Among the many podcasts that I have time to listen to during my 70 minute(!) commute is Freakonomics and this Freakonomics episode from the summer entitled How to Create Suspense inspired me to think about how I structure my lessons. In the podcast the hosts interview novelist Harlan Coben about how he uses suspense in his novels to keep …
For years I have stated that my definition of Health Literacy is: accessing, understanding & applying health knowledge to make yourself, your family & your community healthier. And yet that final part of the definition, the advocating for the health of others, has always been something that I felt that my teaching has lacked. That, and the …
How we deliver our material in class is as important as what we deliver. An engaging, memorable perhaps novel class that speaks to our students hearts and minds is one in which learning is almost unavoidable. Over the past year or so I have been fortunate enough to see some very engaging presenters at conferences, …
It's recently been conference season not only across the country but across the world. In a two week period there were AHPERD conferences in Minneapolis, South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New York State, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania plus the Asia Pacific Conference and the AHPERVIC conference in Melbourne, Australia. Following the hashtags from each conference …
October is our month! It's Health Literacy Month. Health Literacy Month is a time for organizations and individuals (that's you and me!) to promote the importance of understandable health information. The theme for Health Literacy Month 2015 is “Be a Health Literacy Hero.” It’s about taking action and finding ways to improve health communication. Health Literacy Heroes are individuals, …
I wish I had the confidence to stand up in front of people and deliver a passionate, well composed and powerful poem. A poem so powerful that there would be spontaneous applause. Which is exactly what happens when I share Taylor Mali's "An Apple A Day Is Not Enough" with my Health students. I've written …
This summer's National PE Institute Conference in North Carolina goes down as one of the best conferences that I have experienced without actually attending in person. Through the live tweets, the live Periscope broadcasts, the shared google document (that's an awesome idea) and the live stream of the keynote presentations I felt like I was almost there. Jarrod …
For this weeks blog I have taken inspiration from a conversation that I had with @jennywamsley on Voxer, a slide that I remembered from a summer conference in Kansas City, and a blog post from @teaching_health . Jenny shared a conversation that she had with some students in which they were giving feedback on the health …
Earlier this year I came across this powerful video from ‘The Science of Love” called The Power of Compliments. I’m not very good at accepting compliments, and I’m not alone. People can be worried that accepting a compliment makes them seem self-absorbed or they shrug them off, not believing that the compliment is a genuine one. In …
One in 3 children in the United States is overweight or obese. Childhood obesity puts kids at risk for health problems that were once seen only in adults, like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Despite a downward trend in childhood obesity figures in recent years, alarming figures and cultural disparities still …
Podcasting has definitely seen a revival among the PE & Health community over the past few months, and most recently @SHAPE_America even entered into the fold with a very promising podcast of its own. Of course, Jarrod Robinson, Joey & Nathan, and the Physedagogy crew are still churning out regular recordings, and along with Dr …
Not to scare you or anything, but if the summer vacation was a 100 meter race, we have less than 10 meters to go, and in Usain Bolt terms, that's less than a second. Recently, one of my favorite education bloggers Ross Morrison McGill wrote his thoughts on what teachers actually do during the sumer vacation. …
This weeks guest blogger is Jess Lawrence, a former middle school health teacher and health education curriculum specialist for the Oregon Department of Education who is now an education consultant and Director of Cairn Guidance. I met Jess at the American School Health Association national conference in Oregon last year and look forward to meeting …
This week Shaun Bowes takes the wheel and becomes our first guest blogger. Hailing from Australia he has just completed his Masters of Teaching from Monash University and at 23 he'll become 'one of us' when he starts applying for teaching positions in 2016. Please welcome him as he writes on a subject about which he …
I recently took my family to a minor league baseball game and was bemused by the music played at the game. Not just the anthem, the 'Take Me Out to the Ball Park' and that familiar Hammond-organesque tune that has everyone shouting 'CHARGE!" at the end of it but also the choice of music that …
When I was at school, the assessment process went something like this: Teacher sets assignment I attempt the assignment and turn it in Teacher grades assignment and returns it I throw assignment in the garbage unless it was a good grade (a rarity) and my mom pinned it to the fridge. Most likely only two …
There's no denying it. Funds for teachers professional development are like my three year old son at the park...always on the slide. Additionally, finding the time to go to conferences, and not just the awesome national conferences but even those held at a local level is difficult too. Now, we could see this as a …
I remember the first time that I got seriously sunburned. It was the summer of 1989 and I was a graduating senior in high school. The Wimbledon tennis finals were on TV, the weather was gorgeous and I had a lot of time on my hands. So in my determination to get a sun tan, …
There was a year when I could confidently say that I was the best health teacher in my school....but that's because I was THE only health teacher in the school, and I know that some of you can make that same claim. Then I moved to a school that has 16, yes SIXTEEN teachers teaching …
The chances are, if you're reading this in North America, that you are coming close to, or have reached the end of another school year (pause to pat yourself on the back). And if you are anything like me you have probably started to not only reflect on the past year - what went well, …
#slowchathealth 