Each October, educators, well being professionals, and communities mark Well being Literacy Month which is a time to shine a lightweight on the significance of understanding and utilizing well being info to make knowledgeable decisions. At its core, well being literacy is about greater than studying a pamphlet or following physician’s orders. It’s about giving folks, together with our college students, the boldness, information, and abilities to entry dependable info, ask good questions, weigh choices, and take constructive steps towards making, and inspiring, well being enhancing behaviors.
For faculties, this focus couldn’t be extra well timed. At present’s college students are rising up surrounded by a flood of well being info from social media developments to wellness influencers to public well being messages. That is more likely to be a subject that you’re contemplating speaking to your college students about. Serving to college students develop the power to kind reality from fiction, and to use what they be taught to real-life choices, is a ability that lasts effectively past the classroom.
Listed below are some sensible, partaking actions to do that Well being Literacy Month:
Learn a weblog publish (or two). Adam Mullis wrote an superior publish for the SHAPE America weblog, entitled 7 Methods to Flip Well being Literacy Month Right into a Faculty-Vast Celebration. The publish contains suggestions for pitching concepts to your administration, recruiting a staff of like-minded folks that will help you plan, fundraise, and ship enjoyable and interactive occasions inside your faculty group, and past.
In the event you respect Adam’s pleasure for selling all issues well being as a lot as I do, then you definitely’ll additionally respect his microblog publish Why Your Faculty Wants a Well being Truthful. On this publish he shares the guidelines that labored for him when he organized ‘Well being-A-Paloooza’, a school-wide group well being honest designed to extend bodily literacy in a enjoyable, partaking approach.
Take heed to a podcast. On the danger of this turning into an Adam Mullis appreciation publish, you’ll love the power from Adam, Lennie Parham, and Melissa Quigley within the newest Faculty Well being Educators Podcast. Award successful educator, administrator and writer Lori Reichel Ph. D., created the podcast as a constructive discussion board to share greatest practices for Okay-12 well being schooling academics. On this episode, three members of SHAPE America’s Nationwide Well being Training Council (HEC) share their mission, tasks, methods you may get concerned, and the significance of advocating for well being schooling. Additionally coated is the significance of Well being Literacy Month and how one can convey it to life in your faculty or group!
Print out superior sources to share together with your group. This Well being Ed 101 Dad or mum Flyer is simply one of many glorious sources created by SHAPE America. This can be a colourful overview of what college students be taught in well being schooling and why it issues. It helps households (and different stakeholders) perceive the targets, matters and advantages of well being schooling whereas addressing frequent questions on well being schooling class. I’ve this flyer printed and displayed in our workplace and I plan on sending it to households prematurely of my new cohort of scholars within the new yr.
Right here’s the hyperlink to SHAPE America’s different well being literacy printables. You’ll discover supplies on inclusive practices in well being ed, applicable practices in well being ed on your directors to have a look at, plus hyperlinks to webinars and workshops.
Usher in Visitor Audio system. Invite native well being professionals corresponding to nurses, dietitians, counselors, and even older college students in health-related profession pathways, to share how they use well being info of their each day work. It offers college students function fashions and real-world functions.
The 2023 Youth Danger Conduct Survey Knowledge Abstract & Tendencies Report made suggestions for the well being of our youth, together with the next: “Join youth and households to community-based sources of care.” At my faculty, we invite a neighborhood group to talk with our college students, whose companies embody particular person and group counseling, social abilities teams, youth growth and mentoring packages, well being schooling, and disaster intervention. This chance connects our college students with help companies and in addition offers youth management alternatives inside the group.
Put money into your individual skilled growth. Along with the SHAPE America webinars talked about above, discover the chance of attending the following Well being and PE convention*. This Justification Toolkit from SHAPE America is a good useful resource. It contains suggestions for talking together with your principal/supervisor, a wants/advantages desk to assist develop speaking factors about how attending the nationwide conference will show you how to meet the wants of your faculty/district, and a pre-written and customizable justification letter to make use of when establishing a face-to-face assembly together with your supervisor.
If attending a convention isn’t potential, be sure to subscribe to some nice newsletters from well being educators. I extremely suggest Christopher Pepper‘s Teen Well being At present. You may also like this e-newsletter from my good good friend Scott Todnem. One other good friend of mine, Jeff Bartlett shares nice skills-based sources in his common e-newsletter. Jeff was additionally concerned within the creation of The HPE Collectivealongside Jordan Manley. It’s a dynamic platform constructed to serve well being and bodily educators and one other free useful resource so that you can take into account.
Whether or not you’re internet hosting a visitor speaker, sharing a podcast, or simply sparking conversations in school, Well being Literacy Month is an opportunity to attach college students with abilities that may serve them for all times. Let’s hold empowering them to make knowledgeable, assured, and compassionate decisions about their well being and the well being of these round them.
*In the event you’re attending NYSAHPERD in November, IAHPERD in December or #SHAPEKC or in March, remember to come and say hello as I’ll be presenting health-related periods at every of them.
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Serving to College students Enhance Their Well being Literacy by Andy Horne
5 Questions I Requested My Center Faculty College students This 12 months by Emily Zien
Introducing The HPE Collective by Jordan Manley
