkng at our last meeting that it would be fun to go out to lunch or dinner with all of us as an end of our experience before graduation. So, what do you all think? When is a good day for you?

Let us know, and maybe I will make a facebook invite so we can chat about it.

Love you girls, you are all amazing!

Kaitie

"Fat" 7 Year Old

just read the title of this article, "A Mom's Reactions to Vogue's Story about a "Fat" 7 Year Old Girl"

and you'll be intrigued to read the rest. It's a pretty short read and totally worth your time! if you were not inspired to teach about diets and anorexia/bulimia, this will give you a new push at exactly how important it is to talk about in your classrooms!

Lesson Planning

so i got REALLY sick last week (3 days of subs!) and i had to quickly come up with lesson plans that subs could follow. along with that and a training meeting, i have found a few websites that have really good ideas for lesson plans. click if you dare...

i LOVE http://www.uen.org/k12student/. and here's the link directly for the health curriculum http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/LPview.cgi?core=7 .

i also really like http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/ and here's a really cool lesson for the nutrition unit http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/grocery-store-scavenger-hunt-1140.html .

i haven't explored this one too much, but i bet there are some goodies http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/health/healthlp.asp .

i haven't explored this one too much either, but i looks like it may be good http://www.schools.utah.gov/CURR/healthpe/Information-and-Resources/Electronic-Toolbox-for-Internet.aspx .

also, i thought this was a cute idea http://www.wordle.net/ ! not quite sure how to use it, but i liked it.

happy lesson planning!

ha

ha ha ha...

everyone has heard of this sexuality bill??? yeah??? http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/53675267-82/sex-utah-homosexuality-information.html.csp

i felt so dumb because i hadn't been following, but there is a bill that is on Gov. Herbert's desk to take ALL sexuality education out of the schools!!! ai ya, ai ya.

just wanted to make sure everyone was aware!! scary stuff.

Do you mean what you say??

i had an activity go over REALLY well this week and i'll do my best to explain what i did...

it started off with this video/commercial about the word "gay"

the idea that i proposed to my students was, "if we could ban a word/phrase around our school and get the message to other students to 'knock it off!' what word/phrase would it be?"

so i had to clarify, although it would be great to ban swear words, with the campaign we would be working on, we could not make videos or posters with swear words...so here are some of the words that my students came up with

gay

freak

retard

slut

homo

lesbo

"fag"got

tramp

perverted terms

racist terms

and some other words...

then i had each class vote on two terms that they would ban if they could. kind of surprising to me, ALL my health classes chose as one of the terms, "racists terms". so that was the winner.

the following day, i told them i was turning the project over to their class and asked them to brainstorm about how we should go about this as health classes. they came up with GREAT ideas!!! videos, announcements over the intercom, flyers, brochures, going to classes and writing a message on EVERY whiteboard in the school one morning, raps, and possibly a flash mob. we have not decided what projects we will complete, so i'll keep you updated how it goes!

if you would like more details, leave a comment because that was the activity in a nutshell.

p.s. becca, i also used your "so what" idea and when we decided on the racist terms, i had them throw around a tennis ball with "so what" written on it and had my students tell me why they chose racist terms. great idea!!

So What?

Cougar always talks about how we need to tell the students the so what. I decided to make a so what frisbee!

I throw it to students after certain activities or at the end of the class. It's so effective. 

I had a student today say, "Oh! I get it!" It not only checks for understanding but it allows for connection. They connect what you are teaching them to real life.

"I" Messages Activity

I did this activity yesterday to start teaching the students about "I" messages. I was teaching on communication yesterday and I was talking about listening skills and then I was going to go into "I" messages. I kept going on about the listening skills until a student talked when I was talking. I immediately snapped at the kid. I said, "You are bugging me. You are so annoying. You are so obnoxious. I just can't stand it anymore." The poor kid looked like he was going to pee his pants. I then said I was just kidding, but then lead a discussion on how it made him feel, and how it made others in the class feel. The important thing when doing this is to never say the event that happened. Like I never told the student it's because he was talking when I was yelling at him. In another class I had a student snap back at me when I was yelling. This worked out really well too because I showed the class that when we attack someone, the other person may become defensive. After we had a discussion about how being attacked made people feel, I turned it into an "I" message and said it to the student again. He then said he would have been way more apologetic if I would have said it that way.

It's really shocking for students so make sure you pick a student that can handle it. They normally are the ones talking out any way. It's really effective too especially since I am not a yeller. The students said that it wasn't so surprising that a teacher was yelling, it was surprising that I was yelling. Students laugh afterword but it's a really effective way to get your message across.

Then we finished with a worksheet on "I" messages and I made students share each situation and turn the "You" statement into and "I" statement.

