Log onto health teacher central at any moment and you can expect to see the following: “I need a hands on lesson about _______”. Teachers do this with great intentions, hoping to foster a fun lesson or activity that gets students moving and learning in a way that may be atypical for standard health education classes. As educators, it’s important that we vary our instruction, not only for the kids sake, but for ours as well. How boring to do the same thing in the same way every day, for years and years.

However, I think we’ve lost the point just a little bit. And I don’t blame us. 

Let me explain.

Health educators are constantly on the defense, trying to get everyone–our admin, other teachers, community members–to value our subject as much as we do. We also do this with our students. “If I make this class fun (hands on)…kids will enjoy it!”. “This will address the students who can’t sit still and learn best by doing*.”

Students can learn by having fun. Joy is important. But just because something is fun, doesn’t mean students are learning. When we abandon learning outcomes for something just to have kids do something with their hands, rather than writing, reading, or talking, we’re doing them a disservice. Throwing in an activity “just because”, can be chaotic. This is where strong planning and organization comes in.

This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t take risks or change things up, but an activity “just for activity’s sake” is helping no one. 

Rather than our goal being “fun”, let’s create a culture where learning is the joy. Learning more about ourselves, learning about the world around us, learning how to challenge systems of power, learning how to take care of ourselves and our communities. Think of it like playing a sport. Even though some days the practices are grueling, tedious, or mind-numbing, athletes feel good because they put in the time. They pushed themselves to improve and grow. 

We need to remember our lessons don’t have to be flashy or hands-on to be meaningful. What matters is getting the young people to think. Get them to wonder. Get them to be curious. Ask them questions. Read different perspectives. Talk about things previously unsaid. Reflect, discuss, laugh. We can design lessons and activities that are fun, but they need to be intentional.

I know this is a tall task… believe me. Keeping young people’s attention and engagement is a HUGE job. But teachers are superheroes…we can do it.

*note, the kinesthetic learning style and all the dimensions of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences have been deemed “neuromyths”. 

**no AI was used in the writing of this blog post

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Drew Miller, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this blog post with the following:

Is That Higher-Order Task Really Higher Order? by Jennifer Gonzalez

Five Questions I Asked My Middle School Students This Year by Emily Zien

Effective Video Integration in Health Education by Brian Griffith

Making Time for Engagement and Joy AND Destination Disease by Kurt Weiler