Staying Updated, Part Two

As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm a firm believer in staying up-to-date on topics that I teach about in my classroom. I owe it to my students to provide them with information that is recent, accurate, and reliable. I frequently find myself taking a short minute or two out of class to discuss something in the news. Examples over my first two years teaching include the bullying legislation in Massachusetts, voting on the decriminalization of possession of marijuana, sexual harassment cases at a local school, and articles relating to nutrition.

I find out about these stories through many ways: watching the news (although not as much during the school year), by seeing headlines on websites (while checking e-mail or visiting other websites, etc), from my mother (who e-mails me news articles at least once a week...although, I've usually seen them by the time she gets to them!) and through my Google Reader account.

So, what sources do I skim and read for information? Check out the lists below of some sources I use for education and health news, both locally and across the country. This is not an all inclusive list, as I have eleven feeds total relating to education and a few other sections unrelated to work with about 30 different feeds of blogs, news websites, etc. I'm also pretty sure that people won't care that I follow a Bruins blog or two as well as a few running/exercise science blogs.

My (Personal) Top Resources for Education:

1. The U.S. Department of Education. I use this website to stay on top of various topics relating to education policy and research. There's not too much information I share with my students here, but as a teacher I think it's important to try to stay on top of what's going on nationally as far as education is concerned.

2. DetentionSlip.org. Billed as "your daily cheat sheet for education news," DetentionSlip.org focuses on stories that will probably make you simultaneously angry and amused. Sample stories, which are posted from other news outlets, involve students bringing guns to school and a teacher ordering their class to plan a terrorist attack. The authors note, "We mock the public school system because we love the idea of quality, free, public education." This is, according to the authors, done because they want to promote a solution. Regardless of their motives, it's an entertaining read.

3. Boston.com Education news. Teaching about thirty minutes north of Boston means I need to stay up on education issues going on within the local area as well as statewide. Information here is from the Boston Globe, and covers a myriad of topics: MCAS scores, athletics, budgets, community news, etc. National news is featured here as well.

4. Class Struggle: by Jay Mathews. To me, the best part of Jay Mathews' education blog is the commentary provided by readers. Mathews often weighs in on these comments, engaging in conversation with his readers and even admitting his mistake. Mathews writes about a variety of issues, focusing on education policy and education reform.

5. Free Technology for Teachers. Richard Byrne does a fantastic job posting free resources for teachers to use in implementing technology in their classroom. I've posted about his blog every now and then, and have successfully used many resources he posts in my classroom or for personal use. This should be required reading for all teachers!

My (Personal) Top Choices for Health News

1. Fed Up With School Lunch: The School Lunch Project. Mrs. Q, the anonymous author of this fantastic blog (which I've linked here many times) has set out to eat school lunch during every school day during this calendar year. Her blog has been mentioned on the national news and has been instrumental in creating a dialogue about changing the food our children eat in schools. Now that school is starting up again, be prepared to see pictures of the foods our children consume at school. You might be surprised! Mrs. Q has linked up with many other passionate individuals to help bring attention to this important issue. After all, our children all our future; we should feed them well!

2. Well: New York Times Blog. Well contains commentary on stories that are published in the New York Times relating to exercise, nutrition, fitness, science, etc. Frequently, these stories also come up in my RSS feed for the Health section of the Times, but I subscribe to the blog for the commentary provide by the author and the readers who post comments.

3. Boston.com Health Section. I subscribe to this for the same reason I do Boston.com's education section: it's the best source for local news relating to health, with stories from the Boston Globe. It also covers national headlines as well, and the local aspect makes it easy to make connections with students about what's going on a few miles down the road for them.

4. CNN Health. CNN covers a substantial amount of information and often includes interactive images and videos within their news stories. If the story is making news nationally, CNN will cover it and often will have follow-ups or commentary from multiple sources. If I can, I try to use video from Anderson Cooper 360 because he always seems to have both sides represented, with the occasional fireworks from commentators!

For both education and health news, I do see a lot of headlines that pop up in more than one feed. If the story is not an AP story, it's interesting to see the opinions of each writer and the similarities or differences in their reporting. More often than not, AP stories dominate so I'll just read whatever feed I see first. 

Staying Updated: Google Reader & Google Fast Flip

NOTE: I am not affiliated with Google or the blog Free Technology for Teachers in any way, shape, or form. I simply use a lot of Google Products and read Free Technology for Teachers for great information.

