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Healthy Schools, Healthy Minds?
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I found this video on making schools a healthy enviornment. They are talking about schools in Canada, but I feel the same concepts apply for education here in the US as well. The video itself is 28 minutes, so I recommended pieces to watch above. Todays youth are becomming more and more obese as time goes by. As the percentage of obese children rises, the amount of time spent participating in physical activity is decreases. How can we ignore this as a nation and as educators? The answers are right infront of us. The three woman interviewed in this video admit that creating a healthy enviornment in our schools is time consuming and involves a lot of planning. The problem with obesity is only going to get worse if our communities do not step up and make changes!!
Questions to consider...
Why should schoool be responsible for encouraging healthy lifestyles?
How can we, as teachers, make time for physical activity during school without taking away
from the time needed for academics?
How does having physical activity involved in the students day help with learning in the
classroom?
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I do think schools should be responsible for encouraging healthy lifestyles. It is difficult to always do so with the major budget cuts, but with a little creativity and pre-planning, it can be done. Children are at school the majority of their waking hours, so it is important that schools encourage healthy lifestyles. We should model healthy lifestyles by exercising and eating right with our students.
ReplyDeleteIt does become difficult to make time for physical education while there is so much emphasis on the academics. But as I said before, with a little creativity, it can be done. We can incorporate physical activity into the curriculum--we can play that path of the blood game and others like it for health, and we can also have kids physically act out math, science, history, language arts, etc.
When kids are stuck inside all day without enough time to expend their energy, it will effect their ability to concentrate or, worse, it could cause them to not care about school. We need to remember that their little bodies are still growing and will need ample exercise to be healthy,
Schools should be responsible for helping students maintain a healthy lifestyle, primarily because students spend the majority of their waking hours in school. If they are pushed towards eating healthy and exercising in school, they are more likely to carry it on to home.
ReplyDeleteThe most feasible way to include physical activity in the day when there's such a time crunch even to fit in all the lessons and subject matter that needs to be covered, is to integrate it into the other curriculum. Incorporating physical activity into math, science, history, and language arts is a great way to get the children interested in the subject matter while also exercising their bodies. I remember in my 3rd grade class my teacher used to have each of us big an activity from a hat on different mornings and we would start class performing the activity. This is a great way to get students' bodies and minds working, especially early in the morning when they may be tired and not ready to work in the classroom.
Children need physical activity. Taking it away from their school lives results in inability to focus and pay attention in the classroom, as well as complete their work. Children need to a break from all their houses of classwork so that they can focus better. They need to be able to interact with each other and let go of all of their held up energy. I think we all remember how it was to have a rainy day at school when you were stuck in the classroom and couldn't have recess outside!
Schools should definitely take a role in healthy lifestyle promotion for children. There are plenty of ways to be creative and include physical activity elements in our lessons so that kids get up and moving. It is so unfortunate that kids are stuck at their desks all day being pounded with academics with no time to free their minds. Physical activity is so important for children because they need time to move around and let off some energy. Without this break, children don't concentrate as well and don't perform as well. Not all kids are fortunate enough to learn healthy lifestyle techniques as home and since school is the place they spend majority of their time, schools should take responsibility for this part of a child's life. After all, school is a place to learn. If children see their teachers and fellow classmates engaged in a healthy lifestyle, they might be more prone to adopt such techniques into their life.
ReplyDeleteI think that every person that is involved in a childs life has a responsibility to ensure that child is as healthy and safe as possible. I think that as future teachers we too have a responsibility to make sure our students maintain a healthy lifestyle. We have a responsibility to teach them healthy eating habits as well as make sure they exercise daily.
ReplyDeleteI believe schools should be responsible for our students health. Our children spend most of their daily lives in schools and that is where we need to show them a healthy way to live. I think the more role models children see being healthy the better chances that they too will want to be happy. So, us as teachers, need to be those positive role models for the children.
ReplyDeleteI believe by combining academic with physical activity and nutrition we can accomplish a lot. If we incorporate several lessons into one activity we can give the student the information and knowledge that they need and also are not sacrificing any major subjects.
I think physical activity helps students in the class focus better because sometimes students have all this energy or they get exhausted from working to hard so by giving them some physical activity it can release that built up energy and can help the students focus better on their school work.
It is extremely important for schools to promote a healthy lifestyle to students. Like Katie Vance said in her comment "with some creativity" it can be done! Often educators are so focused on the academics that they forget the importance of other activities that can enhance not only the well being of students, but also their learning! Implementing Physical Education can be as simple as having students stand up behind their desks and doing a couple of jumping jacks, or stretches. Those of you who took Dona’s physical education class know that there are many activities teachers can do with students that don't require stepping outside of the classroom. Of course taking the kids out is also important, but what I am trying to get at is that there is no excuse in depriving children from obtaining a healthy lifestyle simply because there is no time for it in the curriculum implemented. I think that it’s just a matter of knowing how to work around the school's curriculum so that students are able to gain knowledge on the academics and how to live a healthy lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely a person who needs exercise, not only for my body to stay healthy, but also for my mind to stay healthy as well. For me, when I get stuck with a lot of work to do, I always like breaking it up with some sort of exercise to get my mind off of it. Since students do spend a majority of their time at school, we need to realize that it is the best time to teach them about how to stay healthy, because there parents may not always have the time to do so. Although many parents would rather the students focus on their academics at school, sources say that without a break once in awhile they will not be able to achieve to their potential. Teachers must realize that physical activity can be integrated with all the subjects needed to be taught, and should take the time to figure it out, because without a healthy mind, these students will have a hard time. Great video!
ReplyDeletewhile ultimately the child's overall health is up to the parents/guardians, sometimes, and in most cases the school is the only place where children have the opportunity to eat healthy and get active. Because of this unfortunate truth schools should do everything they possibly can to teach children about living healthy lifestyles. Teachers can integrate fun physical activities into their core subjects, anything to get them out of their seats and moving around.
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