Great Video!

I haven't been posting here as much recently, mainly due to balancing graduate classes with teaching. I've also been busy blogging away with my friend Matt about our Sugar Challenge. Please check that out and spread the word about our challenge, too!

I saw a video today that I absolutely have to post here. Please pass on this video to everyone you know! I'm going to post about it on our Sugar Challenge blog, too. The video speaks for itself! I stumbled upon this after viewing the webpage of a physical education teacher from California. I began following him on Twitter after finding a list of teachers, grouped by subject, who have Twitter accounts. Twitter has been a great resource for me to gain information from teachers and health advocates from all over the country!

I do have some posts in the works for the next week or two, so check back soon!

Cartoon Network Tackles Bullying

Bullying has been all over the news in Massachusetts the last few months, and many of the headlines have gained attention nationally. Bullying is a hot topic (the teenage pregnancy of 2010, as I say), and viewpoints about the issue run the gamut.

Today it was announced the Cartoon Network is planning an anti-bullying campaign directed at middle school students. As Neil Swidey mentioned in a recent piece for the Boston Globe Magazine (and many anti-bullying curricula address) the role of the bystander in bullying situations is critical in defusing bullying situations (see an earlier post of mine in the topic). By focusing on the role of the bystander, the network is going to feature anti-bullying content directly in their cartoons, advertisements, and an online curriculum. CNN is partnering with Cartoon Network to provide information for parents to supplement the information kids receive. As mentioned in the article linked above, the "bridging of generations" is a unique element to this campaign. It's fighting a two front war on bullying, and as Hitler found out, two front wars are tough to fight if you're in the middle.

Bullying has always been around, and the attitudes prevalent when adults were children may not apply anymore. Today's middle school students have to deal with around the clock access to bullying through technology: cell phones, Facebook, and other media devices are all culprits in today's bullying age; not to mention the "old fashioned" methods. Cartoons have also been around for a while, and this process is simply taking something that currently exists and tweaking it to fit a need of the times.

I give a big thumbs up to the network for going after this topic after a poll of their audience (children) listed bullying as a main concern...which was not at the top of the list for parents. The campaign plans to use teachable moments in their cartoons, and the online component will contain more information too. Teachable moments might as well be under my interests on Facebook...I point them out whenever I can, about any topic (even unrelated to health), in my classroom. I will point out that this does not replace the need for parents to have timely, important conversations with their children about bullying and other loaded adolescent issues.

Efforts like this on a variety of health topics are needed in order to address the multitude of issues facing today's youth. There are clearly companies willing to tackle the tough issues. We need more motivated, enthusiastic, outside-the-box-thinking individuals to step up to the box! The Cartoon Network and CNN partnership could be a precedent for the future. Imagine the combinations that could be formed to tackle issues!

Jamie Oliver TED Speech & School Lunch Links

I have heard snippets from Jamie Oliver's TED speech, but had never watched the whole thing. Jamie has his critics, but he is tackling a huge issue that has long term implications. Check out his speech below and you will NOT be disappointed.

Also, two blogs to point out, which I may have mentioned earlier. I follow both blogs through my Blogger account and my RSS feed.

Mrs. Q blogs over at http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/, and has built up an extensive following of readers. She has appeared (anonymously) on Good Morning America, and her blog chronicles her mission to eat school lunch every school day for a year. She is bringing a lot of attention to the need for change, and her pictures are always a treat! Featuring guest bloggers from a diversity of interests, this blog is a must see!

Ali, over at http://bravenewlunch.blogspot.com/, is a food service director in Massachusetts who calls herself "the next generation lunch lady." She brings her college education and chef experience to the lunch room in an attempt to improve the quality of school lunch. Read it and hear from someone on the front lines! Seeing as she is also from MA, maybe the future will see us collaborate with other teachers, school food service workers, and districts to help create change within our lunchrooms.

Here is Jamie Oliver's speech:

Moving Forward

I was having a discussion with a colleague of mine about teaching, and how in an ideal world we would be able to teach everything until the students master whatever objectives we're trying to teach. Then, we would move on. Everything would be differentiated and specific to each child's unique learning abilities. Ah, in a perfect world!