Becca

so i'm in my social unit right now and i have a student that took health last year and had some papers from the teacher before me. she did this "Application to Date My Daughter" and it was really cute! you could do an "Application to Date My Daughter" and an "Application to Date My Son". she had questions like, 'in 50 words or less, describe what "NO!!!!" means to you' and 'in 50 words or less describe what CURFEW means to you.' then at the very bottom she had some funny questions like, 'what bone would you least like to have broken' and 'what do you want to be IF you grow up'. ha ha. i just thought it was a cute idea! i think we'll do it next week when we talk about dating!

half way through!

Can you believe that we are half way through this semester already? Because of the scheduling conflict with my classes, I am teaching my last two classes with my high schoolers. I cannot believe it and I am so sad to leave them. I am very excited to get to experience the Jr. High students too though.

As I prepare for this change, is there any advice any of you would love to give to me about Middle/Jr. High students?

I would love your comments and suggestions. :)

Kaitie

Adele talks about Body Image

Guys.

I just found this video, and unfortunately it won't upload, so go to this website!

It is Adele talking to Anderson Cooper (two of my favorite people!!!) about her weight and the media and how she chooses not to let it have an affect on her. She is awesome. (besides the fact that she smokes and doesn't want to quit.)

Anyway, I think this could be a cool clip to show when you are teaching about Body image and the media!

here is the URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57376080-10391709/adele-talks-about-her-body-image-and-weight/?tag=contentMain%3BcontentAux%3Ftag%3Dfacebook

I hope teaching is going well for everyone!

Love all of you!

Kaitie

Bullying

I'm working on my conflict resolution lesson plan. What are some activities you all have liked when talking about bullying??

Thanks!

Becca

Lesson idea for teaching about portions

For my nutrition and fitness unit, I decided to have the students tell me what they wanted to learn about/ what they were most worried about when it came to themselves and their nutrition and fitness habits (this taken from what Cougar talked to us about at our meeting)

One of my first lessons was about portions. I first had a volunteer come to the front of the classroom and pour us a "normal" size bowl of cereal. We then measured it out and found out that he was eating 2 servings of cereal per bowl, which he told us he usually ate 2 bowls at least!

I then told them that my "friend" Brian Regan was going to talk to us about portion size vs. serving size and showed the first part of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBko_3wT44Q

Then I taught the students about the new myplate.gov and explained to them why it is important to eat smaller portions than the average American eats. We then learned about Portion Distortion. I printed out slides from this powerpoint:

http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/oei_ss/PD1/slide1.htm

I taped them around the classroom. I had the students go on a gallery walk and write down what they found the most shocking about each slide. We then had a discussion on it.

The last activity we did (I told them it was a field trip- which really got their attention) I put a slide up of a grocery store and then told them that they were in charge of creating a romantic Valentines meal. I stopped by Macey's and picked up some of their ads for this week (it luckily was all about Valentine's) and I had the kids "shop" from the ad. They worked with partners to create their meal, and they were all so creative. After they finished I had them present their balanced meals to us. It was a really fun and engaging activity.

Cougar observed me the day that I taught this lesson and he loved it, so it's a solid one.

Kaitie

Don't you just love excuses?

My students long to sit with their friends. Everyday day I am asked, and sometimes have students begging to sit in a different spot. Last Friday was the same thing. I told my student no, and he gave the response, "but Mrs. Myers, I am near sighted! I have to sit in the back next to Dylan!!!" I told him nice try and sarcastically said I would need a doctors note. A few minutes later, both of my students presented me with this lovely piece of paper:

It made me laugh so hard that the class had a free seating chart day, they were all so thrilled!

What things have your students told you or have done to try to weasel their way out of things?

Kaitie

Self-esteem Question

Hi everybody!

I'm planning my lessons for the healthy-self unit and I'm working on the day that I'll be teaching about self-esteem.  I'm having a hard time coming up with effective ways to teach the students because I feel like this is such an important topic and I want to hit a home run with!


Any ideas or activities that you have done related to this???

Thanks!!!

Mental and Emotional Health: Fear and Phobia

Here's a fun lesson plan I got from another health educator.

Sometimes when we are teaching about mental health disorders, it can get REALLY heavy! my hardest day of the year was for sure the day we talked about suicide. Along with talking about mental health disorders, another thing you can talk about is fear and phobia's. This is also a great lesson because it teaches your student about roots. so here is the lesson plan:

1. Give a student a list of all of the roots:

zoo
thanato
mono
toxico
ailuro
pyro
avio
gyne
xeno
algo
agoro
claustro
astra
hemo
acro
nycto

at the same time you give them what the fear's are and have then guess to see which ones they can match up:

Fear of:
1. enclosed spaces
2. night
3. high places
4. open spaces
5. pain
6. blood
7. thunder
8. strangers
9. cats
10. animals
11. death
12. fire
13. flying
14. being alone
15. poison
16. women

2. then you go through and have fun seeing which ones the students got wrong and right. have a discussion about fears and phobia's and the differences.

