When my three children were learning to walk, each in their own ways and by their own timelines, they delighted in that adorable “hold both hands of a grownup while walking” thing we all do with our toddlers. But eventually, when they were ready, they learned to walk on their own. They needed to learn …
We need to share our impediments as teachers and fully disclose our struggles. We need to refrain from positioning ourselves as experts, most especially if we have secret challenges that keep us up at night. We need to speak of our shortcomings, mistakes, and battles as much as we speak of our triumphs. We also …
If you haven’t gotten on the bandwagon for Meaningful PE yet, it’s time to get on board. Meaningful PE can combine the aims of Health, PE, SEL and EDI into one simple structure. Not that any of these topics are simple, but helping a student find a place for themselves in your Health & PE …
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Why PBL? Project Based Learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. PBL often relies on students learning through inquiry, collaboration, and design thinking in order to achieve deeper understanding of complex …
Continue reading Can Project Based Learning Create More Meaningful PE?
Health and Wellbeing are universally understood concepts. While their specifics and definitions can be dissonant and intimately unique (not to mention everchanging) to the eye of the beholder, there are many commonalities that can be found between even the most diverse approaches to healthiness/wellness. These commonalities often form the basis of Health and Wellbeing education …
Continue reading Blurring the Lines: Cross-Curricular Health & Wellbeing
In writing this blog and sharing it, I know that I am speaking to friends and like-minded teachers and educators and probably athletes and/or movement activists who are already converted. Preaching to the choir, so to speak. We identify with the importance of education, we have committed our lives to work with young people and we subscribe …
What does it mean to be self-disciplined? How can we mimic this concept in the classroom? I recently read the book, “Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, Good to Great” by Jim Collins and one of the concepts that jumped out at me right away was that of self-discipline. What is self-discipline? According …
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Introduction In life we all have decisions to make. Statistics say that we make about 35,000 decisions a day. Most of those 35,000 are very small choices that we make every day like, brushing our teeth, what we wear, to get on the freeway or take surface streets, and what we eat.The decisions are more …
I came across a recently published article in The Atlantic entitled “What the Fitness Industry Doesn’t Understand.” To summarize, the article is about how the fitness industry seems to miss out on connecting with the emergent fitness enthusiast due to the fact that most gyms, fitness programs, etc. cater to those who are already predisposed …
Continue reading Changing the Perception of Physical Education
Recently Florida passed a controversial bill centering on the teaching of sexual orientation in public schools. Part of the text of the bill (HB 1557) bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Any instruction on these topics cannot occur in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally …
Education is under attack. Across the country there is a political movement to censor what we are teaching in our classrooms. Dedicated and qualified teachers are being questioned for providing guidance on how students navigate all they are exposed to through social media, the internet and in the real world. Students crave facts and credible …
I have always struggled most with teaching my English Language Learners (ELLs). Through degrees in health, PE and literacy I did not have any classes that addressed the specific needs of ELLs. We face some particular challenges as health educators with ELLs. In most classes, students have a teacher certified in TESOL to support their …
Continue reading hELLth- Supporting English language learners in General Health Education Classes
If there is one lesson I've learned as an Adapted Physical Education (APE) teacher, it is that Physical Education (P.E.) is one of the most powerful and essential tools for ALL kids to connect, belong and be brave. When I first started my career as an APE teacher, I, along with my colleagues who teach …
There are people that leave an indelible mark on the trajectory of our lives. The lessons they impart may vary, but they all help shape who we become. This story is about one such man and how he made his athletes a family. I lost my childhood coach and mentor suddenly and it gave me …
Continue reading The Ties That Bind – the Influence of Our Coaches
Part One: The Injury On July 6, 2020, I went on a jog that changed my life. It was a 90-degree day. Hot and humid. I’d put on a few pounds during quarantine, weighed myself down even further that 4th of July with a weekend full of burgers and hotdogs. I decided that the healthy …
Technology, Entertainment, Design. With over 50,000 given at 10,000+ events since the program launched in 2009, there are many great TED talks you can weave into your #HealthEd class. TED talks allow me to bring diverse voices into the classroom, with speakers sharing stories of experiences that I will never have. You can use these …
Growing up, I was taught that any benefits or consequences that I would reap from my health would be due to my own efforts and decisions. It turns out that was a lie. Listen, I'm not saying that our choices as individuals do not affect our wellness; I'm just saying that it's not the whole …
Continue reading The Whole Picture: The Importance Of Teaching The Social Determinants of Health
Perhaps. Many Health Educators promote the benefits of meditation on mental health and share the practice with their students. With resources that offer free subscriptions for educators like Calm, Headspace and Downdog, it is quite easy to engage students in mindfulness during a class. Probably the most interesting benefit of a particular type of meditation, …
I began using a “Mindful Minute” one day a week in my health classroom to give students a chance to “arrive” and provide them with another tool to use for their mental emotional health. As an introduction to mindfulness, I asked the students if they had ever used mindfulness and then shared this video Mindful …
May is Mental HEALTH Awareness month and a great time to reflect on our work as HEALTH educators. When New York State passed legislation mandating the inclusion of mental health in our programs, my first thought was, “No worries, I already do this.” And it’s true. I help kids understand the similarities between the symptoms …
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