I strive to remain up-to-date on health topics that are making headlines in the news. I often incorporate current events into my health classes whenever I can, in order to bring a little "real world" information into my classroom. I use Google Reader as an RSS aggregator to keep myself informed of information that is being published from a variety of resources: newspapers, blogs, government websites, etc. I have multiple sections, including one for "education" and another for "health" related information. I browse through the feeds as soon as I get into my classroom each morning to see if there is anything I can use during the day.

For those who don't know (Hi, Mom!) an RSS aggregator is basically one-stop shopping for customizable news information. News from a variety of sources (websites, blogs, etc) is easily categorized based on how I want to view it. I have thirteen different feeds for education and health, which is definitely enough information for what I am trying to do. The one downfall of not including more feeds is that there is in increased possibility that I will miss a story I might be able to use in class. However, adding additional feeds from all over the country becomes quite cumbersome and there would simply be too many stories for me to sort through. I don't read each and every one now; I scan and read if I am interested. My point is that there becomes a point where there would be an information overload and where time starts being wasted.

Enter Google Fast Flip. I found out about Google Fast Flip (and a lot of other things!) by reading the excellent blog Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne. Google Fast Flip provides news articles in a visual display that the user can scroll through for a quick scan of what's popular in the news. You can select different categories, such as Sports or Health. Fast Flip shows news stories from all over the country, covering local and national news, which allows me to have a greater depth of information without cluttering my RSS feeds. Fast Flip gives me the opportunity to read news from sources I would otherwise not read.

I selected the "Health" section and was immediately able to skim articles from major news outlets and websites. If an article interested me, I clicked on it to read it in depth. In a time where everyone seems to need more than twenty four hours in a day, Google Fast Flip is a great way for me to supplement the information I obtain through RSS. I can easily access this website in class and show my students how health is always in the news, and maybe select and article or two to talk about. I can have students use Fast Flip for their "Health in The News" assignments, and the variety of sources can expose them to different writing styles and opinions. Students could also compare and contrast assignments from different newspapers. Try it out for a quick visualization of what's popular in the news!

Association Between Health-Risk Behaviors and Academic Grades

I was checking my e-mail this afternoon and opened the latest message from NASPE. After scrolling through some P.E. news, the big link that caught my eye was entitled, "New Health and Academic Achievement Resources from DASH." I'm always interested in reading about how health education, physical education, etc. can help improve academic learning.

The information provided by the CDC is based on the just released 2009 results of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. If you're unaware, the goal of the YRBS is to monitor priority risk-behaviors among adolescents across the country. The amount of information this provides health educators is incredible; in addition to a national breakdown, data can be broken down on the state and local level. This data has been used in my district to adapt our health curriculum to fit the needs of our students. One could argue that changes might be too late to have an impact by the time we see trends, and identifying future trends is something I would like to try to improve on by talking with the students, etc. But, when it comes down to it we are using the data in a way that can help create positive changes among the youth we serve.

I haven't yet looked at all the data (this frequently happens when I blog about something I just read about), but the Overview provided enough information for me to post here. When it comes down to it, after controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade level, data showed "a negative association between health-risk behaviors and academic achievement among high school students."

Students with higher grades are less likely to engage in risk behaviors! Are there outliers? Of course there are. This data can't be applied in every situation. I'm sure that we can all think of someone we went to high school with that partied hard or engaged in some of the other risk behaviors and somehow managed to get decent grades, or vice versa. But, how much did they learn? That in itself, the reflection of grades on student learning, is another can of worms to open up. I'm getting off track here, but as you can see I try to see the whole picture behind the numbers. Learning disabilities, AP classes, and a host of other items are not taken into account.

I would be further interested to see how these numbers correlate to results of standardized test scores. We already know that physical activity can help increase scores on standardized tests (among other things, like improving classroom behavior) but do engagement in risk behaviors affect them too? It's easy to generalize, or make assumptions, about the potential result of this. I would love to look at some data from which I could draw conclusions. However, some people don't perform well on standardized test scores and some people ace them while maintaining below average grades. Too many controls for a study, I think!

The CDC themselves has said that these numbers require further research to determine what exactly leads to low grades, or to engaging in risk-behaviors, or what else could lead to either of the above. My excitement with this is that now we have the possibility for future research into this area. And, in an economic climate where health and physical education are placed on the chopping block quickly and often without justification, these numbers give those of us in the field concrete evidence of the importance of what we teach children. It also helps support the argument for incorporating a well developed, interactive, coordinated school health program in as many school districts as possible.

