Choice 1 or Choice 2. Hot or Cold. Eat at school or go out. What are our students eating? Is it healthy? Do they have enough time? I wonder this as I helped serve lunch for All Star Lunch Week. The students thought it was great to have a new teacher serving them their meal for the day. But as I watched closely as each student went through the line and then began to eat, they barely had anything on their trays and the last student to go through the line only had 7 minutes to eat. How can we expect children to perform after having a snack when it should have been one of the more important and filling meals of their day?
According to CHOICE, Citizens for Healthy Options In Children’s Education, children who intake a healthy lunch are more peaceful in their studies and in social environments. The School Lunch Program was founded in 1946 to ensure all students were provided a health meal. Students can receive meals at cost, reduced cost, or free according to their family income. Students gain almost ½ or their nutritional intake from their school lunch and depend on the nutrients. School lunch maybe the only hot meal of the day, or even worse, could be the only meal the child is getting. So why is their not more focus put on school lunches?
The School Nutrition Association is coming up with a plan to make school lunches healthier and more appealing to students. They believe if students develop healthy habits at a young age it will carry over into upper grades and also into adult life, hoping to lead to a healthy, active lifestyle. They are bringing in Chef Ann Cooper, the “Renegade Lunch Lady”, to speak during their next conference about the “Lunch Box: Healthy Tools to Help all Students” initiative in hopes of bringing stakeholders together to provide healthier school lunches.
Kids Health online offers great ideas to encourage your child to make healthy choices while at school and offers some ideas of packing healthy lunches from home. They also provide comparisons of foods once or still served in school lunches and offer alternatives to replace these foods. For example, replacing bologna with turkey ham and mayonnaise with mustard has less fat, and fewer calories.
Time for Lunch is a national campaign designed to provide students with foods that are clean, good and fair. Congress will be meeting in 2010 to address school lunches and Time for Lunch has hopes of change. Their mission is to get more funding to raise it from $1 a child, protect children from junk food, and link schools to local farms. Time for Lunch also partners with Better School Food and offers several suggestions for healthier eating in schools and at home.
I think change needs to happen in schools to improve their lunches and allow students to make good choices and take the time to eat. I feel this will lead to healthier classrooms and healthier lifestyles.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Exercise, Exercise, Repeat
After having a poll in my classroom this week about what my students like to do after school, I found a wonderful topic to blog about. How much exercise should children be getting? I was astounded to find 95% of my class, their favorite thing to do after school involved some type of video game or tv show. I asked if any of them enjoyed playing outside. Most said they would rather play their games. Although they did think playing a Wii constitutes as exercise.
According to the American Heart Association children now are less fit than they were a generation ago. They have higher risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and being overweight. Children in this generation also watch more TV. On average, they watch about 3 hours of TV each day. If you put that into an elementary child’s day, they attend school and would get home and watch TV until they ate and then would most likely do some homework and go to bed. The American Heart Association also states if children are sedentary at a young age, they are more likely to be sedentary as adults.
How much exercise does a child need? According to David Geller, pediatrician, a grade-schooler needs 30 minutes of exercise every day. This does not mean it needs to be an organized physical activity, but children need the opportunity to run, play, dance, wrestle and be active. At my school, students are required to get 90 minutes of gym a week and 15 minutes of recess a day. I didn’t think this was enough but then remembered they also are receiving 45 minutes a week of health which teaches them about healthy choices and the importance of exercise. David Geller also states it is important for parents to be involved and help their child be active. Take a walk, play tag or go to the park and play during the weekends are a great way to spend time together and get exercise.
What are the specific benefits of children exercising? According to Kids Health, there are several benefits that include, strong bones and muscles, lower diabetes rate, and less likely of becoming overweight. It also states, kids who exercise sleep better and handle issues better. Kids Health also states a child should work on all areas of fitness: endurance, strength and flexibility. They offer several examples and the amounts of times each age group should spend on physical activity a day.
What are people doing to promote exercise? The NFL has teamed up with schools to promote exercise and being active. They have a program called Play 60 which encourages kids to be active for 60 minutes a day. One school in Tampa Bay, FL had a presentation of the importance of exercise from retired football league players. They also had a chance to attend the NFL experience and participate in many activities to get them active such as kick and pass the ball. Now, wouldn’t it be great if every school had this opportunity to help our children become active?