Phobia's: persistent, excessive and generally unreasonable fears of stimuli that lead one to avoid that stimuli. Common phobias, such as the ones above, that really pose no real threat or danger, may lead others to ridicule those with phobia's.

3. then you can have students tell you if they think they think this is a sign or a symptom of a fear or a phobia.

(note, these are all phobia's, so you'll need to modify them so some are just fears)

signs and symptoms

difficulty swallowing
sweating
excited stomach
shortness of breath
tense feelings
muscle tension/aches
frequent urination
irritability/impatience
insomnia related to anticipation
fast heart rate/palpitations
nausea
diarrhea
twitching or bodily shakes
inability to relax
dry mouth
sleep difficulty
difficulty breathing
difficulty concentrating
blushing

here's a fun recent example of some of these signs!!

4. it's important to finally have a discussion that the National Institute of Mental Health states that 75% of people with specific phobia's are able to conquer their phobias when treated with cognitive behavior therapy. This is the therapy that looks like this...
say you have a fear of snakes
-think about snakes in your mind
-then, open a book on snakes to read about them and look at the pictures making sure you can touch the pages
-then, buy at toy snake and hold it
-then, go to a reptile store and touch a cage with a snake in it
-finally, when you are ready, have the snake handler pick up a snake for you and hold it in your hands

Good Idea!

Hey Everyone!!!

So, I just finished my first unit- Healthy Self. After the students took their test, I had a small writing prompt on the board for them to respond to:

1. What have you enjoyed in our class during this unit?

2. What do you think could have been better in this class during this unit?

3. What other concerns do you have in regards to this class?

The students actually answered these questions very thoughtfully and answered them really well. I liked that it started with a positive, had a somewhat negative, and ended with a personal concern.

It also has helped me see that they did learn something in class!!! As the teacher, I feel like the topics we are covering are pretty easy and that everyone probably already knows about them, but, THEY DON'T and for the most part they really enjoy health and the stuff that we teach them.

Sorry for the long post, but I feel that today was a break through for me!!!

Kaitie

Two awesome books I've used so far for teaching:

 This book is awesome!

My self-esteem lesson came from a lot of this.

It has a lot about relationships as well.

Read it. It's so good.

My mentor teacher has let me borrow her copy of this.

It has the activities divided into the different area it fits with.

It's great for Health.

I've had some awesome activities come from it!

Lesson learned when teaching today: Always tell kids to be appropriate. You may just assume they already will be (I did) but they may not be. So just say it so they always know.

I learned that lesson the hard way today!

If you need a little boost...

anyone ever experience a student who no matter WHAT you do (i.e. pretty much HAND FEED them everything) they will still not produce any work for you???

well, if you haven't experienced this, tell me what you are doing, because i have had a fair share of intentional non-learners.

so i heard this quote this weekend, and it made me laugh because it reminded me of a handful of my students...

"you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink."

amen.

ok, what do people need???? comment if you need ideas for lessons!

love you all. wait, are we really almost into FEBRUARY???!

p.s. GREAT month to do the social unit...dating lesson on Valentine's Day anyone??

p.p.s. thanks kaitie for finding this!

here.

"brilliant! - Take your cup and place an empty toilet paper roll inside. Now place your popsicle sticks inside the roll. Now you can pull from inside the roll. After you call the student, place their popsicle stick on the outside of the roll. * If there was a student that you think you might want to call on again just place them back inside the roll. Now students won't know who you're going to call on. They'll just think you're putting all the names back into the cup! So brilliant!"

Question about YouTube

Hi Everyone!

My School District blocks YouTube from being accessed, and so I was wondering if any of you are facing the same problem and ways that you dealt with it and were able to show your videos.

Thanks!

Kaitie

Healthy Relationships

Do any of you have any good ideas for a healthy relationships lesson plan?? I'm not focusing on dating or anything quite yet or communication just healthy relationships. Post if you have any good activities or ideas! That would really help! Thanks all.

REAL Teachers

have some down time??? ok, i definitely needed some rejuvenating before the start of second term and i stumbled upon/the Spirit graciously shared with me this talk.

it's beautiful, and a quick one! only 10 minutes to watch.

but if you don't have 10 minutes, here's a gem i loved in it...

"Those who teach after the manner of the Spirit understand they teach people, not lessons. As such, they overcome the urge to cover everything in a manual or teach all they have learned on the subject and focus instead on those things that their family or class members need to know and do. Parents, leaders, and teachers who mirror how the Spirit teaches learn quickly that real teaching involves much more than just talking and telling. As a result, they intentionally pause to listen, carefully observe, and then discern what to do next. When they do this, the Holy Ghost is in a position to teach both learners and teachers what they should do and say"

Elder Richardson

hope all is going well! yeah for 2012 and health teachers!

xo

Words of Encouragement

i'm finally at the point where i feel like i'm no longer gasping for air, and i came across this blog post and i wanted to share some of her incredible, encouraging words!

