Two years ago, I accepted an opportunity to support 14 girl-identified youth who wanted to address sexual harassment in our school community and provide a safe space for their peers to learn, grow and excel in leadership, communication and self-empowerment. An exciting endeavor, but (*gulp*) what large goals. How would I support my enthusiastic students’ …
What shared memories will you build during this time of such change to our regular lives? When we see workplaces open, schools resume and fewer people rushing to buy toilet paper, what might we hang onto and make part of the new ‘normal’? What will we be truly grateful for and what might we just …
At this moment in time, please remind yourself of your strength and positive qualities. A very simple yet fun way of doing this is to create an acronym with the letters of your first, middle, and/or last name. Done in numerous health education courses over the years, this activity allows us to pause and reflect …
We are living in difficult times. Our whole lives have seen dramatic changes around the world and yet, life goes on and we are thankful for that. Some of us might live in countries and continents that are far away from our loved ones, from our families and friends. This pandemic has reached almost the …
As you read this, someone somewhere is dealing with job loss, an unearthing shift in mandate, or the loss of a loved one. Among all of this, millions of folks directly involved in education are scrambling for some form of normalcy. As a physical and health education professional working to support teachers in Canada, this …
It’s ironic that I am writing this blog on a Saturday night while drinking a glass of white wine thinking I really should relax more. Andrew Milne has asked me to describe ways in which educators can benefit from self-care. Before I start the journey let’s start with the core purpose or the why around ‘self-care’. I …
As humans, our workloads are becoming more and more demanding, which means stress, anxiety and burnout are on the rise. In this busy, 24/7 world, our natural instinct is to give, give, give. We give to our career, our family, our future. As well as looking after ourselves, we must take care of each other …
As educators across the world turn to technology to teach remotely we are seeing an increase in the number of teachers looking for the most effective way to help their students. But with a wide variety of technology available to physical educators, health teachers, and coaches the world of educational technology can seem overwhelming. Now, …
Continue reading Technology for #PhysEd, #HealthEd & Coaches
You know what topics we weren't taught to teach in college? Preventing HIV with PreP, vaping cessation, sex trafficking, opiate addiction, and COVID-19 to name just a few. And what does society want us to add to our curriculum to address the latest health crisis? Preventing HIV with PreP, vaping cessation, sex trafficking, opiate addiction, …
Spring Break is just around the corner, and hopefully recharging your batteries is number one on your list. The clocks have changed, the weather has improved and 4th quarter has a nice ring to it. However, if you do find yourself looking for free professional development during your break, here’s my Top 10 list. #1 …
Springtime viewing for the discerning #HealthEd teacher. Here’s an update on a very popular series of #slowchathealth blog posts, which provide you with a list of documentaries/shows, available to stream, that have a #HealthEd slant to them. I've included shows from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Kanopy. Some I’ve seen, the rest are on my …
Is it me or has this year's flu season been worse than usual? Our faculty has been ravaged, attendance in my #PhysEd class has been low enough to make the numbers manageable (!) and as I type, my son is on his fifth day with a temperature over 103. So, in an act of frustration, …
Elementary and Middle School health teachers are awesome and I can only imagine the challenges involved in teaching content to to the youngest of inquiring minds. With that in mind, this blog post is primarily for you and comes from Daniela Gilsanz. Daniela is a designer, menstrual activist, and co-creator of The Period Game - …
A poster on the wall of the International Centre for Sexual Reproductive Rights, an NGO based in Minna, Nigeria. Author providedRachel Sullivan Robinson, American University School of International Service Nigeria and Mississippi are a world apart physically, but the rural American state and the African country have much in common when it comes to the …
Continue reading Sex education lessons from Mississippi and Nigeria
Assessing health skills can be a challenge and todays teachers are rising to that challenge, creating authentic and meaningful opportunities for students to practice and reflect upon their health behaviors. Sarah Chap is one such teacher, and in this weeks blog post she shares her journey towards creating an assessment for the health skill of …
One of the joys of teaching #HealthEd is that it is such a dynamic topic. That's one reason why my recent TEDx talk was titled "This is not your parent's health class". I don’t think any one year has been the same as another, in fact every semester has been different for me. As society …
This is my 7th year of choosing a #OneWord to guide me through the year ahead. The theory behind this idea is that our guiding word points us towards the type of person that we want to become. And unlike a resolution, a single word can’t be broken. I think of it more as a …
Being an educator in this current political climate can be fraught with fear. While job security is paramount, so too is encouraging our students to think critically and to see the world beyond the biased version often presented to them by society. In this guest blog post an educator anonymously shares the fear felt as …
Virtual reality isn't coming to the health classroom....it's already here, and it might be the most engaging and realistic teaching experience that you aren't currently using. I recently asked teachers for health education predictions and I'm predicting that VR technology is eventually going to become commonplace, but are you ready for it? This week's blog …
You would think that teaching nutrition would be easy. It's something that our students have been doing since birth and yet, as with all topics that we teach in health, there is so much to consider if we want our lessons to be valuable and inclusive. This week's blog post considers just that and comes …
Continue reading Rethinking the way we talk about nutrition, body size, and health.