What will happen if the children today do not realize the importance of exercise? How will that change the world? How will it affect the medical world? How will it affect the physical education and recess programs in our schools? I guess only time will tell…
According to the American Heart Association children now are less fit than they were a generation ago. They have higher risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and being overweight. Children in this generation also watch more TV. On average, they watch about 3 hours of TV each day. If you put that into an elementary child’s day, they attend school and would get home and watch TV until they ate and then would most likely do some homework and go to bed. The American Heart Association also states if children are sedentary at a young age, they are more likely to be sedentary as adults.
How much exercise does a child need? According to David Geller, pediatrician, a grade-schooler needs 30 minutes of exercise every day. This does not mean it needs to be an organized physical activity, but children need the opportunity to run, play, dance, wrestle and be active. At my school, students are required to get 90 minutes of gym a week and 15 minutes of recess a day. I didn’t think this was enough but then remembered they also are receiving 45 minutes a week of health which teaches them about healthy choices and the importance of exercise. David Geller also states it is important for parents to be involved and help their child be active. Take a walk, play tag or go to the park and play during the weekends are a great way to spend time together and get exercise.
What are the specific benefits of children exercising? According to Kids Health, there are several benefits that include, strong bones and muscles, lower diabetes rate, and less likely of becoming overweight. It also states, kids who exercise sleep better and handle issues better. Kids Health also states a child should work on all areas of fitness: endurance, strength and flexibility. They offer several examples and the amounts of times each age group should spend on physical activity a day.
What are people doing to promote exercise? The NFL has teamed up with schools to promote exercise and being active. They have a program called Play 60 which encourages kids to be active for 60 minutes a day. One school in Tampa Bay, FL had a presentation of the importance of exercise from retired football league players. They also had a chance to attend the NFL experience and participate in many activities to get them active such as kick and pass the ball. Now, wouldn’t it be great if every school had this opportunity to help our children become active?
What will happen if the children today do not realize the importance of exercise? How will that change the world? How will it affect the medical world? How will it affect the physical education and recess programs in our schools? I guess only time will tell…
Friday, October 16, 2009
Good Vs. Bad
He sits there and doesn’t work. You give him a kindly reminder to start working and he still doesn’t. He turns to his neighbor and starts talking. You remind him about his sticker chart and give him yet another reminder to start working. He doesn’t. He comes and asks to go the bathroom. You say no, he pouts and walks away. You give him a warning he needs to work and he chooses to throw himself on the floor and scream. What do you do next? Could this situation have been avoided?
Behavior modification. What is it? According to Vicki Phipps, behavior modification is the theory that rewarding a good behavior is more effective than punishing a bad behavior. She also states you should reward the good behavior as soon as it happens. This helps a child realize how important good behavior is, in hopes of it becoming intrinsically motivating. She also provides several different types of behavior modifications to try.
According to LD Online there are steps to managing behavior through consequences. Consequences that are reinforcers strengthen behavior and consequences that are punishments weaken behavior. First you need to identify the problem and define it. Then you need to come up with a way to change the behavior. Identify a specific reinforcer and how you will implement it. Finally you need to apply the reinforcement and use it consistently. This website has several examples of different examples for behavior consequences and modifications. Some of them are very simple and some are quite complex. I am wondering how a teacher with 21 students handles more than 4-5 behaviors?
I came across another site on how to handle students who have more than one behavior. The Ehow site gives 7 steps to behavior modification. Starting with evaluating the behavior, observing the child, identifying the behavior and what you want it to look like, and sitting down with the child to tell them what you expect. Other steps include figuring out what compliance would look like, offering rewards for behavior that is changed, and also being ready for days that don’t go so well. I think this site is very helpful for not only teachers finding the first step, but for parents as well. I also think these modifications can only truly work if both teacher and parent are on the same page.
But a few things I wonder are why does it seem there are so many more behaviors each year I teach. Are students becoming less respectful of their teachers? Does it start with bad parenting? Or maybe just parents are parenting differently and giving kids more slack when it comes to modifying behaviors. Or maybe it’s my teaching style. I wonder if I will ever find the answers…
Behavior modification. What is it? According to Vicki Phipps, behavior modification is the theory that rewarding a good behavior is more effective than punishing a bad behavior. She also states you should reward the good behavior as soon as it happens. This helps a child realize how important good behavior is, in hopes of it becoming intrinsically motivating. She also provides several different types of behavior modifications to try.