I'm going to use some of this new data during my brief presentation during back to school night. Actually, as part of our department's professional development before school begins, we are spending a day with our community prevention coalition discussing the new data from our own, district-wide version of the YRBS. So, I'll be able to apply even more specific data during back to school night.

I'll also use it when I finally get my chance to present in front of the School Committee, Governor, President (whoever!) when I argue my case for increasing the amount of sexuality education we teach in our middle school. But that, my friends, is another topic for another time!

Check out the actual reports and information here.

Brochure: Active Kids and Academic Performance

The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) recently released a brochure educating the public about the positive impact school-based physical education and physical activity has in academic performance. In reviewing fifty studies, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control tested 251 associations between academic performance and physical activity. Slightly over half tested to be positive associations, with only four (4) testing negative. Common associations include attentiveness, achievement test scores, and on task behavior.

The "bottom line," according to the brochure, is this: "Substantial evidence suggests that physical activity can be associated with improved academic achievement, including grades and standardized test scores. Increasing or maintaining time dedicated to physical education can help--and does not adversely affect--academic performance."

Click here for a copy of the pamphlet, which I received through the June 2010 NASPE "Academy Scoops" e-mail. Please pass along to anyone interested! Eventually, I hope to write a monster, well-researched post on how a well developed coordinated school health program can help schools increase student attentiveness, improve classroom behavior, and increase academic performance as well. I might try to get to get that published elsewhere, though. I realize this has been done before, so I need to find a different angle to take.

As always, feel free to e-mail me with any questions, comments, or concerns.

Recent Bullying In the News

Neil Swidey wrote a piece for the Boston Globe Magazine this weekend about stopping bullies, and examined varying viewpoints on effective/ineffective bullying prevention programs. I've always like Swidey's pieces, and he certainly brings up some valid points about bullying prevention in schools. Swidey focuses on the role of bystanders in bullying situations, something we talk about in sixth grade health. The curriculum we use for bullying prevention is a familiar one, Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders. This is a research based curriculum used in schools all over the country. Numerous government organizations sing its praises, and it gets high marks from independent reviewers. Due to adding more to our curriculum, we don't get to cover all of the lessons in AVB, so we combine them when we can in order to get as much out as possible.

To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of AVB. Don't get me wrong, it has its good parts. In my opinion, the best part about AVB is their focus on the three roles people play in any given bullying situation: the aggressor (bully), victim, and bystander. I tend to try to emphasize the role of a bystander, and their ability to either positively or negatively influence a bullying situation. This, combined with strategies students can use to prevent issues from happening, is great information for students to know.

While the material and content in any curriculum might stay the same over time, I feel the way AVB is presented is outdated. For this trimester, I'll most likely try to reproduce the handouts to make them more appealing to this age group while still maintaining the integrity of the curriculum objectives. I'm surprised the publishers of AVB, Teenage Health Teaching Modules, haven't updated the curriculum at all. Talking about portable CD players and rollerblades doesn't really stick with the kids in my classroom.

I do think, as Swidey mentions in his article, that most anti-bullying programs (AVB being one) make standing up to a bully seem "Overly simplistic." If teachers present information to students that seems to be unrealistic, then they're going to zone out. As teachers, we need to engage in conversations with students, understand their beliefs/perceptions/influences, and then go from there. Some students of mine really do believe that anything can be talked out if both sides are willing to do so. Others hear that and laugh, literally. This may be one reason this statement can be so shocking: "None of the current anti-bullying programs, despite their fanfare, have been successful in reducing actual bullying among American students in a meaningful way." Determining why this happens is beyond the scope of this post, and the theories behind what is effective or ineffective are as numerous as there are people. Maybe, right now, someone is figuring that answer out.

The bigger news story around here is Governor Deval Patrick signing an anti-bullying bill into Massachusetts law. With it comes the requirement for all schools to provide "age appropriate instruction on bullying prevention," as well as professional development relating to bullying for all staff. I briefly discussed this change with my principal today, and will likely discuss it with our curriculum director at our meeting later this week. It will be interesting to see the changes that schools across the commonwealth make as a result of this bill! Check back for later posts as we develop a plan to meet the needs of this new law.

As always, please feel free to e-mail me with questions, comments, or concerns.