Some of my students create such amazing #healthed content that it is deserving of a wider audience. If you follow me on social media you know that I often tweet student work, share their podcasts, I embed their creations in my eBooks, and have even turned my favorite student quote into coffee mugs!

Over the course of the semester with my sophomore high school health students it becomes evident which students want an outlet to share their thoughts. Occasionally I am able to find various opportunities for them to share comments on websites and magazines. However, I know that they also write great content in other subject areas and continue to develop their writing as they continue through high school and I encourage them to share that work with me whenever they wish.

In the spirit of this blog being a collective voice of all things #healthed related I want to create Student Voices, a separate section of #slowchathealth specifically for students of all ages (and yes, that also means college students and future professionals too). I envisage it predominantly being writing, but welcome other creations such as posters, podcasts, videos etc.

The quote below from Rushton Hurley also explains why I value the sharing of student work. If they know that it’s going to reach a global audience they will be more willing to go beyond making it ‘good enough’ for the requirements of an assignment and the boundaries of the rubric. Your students will want it to be good!

If you want your students to specifically write a blog post, here are some prompts for you to consider:

• A student who has a particular interest in health education writes a post about why it’s such an important subject for teens.
• A group of students work together on a post “5 Things That Teens Want to Know About (topic),” choosing a #healthed topic of interest.
• One or more students writes about “The Most Important Thing I Learned in Health Education.”

Please share this opportunity with your co-workers, your PLN, and most importantly, your students.

I look forward to hearing from #healthed teachers and discussing and showcasing the awesome work from their classroom.