According to LD Online there are steps to managing behavior through consequences. Consequences that are reinforcers strengthen behavior and consequences that are punishments weaken behavior. First you need to identify the problem and define it. Then you need to come up with a way to change the behavior. Identify a specific reinforcer and how you will implement it. Finally you need to apply the reinforcement and use it consistently. This website has several examples of different examples for behavior consequences and modifications. Some of them are very simple and some are quite complex. I am wondering how a teacher with 21 students handles more than 4-5 behaviors?
I came across another site on how to handle students who have more than one behavior. The Ehow site gives 7 steps to behavior modification. Starting with evaluating the behavior, observing the child, identifying the behavior and what you want it to look like, and sitting down with the child to tell them what you expect. Other steps include figuring out what compliance would look like, offering rewards for behavior that is changed, and also being ready for days that don’t go so well. I think this site is very helpful for not only teachers finding the first step, but for parents as well. I also think these modifications can only truly work if both teacher and parent are on the same page.
But a few things I wonder are why does it seem there are so many more behaviors each year I teach. Are students becoming less respectful of their teachers? Does it start with bad parenting? Or maybe just parents are parenting differently and giving kids more slack when it comes to modifying behaviors. Or maybe it’s my teaching style. I wonder if I will ever find the answers…
Thursday, October 8, 2009
I'll just go buy it with my own money.
The school year begins and suddenly you realize you need tons of extra supplies your school doesn’t already own. So you make the trip to your local Walmart or teacher store in hopes of finding some deals. While you are there, you find 25 different items in addition to the ones on your list you forgot to think about. Plus you add some extra school supplies to your cart for the students who will forget, can’t afford or loose within the first week of school. You walk out, head down as you just put almost $250 on your credit card. As you are walking to your car, you sink even lower as you think of the parties, motivational items, snacks and other miscellaneous items you will have to purchase throughout the year. But you raise your head back up as you remember, you are a teacher, it is part of the job, and it will make your student’s lives a little easier. Sound familiar? Should “are you willing to spend money out of your own pocket” be included on a teaching application? Or is it something that is common knowledge you gain as a college student?
How much DO teachers spend out of pocket? In a journal article posted by Questia several schools were studied to poll how much money teachers spend out of pocket. Minnesota schools were on the radar. K-12 teachers spent approximately $492 of their own money on their classrooms/students. Add it all up and Minnesota teachers spend almost 23 million dollars each year out of pocket.
In an article written by John Fitzgerald, posted on the Minnesota 2020 website, he states teachers in 2005 had a starting salary of $29,907 their first year of teaching. He also stated how new teachers are the ones who are spending the most out of pocket due to the fact veteran teachers have had years of purchases carrying over. One thing Fitzgerald found teachers spend their own money on, is filling gaps in state curriculum. One example given was a teacher who was short 2 books and went out and purchased them herself. As a teacher, I would do the same thing. But why? Why wouldn’t it be possible for the district or state to provide 2 more books? Is it too time consuming? Is it really going to put a huge crunch on the budget?
After adding up how much money I have spent in my classroom over my 3 years and complaining about it, I have to say I finally have all my family members trained what to keep their eyes open for at garage sales, auction sales, or even stuff people are giving away. I started looking for more numbers to see if Minnesota teachers were at the high or low end of out of pocket expenditures. I came across one website reporting on Los Angeles teachers and their out of pocket expenditures. I was astounded to find teachers are spending over $1,000 each year from their pocket. One kindergarten teacher spends between $3,000 and $5,000 each year on her classroom.
Do we have any help? According to current law, you can deduct up to $250 of education supplies on your taxes to help with some of the expense. You need to be considered an eligible educator and the supplies are ones that are not reimbursed from your school.
But if on average teachers are spending around $500 for their classroom and only getting to deduct $250, what happens with the rest of the money? Will we ever think we have enough to get what we need?
How much DO teachers spend out of pocket? In a journal article posted by Questia several schools were studied to poll how much money teachers spend out of pocket. Minnesota schools were on the radar. K-12 teachers spent approximately $492 of their own money on their classrooms/students. Add it all up and Minnesota teachers spend almost 23 million dollars each year out of pocket.
