In less than two weeks I will travel to Minneapolis to present at the SHAPE America national conference and I'm not saying that I'm ridiculously excited, but it has been the only thing I've been looking forward to since the start of 2016! I've not been to a SHAPE conference and found the dominance on …
10 Free Ways to Develop Professionally
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 …
Teaching Consent
Our school YRBS data tells me that my sophomore students are at a time in their lives where knowledge of consent is extremely important considering the relationships they will have and decisions they will make regarding sex over the coming years. Consent has become one of a number of hot topics in #healthed, and a …
Fully Comprehensive Health Curriculum
What does a fully comprehensive health education curriculum look like? This week I participated in an interview for the February SHAPE America podcast that was specifically targeted at us! The #healthed community!! The questions, as always, were posed by the awesome duo behind the podcast - Colin Brooks and Matt Pomeroy and they opened the show …
The Teacher’s Journey
I was fortunate to spend my weekend with an outstanding group of current and retired teachers and advocates of physical education, health and dance at the IAHPERD Leadership Conference as we discussed our delivery of a quality curriculum across the state. We also started our preparation towards our 2 day convention in November - this …
Micro Actions – Macro Changes
Recently I have become fascinated with the concept of micro actions and how small inconspicuous changes in our behavior can lead to greater changes in our lives over time. There is increasing research on the idea that small, repeated actions can lead to major changes, and these 'keystone' actions (Charles Duhigg. The Power of Habit) …
#Healthed and ESSA
In December 2015 Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). "With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal—that every child, regardless of race, income, background, the zip code where they live, deserves the chance to make of their lives what they will." — President Barack Obama So why should we be excited? No Child …
What One Thing….?
https://twitter.com/carmelhealth/status/690911763286614016 Inspired by a slew of articles that have recently cropped up in my social media feed I asked a question on Twitter that resulted in an almost immediate response of outstanding suggestions. So much so that I felt it only fair to summarize the results and share them with other teachers...after all, January is …
Health Disparity
The more I study health, the more I realize that place and race play a significant role in the health of specific populations. With Martin Luther King day being observed this week it seemed appropriate to share some resources and take a look at some health disparities that exist within the African American population. Recognizing the need …
Surprise & Suspense
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 …
Advocacy
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 …
The Creative Teacher
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, …
Speak Up For Health Ed
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 …
Health Literacy Month
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, …
Using Poetry in the Health Classroom
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 …
Superpower #5
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 …
Keeping it Real
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 …
The Power of Compliments
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 …
Childhood Obesity
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 …
Goal Setting
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 …
#slowchathealth 