Everybody from Michelle Obama to the
Naked Chef Jamie Oliver has turned their attention to that kid who can’t quite
fit behind his desk in the back row. According to the federal government,
nearly one in five children and adolescents are obese—nearly triple the rate of
a generation ago—putting them in great risk of diabetes and heart disease. Bills
are being passed to mandate that children are provided with healthier options
in the cafeteria, but without learning about the benefits of choosing healthier
alternatives, how can we expect them to know what to eat? What exactly is our
role as teachers in helping the children in our classrooms to “get healthy?”
Some
teachers might take on an active position on the issue. These teachers believe that teaching children
about balanced meals and about why it is important to fuel our bodies with
healthy foods is just as important as teaching any other subject. Other
teachers might feel that it is more realistic for teachers to avoid involving
themselves in the health of their students.
The belief her is that, as
teachers, there are so many subjects that need to be covered within a given
day! There are standards waiting to be met and tests waiting to be prepped for!
As teachers, we can only do so much.
Our
question to you is this: Which teacher are you? Do you
identify more with the teacher who believes it is important to take an active
role in helping students to “get healthy,” or do you identify more with the
teacher who does not feel it is the responsibility of the education system help
children “get healthy?” Perhaps you
agree with certain ideas from each of the extreme points of view. We are
curious to hear about your position on the topic, and about why you feel the
way you do!
I think it is important for teachers to be a well-rounded role model for their students. I feel that teachers should take it upon themselves to make sure that students are aware of the dangers and complications of living an unhealthy lifestyle. While a teacher may not have the time to fully educate their students about being healthy and exercising, they can play a part in making sure that their students at least have an idea about making healthy choices. Teachers can set rules within their classroom; a great example of this is during snack time in the classroom. During snack time the teacher can create a rule which is based on only having a fruit, vegetable or a dairy product, setting this example shows students that these three food groups is a generally healthy option for snack instead of having a Hostess cake. Another rule which can be implemented in the classroom is during class parties students can only bring in healthy foods. The idea of having students and parents only bring in healthy snacks during class parties is that it educates both parents and students about making healthier choices. Class gatherings bring the classroom students, teachers and parents together and they can all make a pact to only supply healthy food options to their children. Instead of having parents bring in cupcakes, they can bring in fruit and yogurt dip while also coming up with their own creations; this is almost a challenge and therefore encourages students and parents to be creative. A teacher cannot control their students lifestyle choices, parents are the main enablers of their children, but a teacher can set rules and expectations about making healthy choices while the students are in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when I am a teacher I will be one who takes an active role in teaching students several different ways to stay healthy. This can be taught throughout the year during science lessons. That being said, I do not feel that it is a teacher's responsibility to enforce healthy lifestyle choices. The teacher should be proactive in their approach to teaching healthy lifestyle choices and teach a lesson on this subject in the beginning of the school year. Healthy lifestyle choices can also be taught by the school's gym/health teacher as well. It is the responsibility of teachers to be role models for their students and guide them to make good choices regarding their health as opposed to nagging or judging students about life choices.
ReplyDeleteI become a teacher I will take an active role in teaching students the importance of staying healthy. I think that it is great that schools are providing healthier choices for students at lunch; however, I also feel that students need to understand the benefits of those healthier choices. If the students do not know or understand the benefits, then they will be less likely to choose the healthier lunch choices. While the students might learn about healthy lifestyle choices by the school nurse or the physical education teacher, I feel that it should be reinforced in the classroom. The teacher should take time to explain to the students the benefits of eating healthier and the health risks of not eating healthy. The teacher can easily teach mini lessons about making healthy choices and model it by bringing healthy snacks for snack time in an elementary classroom or in the high school they can go into the cafeteria once in while and choose the healthier option. This modeling shows the students that not only is the teacher teaching about making healthy choices but also she believes in what she teaches.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Morgan when she said that teachers should be proactive in their approach to teaching healthy lifestyle choices but it is not the teacher's responsibility to enforce healthy lifestyle choices. I think that teachers should be active but they cannot force the students to choose the healthier lunch option. The teacher can provide all the important information and model healthy lifestyle choices, but at the end of the day the student has to make those choices on his/her own. I also think that students are strongly influenced by the lifestyle choices their parents make as well. So this is also a factor that can influence whether a child decides to pick the healthier lunch option.
With all this being said, I strongly believe that the teacher should be active in teaching students about healthy lifestyle choices and this is the role I will take when I become a teacher.
