Health #3

How do you see the physical health, or lack of health, impacting your classroom? What are the explicit and implicit messages you give youth about their health and physical development, both positive and (inadvertently) negative? What efforts does your school make to support physical health and education?

I definitely see students' nutrition impacting their performance and ability to focus. I frequently have students coming to me in the morning, telling me they didn't have breakfast. Their energy levels are lower during the morning period and they are less able to stick with the activity at hand. I have told some parents that I would be willing to keep snacks supplied by them in the classroom for families that are often late to school. It's a problem I can't solve on my own by providing nutrition for students on a regular basis, but perhaps I can support students who don't get the fuel they need by working harder to keep them focused on a day when they didn't get what they need.

Recently, I have been also thinking a lot about the opportunities my students have to be active throughout the day. The students that seem most alert in the mornings are those who had a chance to play outside before lining up for launch. I know that Rocketeers get a 20-minute recess period after lunch as well as time with Coach Jessica every day (except for minimum days), but after reading the articles I know this is not enough. One thing that worries me is the fact that my students are in my classroom for 3-4 hours with little physical activity. I do try to keep my students moving throughout the room by changing locations from desk to carpet and sometimes allowing them to use their bodies in activities, whether that be TPR or a game such as "stand up whenever you read a pronoun." My students respond positively to these types of activities which makes me think that I need to incorporate them more frequently into my instruction. Every now and then I also give students a "stretch break", more often than not when I need it, too. These are ways that stuents can get the physical activity and movement they need without taking too much away from the limited instructional time I have.

I realize that my behavior management in class, however, does not coincide with my beliefs that students need time to be active and moving in class. I am distracted by my students' tiniest movements in class and am constantly trying to limit the kicking, tapping, and rocking that goes on. This might send an unhealthy message to students that they are expected to be still at all times and their desire to move is wrong. I need to incorporate more movement into my lessons so that students have a chance to use some energy in a productive way. I also think that the amount of homework that I give out in accordance with the school's expectations could be driving students to unhealthy habits. I think it was the Yardsticks chapter for 8-year-olds that said that homework assignments should be no more than 30 minutes. "HA!" I almost wrote in the margins. Of course we expect a (n almost unreasonably) high standard for work completed each night with little flexibility. This can be unhealthy because of the way it conflicts with students' schedules and sleeping hours, but also the way it limits other extracurricular activities.

I have been pleased to hear at my home visits that many of my students are involved with sports outside of school, such as swimming and soccer. I am impressed with these students' and their families' abilities to achieve balance between the academic and extracurruicular needs of their students and I think that sports do more benefit than harm in a student's life. Rocketship also provides opportunity for team sports during the gym class period and also for the 4th-5th grade students with the Sports for Kids program (or whatever it's called). I think this helps build our community because from what I've seen, parents strongly support physical education and it allows students to play cooperatively and learn how to be part of a team. There just isn't enough time to create these opportunities for all students, all the time, but I feel that the time we do dedicate to sports and gym is well-spent.

There are so many things related to physical health that I could discuss-- the fact that we serve healthy lunches but for most students, they don't have a choice whether or not to eat it, the teachers' roles as positive healthy role models for students, and the efforts (unbenknownst to me) that RSSP is taking towards promoting their healthy choices core value. But one final theme that I saw throughout the readings is that students need parental encouragement, support and modeling to create healthy habits, whether that means eating well, physical activity, participating in sports, or maintaining a healthy schedule. In the realm of healthy lifestyles, I think we could be doing more at RMS to recruit parents in helping to promote healthy habits (even by creating a school committee on health and activity). We already have the passionate support of families in the school community, and from what I've seen on my home visits, health, nutrition, and physical activity are priorities for many of our parents. If we could focus a group of parents towards these issues and towards creating opportunities for more health education or healthy activities at school, I don't think it would be difficult to increase our students' physical health or at least make them more aware of their choices that might affect their physical health. If we want to help our students to become successful members of society, they need to take responsibility for their own health and becoming aware by having the support of family and the school community is the first and most important step in doing so.