National Health Education Standard 4: Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health. One of the best ways to kick off the school year is with a unit on goal setting, since everyone returns fresh from
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Summer Institute for Educators at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, where we attended presentations from a variety of experts in the field of mindfulness and Social/Emotional Learning—often referred to as SEL. On
Two years ago, I finally did it. I threw away (or recycled, actually) the stacks of textbooks that had been collecting dust on my shelves for years. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it sooner. Textbooks are often outdated,
It’s the end of the school year. This means our seniors are getting ready for college, the eighth graders are gearing up for high school, and many of our students will be faced with situations where they might be tempted
A huge part of what we teach in health class is advocacy, and one of the most effective ways to advocate is through PSAs, or public service announcements. I’ve been having my students make them since back in the days
This post originally appeared on Choices.Scholastic.com In the old-school method of health education, we were taught that alcohol use was mostly caused by peer pressure, and I grew up envisioning high school as some sort of giant John Hughes party
This week, I’ve been getting ready to make the trek from Shanghai out to Seattle for the SHAPE America National convention, and I’m super excited. Love the chance to connect with other health teachers and see what everyone’s been up to.
Standard 2: Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors. … Over the last year or so, there’s been a large amount of attention in the media on gender stereotypes and how
It’s time to overhaul our approach to tobacco prevention. While this generation of teenagers has gotten smarter about smoking, and rates of traditional cigarette use are down, rates of e-cigarettes have tripled over the last three years. There are a
In a prior post I wrote about positive psychology—which is the study of the things that make life worth living—and why it is such a perfect fit when you’re trying to teach kids about health. This week, I’ll share some easy
“OK, I get it. The kids need to meditate… but how does that work, exactly?” We live in some hyper-connected times; stress levels are on the way up as attention spans are on the way down. Equipping students with the skills needed
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. -World Health Organization I remember my high school health class. Vaguely. I remember the textbooks, the worksheets, the videos — oh, the
October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so your #ChoicesChallenge is to Stop the Hate. So how do we do that? Well, all of those anti-bullying messages — you know, the “No Bully Zone” posters — haven’t really been resonating with kids,
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