I would have to take both sides as a teacher. From what I have seen, while being in the classroom, there is no space in the day to add another subject, when subjects like science and social studies are hardly taught. This means that health definitely has no space to be taught. However, there are different ways that health can be taught without actually forming a lesson around it. Teachers can limit what children bring for snack or lunch, if they bring their own lunch. Teachers can put a limit on the types of drinks that students drink. A teacher can say that they can only have water in the classroom. When the teacher gives them treats or has classroom parties, he/she can only bring the students and have them bring healthy snacks, such as fruits and 100% juices. There doesn't have to be a lesson performed around the topic; however, the teacher can casually talk about the topic with her students whenever necessary.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I will take an active part in educating my students about what it is to be healthy. It is great that schools are now providing the students with healthier lunch options, but if the students don't understand why or what being healthy means than the students will be less likely to choose those healthy lunch options. We all know that candy is not allowed to be given out in schools, even for holidays such as Valentine's day but I believe this is taking it a step to far. As their teacher, I would find the time ever so often, to educate my class about what being healthy is and the benefits of being healthy, including making healthy food choices. Taking away a child's right to have candy doesn't make them necessarily healthy, it makes them confused and more likely to eat it when they go home. I believe that if we want our students to be healthier, we have to show them how, explain to them, model it for them, but most of all, let them make the choices for themselves. If they have all the right information, they will choose more of the right things.
ReplyDeleteI believe as a teacher it is important to make sure your students are healthy. Obesity has become a huge issue in this country and I have seen methods of prevention. At the school district I grew up in, they have banned "birthday and holiday parties" in the classroom. When it is a child's birthday, rather than how it was when I was growing up which was bringing in a baked good and having a mini party, the child gets a birthday pencil from the principal and can choose whether they want extra recess time, some time spent outside at the end of the day, a "no homework" pass, a game they want to play, etc. My high school also prevented selling anything with "sugar" as the first ingredient, starting my sophomore year of high school.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is sad that some schools have banned these holiday and birthday parties with the treats and baked goods, I do have to blame some parents for this. My mom is the school secretary at my old elementary school I was just discussing about before, and she said that parents would come in with jumbo cupcakes slathered in pounds of frosting--I mean what happened to the simple munchkins or chocolate chip cookies? Some parents would get out of hand with the baked goods and it would turn into a contest of "which child can bring the best birthday treat?"
Anyway, I personally believe that as a teacher, like Tiffany said, I would casually discuss healthy choices with my class rather than making a huge unit of study out of it. I do believe it is important for children to be healthy, but it is sad that the birthday and holiday celebrations I had when growing up are "banned" in most school districts. I wish the children could have these parties still, but the parents could learn to not bring the obnoxious junk food and bring very simple treats!
As a teacher, I will take an active role in teaching my students about what it means to be healthy. I agree with Jennifer in that teachers need to be active-role models for the students and therefore need to explain the importance of maintaining a good diet and exercise. There is no denying that there are many subjects that teachers need to cover in a day and finding time to teach health lessons is hard. However, teachers can have mini-lessons about healthy food choices during snack or incorporate the subject through reading or science. For example, during snack time in my current classroom, my cooperating teacher sometimes goes around the room and has the students say what they are eating. As they share the snack aloud, the rest of the class has to decide whether the food is a “go,” “slow,” or “woah.” In the beginning of the year, she taught a basic health lesson that explained the importance of having a healthy lifestyle and the consequences of not eating properly. She brought in a selection of food and the students had to break them into different categories. “Go” foods are foods that are good to eat and you should eat most often (fruits, veggies, and meats etc). “Slow” foods are foods that you should eat less often as they are higher in fat and calories (juice, peanut butter, pasta etc). The “whoa” category consists of foods that should be eaten once in awhile and are very high in fat and calories (fruit-loops, French fries, cake, bacon etc). My cooperating teacher also color-coated the categories like a traffic light with the green, yellow, and red. I think that this a fantastic basic lesson to eating healthy and I love how she refers back to it. It really gets the students thinking about the snacks they are eating and they realize how healthy or unhealthy their choices are.
ReplyDeleteIf teacher do not have enough time to teach a whole lesson, they can easily read books to their students about making healthy choices. There are great informational books that explain the importance of eating right and exercising. A formal lesson does not necessarily have to follow; the students will learn just by hearing the text. I think that it is important for teachers to provide important information regarding what it means to be healthy and model healthy lifestyle choices. However, at the end of the day, teachers cannot control what their students eat.
Like many of my classmates, I would identify myself as becoming more of teacher who promotes healthy eating habits. While separate lessons or mini lessons are great, I think that eating healthy could be snuck in as a component in the other subjects that are already being taught. Teachers could talk about eating habits in math, social studies, science, and language arts. It could be incorporated in the form of math word problems or as open ended prompts. Healthy videos could be incorporated in it as well, so that information given to the students isn't purely in lecture or during readings.