1. BE PROUD. Go there feeling PROUD of what you're doing, no matter the level you're at!! You're trying to do something worthwhile whether it is for a hobby, a career, a creative outlet, a feeling of community. THAT'S JUST AWESOME. So do not for a moment go there feeling inadequate! Let's all go there and just feel good about what we are trying to do & feel good about our desire to improve. :)

2. WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. Each one of us is just trying to make a positive difference in some way. It will be great to all be there together cause we're all working on the exact same goal. Everyone there will be our friend in that way. We're all in the same boat. Some people have just been in that boat longer.

3. NO NEED TO COMPARE. Every single person has something unique to offer! I wouldn't dream of [being a health teacher] like anyone [else] as it just never could be. We can only share what we have.

4. THINK OF OTHERS INSTEAD OF OURSELVES. Instead of thinking of - - What will *I* say when I meet people? How will *I* be able to survive this presentation? Let's think about how we can make others comfortable & help them. Let's think about how we can share friendship & kindness or generosity with others & take the focus off of ourselves. We'll have a much greater experience if we do.

good luck to all of y'all who just started!! email/blog/text if you need ANYTHING!!!!!!!

New to the Blog...

Hello ladies! I am new to this blog and have some questions for you. Are any of you PE minors? If so, did you have to take the PE praxis exam? And do you have to do a PE teaching portion for student teaching? I feel as if Mel Olson, bless his heart, hasn't been too helpful... ;).

I am excited about this blog! Thanks for the invite Julia.

Cyber Safety

if you can get facebook in your classroom, this would be an incredible tool to show your students!! it proves that ANYONE can find most your information if you are not safe about what you put on the internet. my brother in 9th grade showed it to me and i was FOR SURE creeped out. here's a cnn article about it. sorry, it only works if you have facebook...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/27/tech/social-media/take-this-lollipop/index.html

Social Unit-Dating

high school students would probably appreciate this video...

Nutrition

Cigarettes

i started off our cigarette unit by telling them we were going to make a recipe. they got excited because they thought they were going to make food. i brought in all the ingredients i had from home that went into cigarettes. i didn't have everything...such as rocket fuel...but i had quite a bit of these things:

first i pulled out vinegar...and asked, "who's still in" i lost about 1/2 the class. then i kept pulling out one by one.

in every class i got, "wait, is this real???" "wait, do people ACTUALLY eat this??" and i said, "yes!" at the end, i asked them, "ok, what do you think this is a recipe for??" and after a minute or two, someone usually figured it out.

a week later when we were studying for the exam, a student came up to me and told me she went home and told her mom's friend who was trying to quit what's in cigarettes, and her friend was able to stop smoking for at least a week! proud teacher moment.

Getting Students to Participate

sometimes it's hard getting everyone is the class to participate...especially first period. here are two ideas that i use CONSTANTLY in the class room which the students love because they feel like games.

1. whiteboards

i have homemade mine out of sheet protectors and cardstock. not too expensive and the kids LOVE them. remind them that if they wipe them off with their hands, it puts oils on the boards and ruins the markers. but no need to get erasers for everyone! just have them use the bottom of their markers. after about 5 days of using them, i have to clean them. i have a TA do it for me :) here's a picture of what they look like...

2. true/false construction cards

i couldn't find of picture of this so i will just explain. again, homemade and SO easy! you take two different colors of construction paper and cut them into 5'' by 4'' rectangles (or really any size...make it easy on yourself but they have to be wide enough to staple and fit your hand in!) put 4-5 staples on the sides (and yes, you need that many! kids shove their hands in and break them all the time!) and you'll have a "puppet-y" like invention. you put it on your hands and you can use them for true/false, yes/no, nutritious/non-nutritious, muscle/cardiovascular...any question with two answers and it's easy to see who's participating and who is not!! my kids love it because we do a countdown, "ok, on three! ONE....TWO....THREE!!" and it's a game to them. they other REALLY fun thing we did with them, is in our social unit, i used them for girls/boys. so we did questions like, "who should send the after date text." ha ha. they loved that one.

if that does not make sense email me or leave a comment and i'll explain more.

what easy, good ideas have you found??? please share and we'll get some stuff going for 2012!

already 1/2 way through january. so weird.

Hey All!! 

Did any of you save any powerpoints from Dr. Lindsays class??

I really want the alcohol powerpoint and the tobacco one.

Let me know if you do!

If not I'll just email him.