But, why can't we make this happen? We can, of course. The initial ground work is substantial, but after that it can be very worthwhile. My current goal for the summer is to figure out how to provide such an experience for my students. Some of my students are capable of going so much deeper into topics and aren't able to because of different limitations, mostly due to time and other parts of the curriculum to cover. Another challenge for me is to not step on the toes of the high school teachers, whose curriculum does go into more detail, expanding upon the knowledge students gain in middle school. I also don't want to take away from the objectives of our curriculum.

As I was going over some student work this week, a thought occurred to me. The assignment was a list of divergent questions relating to sexual harassment. These types of questions have no specific answer; they're open ended. Instead of trying to find the answer that may be deemed correct, the students are asked to think critically about the content. I read about these types of questions specifically for health topics in the American Journal of Health Education, and adapted them for use during our sexual harassment unit in eighth grade. I viewed it as an opportunity to hopefully allow students to think about sexual harassment in different ways, as well as to think on a higher level.

A lot of the answers were great! However, some of the students didn't quite make the connections I wanted them to. Others had some great points, but I wanted clarification on their answers. When I was writing comments (a whole other post in itself...comments, their effectiveness, and if they influence student involvement/accountability) I thought, "I wish this was an ongoing conversation between the students and myself." Ideally, I would hand the papers back and have the students answer my questions. I would merely be guiding them. Then I would make comments, and the process would repeat itself. I'm not sure why I don't do this, to be honest. It makes perfect sense.

If a class is really getting into a unit (or even a lesson, or series of lessons within that unit), then why can't I spend more time on it? I'm lucky enough that my middle school has three years of health education classes, and we do cover a lot. But, I still wish I could take more time to cover the topics when the kids really show passion about what we're doing, instead of moving on because I have to cover x,y, and z. I don't want to come off like I'm complaining (I'm just stating facts), but with education today there's so much to cover.

In times like these I find myself craving the opportunity to be teaching language arts, or freshman writing lab. Then, I would be able to work with students as they write and revise, refocusing their efforts and honing their words, and I'd be able to take part in this continuous dialogue of learning.

So, I'm going to try this with my assignments. I'm not really sure how it will work out, or how I will do it with three different grade levels. Because it's currently the third trimester, I see kids every day and only have 125ish students. For trimesters one and two, when I see them every-other-day, I'll have about 220 students. This could prove to be very time consuming!

There is a way to get it done. I just need to find out how I can to fit my teaching situation. In my view, it's using Google Docs, or Moodle, or something to do with technology. I think I've found something to do this summer after I get home from working the summer recreation program.

I know students get a solid health class experience in my classroom, and the other health classroom in my building. To me, there's still a lot to do, but I'm on my way.

A Better Action Plan

As part of my brief commentary on school lunches, I came up with a quick, four step game plan for people who wish to begin creating change within their school districts. I didn't think too much about it (although you could argue a lot has to do with common sense) and I'm not an expert...yet. I knew someone out there with a few letters after their name (M.D., R.D., PhD, etc) would have something, I just needed to find it.

So, in reading the comments on Mrs. Q's blog I came across a comment by the founder of Better School Food, Susan Rubin (she's an expert). Her organization has an action plan with many of the similar concepts as the one I created. I read it, liked it, and now I want you to read it too!

Check out the action plan here, and put it to work!!

On a side note, I'm not really digging the color scheme of this blog anymore. I'm going to try to spice it up soon. I've been receiving a lot of hits from Google searches (30+ a week), and I'm also going to try to get back to why I started this in the first place: spreading teaching ideas to other health teachers. My formative assessment post, HIV simulation post, and ATOD activities are my most frequently viewed pages. If you see something and you like it, please post a comment!! I know there's almost 300 of you who have been reading! :)

Food Revolution!

I just watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Hulu. I'm hooked!

I had no idea this show was going to happen, and I'm glad that school lunches are receiving some media attention. It's very hard to change how school lunches are served, but Jamie seems like the man for the job, filled with passion and a firm resolve to help people change. But, as we know from what's happening in Baltimore, change IS possible if you have the tools, desire, and manpower to accomplish it. On a side note, this is the second time I've seen the word "revolution" associated with school lunches; the first was a company mentioned in an earlier blog post of mine.

I just sent this link to my friend Matt Germain. If Jamie Oliver, Jack Lalanne, and Matt all teamed up, this problem would be solved!