ReplyDeleteOf course, kids are kids, and they will dislike many healthy practices like eating their veggies. I think teachers should encourage parents to cook with their children similar to how parents are encouraged to read with their children. When children cook with their parents, not only does family bonding occur, but children will find out what ingredients goes in their food and therefore would have reinforcement in understanding the food facts they learned in school while they're at home. This would also probably cause a sense of appreciation for home cooked meals rather than fast food.
Overall, I think that children should be taught that eating healthy is not so you could fit nicely into clothes or remain skinny when you get older, but it is a way of life. Eating healthy affects not only one's physical well being, but also one'a emotional and mental well being. Teachers spend about 7-8 hours in the day for about 180 a year with their students. That's great amount of time and influence that the teacher could have on the lifestyle their students could have. Teaching healthy habits should be one of the things that teachers should pass on to their students.
Our culture has definitely become one of laziness and doing what you want, even if it is not necessarily good for you, which has undoubtedly affected the health of countless Americans. I think that it is certainly important for the classroom and physical education teacher to teach students about exercising, healthy eating habits, and positive body image. However, why should this fall solely on teachers? It is the parents' responsibility to monitor their children's health, including weight, and make sure their children are getting the adequate calories and nutrients needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Parents should also be teaching children how to make healthy choices on their own by encouraging their children to help them cook meals and try new foods. Teaching a healthy lifestyle also means making sure children are not spending hours upon hours sitting on the couch watching television, playing video games, or playing on their phone or other devices but instead getting exercise through playing organized sports or simply playing outside. We can absolutely reinforce these ideas in school, but as with everything else, if it is not also taught and enforced at home, are the students really going to understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle?
ReplyDeleteChristina Calvitto
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to teach students healthy lifestyle choices. It can easily be taught during a health or science lesson. A teacher doesn't need to spend excessive amount of time on teaching about healthy food choices and the benefits. I observed a teacher that taught several lessons on the food pyramid and exercise. Also, she had the students create a balanced meal with the different sections of the food pyramid. In addition to the health lesson, she incorporated math involving the prices of food. Therefore, it doesn't take much time to introduce healthy food choices and it can be incorporated with difference subjects.
I think that children's health today is very important. I also believe that it should be taught in the classroom; many parents today are working full time jobs, sometimes two jobs and when they come home they are tired to cook and just give their children fast food. In the class I am observing in the children are not told what snacks and lunch they can and cannot bring in; but candy is a definite no. I actually was able teach a health lesson on the food pyramid and on good and bad sugar. Brain Pop has great videos and activities for elementary students to watch and learn about a healthy lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteLauren Jarvis
I believe its important to teach children about health and healthy lifestyles. However, at the end of the day, it is the parent who packs the child's lunch and decides what they eat for dinner at home. As educators, we can do only that..educate. We cannot change their entire lifestyle or how their parents choose to feed them.
ReplyDeleteEducating the children about physical activity is beneficial as well. Its important to stress playing outside, playing sports and keeping active rather than sitting inside watching tv or playing video games. I remember growing up, my sister and I would be running around outside until my mom called us in for dinner. Times have changed drastically with all of the technology!
I have held the viewpoint that teachers hold the role of educators in position of the parents during the school period. This does not mean teachers replace parents; it means teachers take on the roles of guardian during school-time. As pseudo-parents, teachers must think of the OVERALL well-being of the student in aspects mentally, physically, and emotionally. Teachers do this through a well tested method known as teaching. "Who knew!?" Educating students on aspect beyond the material is what teachers have been doing since the first teacher. I find it absurd to complain about raising awareness on aspects that would make the material important. Teaching effectively means making the facts meaningful to the students' lives. Have health oriented science classes that inform students on the pros and cons of certain foods. Children will eat that stuff up!!
ReplyDeleteI am definitely the teacher who will take an active role in helping students to get healthy. The classroom teacher I am currently observing does a whole lesson on foods and how to determine healthy foods. She is able to sneak this in right before she talks about organic chemistry (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, etc.). The students actually find this lesson very interesting. The teacher has the students evaluate nutrition labels and they even study menus from local restaurants. It was interesting to see some of the student’s reactions. I think it is very important, especially today, to get more involved in students’ lives. However, I do agree a little with the teacher who feels that it is not the job of the education system to help children get healthy. Teachers can teach about how to be healthy, but in reality students are only in school for about six hours out of the day. Even if the students choose healthy snacks at home, they are not the ones cooking dinner. If the parents are not cooking a healthy meal, the students should not starve themselves. I know my mother only made certain things for dinner and if we wanted to eat that is what we ate. She would always say, “I am not a restaurant; you will eat what I serve you.” The one thing that children can do, though, is to eat healthy portions of whatever they are served. There is great awareness about child obesity, but it is not the school system’s fault. Parents and families should be helping their children get healthy, together with schools.
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