In an article written by John Fitzgerald, posted on the Minnesota 2020 website, he states teachers in 2005 had a starting salary of $29,907 their first year of teaching. He also stated how new teachers are the ones who are spending the most out of pocket due to the fact veteran teachers have had years of purchases carrying over. One thing Fitzgerald found teachers spend their own money on, is filling gaps in state curriculum. One example given was a teacher who was short 2 books and went out and purchased them herself. As a teacher, I would do the same thing. But why? Why wouldn’t it be possible for the district or state to provide 2 more books? Is it too time consuming? Is it really going to put a huge crunch on the budget?
After adding up how much money I have spent in my classroom over my 3 years and complaining about it, I have to say I finally have all my family members trained what to keep their eyes open for at garage sales, auction sales, or even stuff people are giving away. I started looking for more numbers to see if Minnesota teachers were at the high or low end of out of pocket expenditures. I came across one website reporting on Los Angeles teachers and their out of pocket expenditures. I was astounded to find teachers are spending over $1,000 each year from their pocket. One kindergarten teacher spends between $3,000 and $5,000 each year on her classroom.
Do we have any help? According to current law, you can deduct up to $250 of education supplies on your taxes to help with some of the expense. You need to be considered an eligible educator and the supplies are ones that are not reimbursed from your school.
But if on average teachers are spending around $500 for their classroom and only getting to deduct $250, what happens with the rest of the money? Will we ever think we have enough to get what we need?
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Until the bell rings... or maybe longer
During collaboration meetings with my fellow second grade teachers this week, a wonderful blog topic was brought to my attention. Would you support an extended school day? President Obama has brought it to the table. There have been many critics giving their opinion on this matter. In an article posted by Fox News the main issue was what type of an impact it would have on summer activities. I had not realized there was so much more to extending a school year than just what the students, parents, and teachers thought. In the article, they highlight the effect it would have on hotels, summer hot spots and camps. It states an extended school year would have a dire effect to the economy and would only make things worse. But wouldn’t families still take vacations? Wouldn’t you still send your child to camp even though they went to school longer into the summer? Obama’s idea to extend the school year is in hopes of increasing learning, increasing test scores and closing the achievement gap when competing against other countries.
I wonder, as a teacher, would you support an extended day? I also wondered if myself, as a parent, what I might think if the school year was extended. A school in Chicopee, Massachusetts has plenty of support after extending their school day 100 minutes. Patrick E. Bowe Elementary is working off a grant and has found several advantages of extending their school day. The teacher’s support it because of the extra time to fit in subjects that are otherwise put on the back burner and forgotten about such as social studies and science. According to the site the students support the extended day overall. Although some feel they do not get as much free time at home or feel some subjects drag on.
Envisioning an extended school day, I wondered what problems you would run into as not only a teacher, but as a school. Would the students be too tired? How would the day be set up? Would you have longer specials such as gym and music? Would you have to have a morning and afternoon snack? One website, Issues with the Extended School Day, made some great points about some of the issues an extended school day would bring, such as properly maintaining the interest of the children. Making sure they are not sitting for all hours of the day. They also made some points about having the support of the local and federal government. Making sure teachers are supported through proper pay and resources are one way to motivate teachers and in turn pass their motivation onto their students.
I feel rushed everyday and never feel I have enough time to complete everything I need to. I feel I do not have time to teach everything my students need. But is extending the school day the answer? My day already begins at 8:05, so I don’t think it would work to go any earlier. But we end at 2:45 so that allows for plenty of room for extension. But how long would create positive results? Half hour? Forty-five minutes? An hour? What change would it bring for my students? What change would it bring for my school? Do we only find out if we give it a try?
I wonder, as a teacher, would you support an extended day? I also wondered if myself, as a parent, what I might think if the school year was extended. A school in Chicopee, Massachusetts has plenty of support after extending their school day 100 minutes. Patrick E. Bowe Elementary is working off a grant and has found several advantages of extending their school day. The teacher’s support it because of the extra time to fit in subjects that are otherwise put on the back burner and forgotten about such as social studies and science. According to the site the students support the extended day overall. Although some feel they do not get as much free time at home or feel some subjects drag on.
Envisioning an extended school day, I wondered what problems you would run into as not only a teacher, but as a school. Would the students be too tired? How would the day be set up? Would you have longer specials such as gym and music? Would you have to have a morning and afternoon snack? One website, Issues with the Extended School Day, made some great points about some of the issues an extended school day would bring, such as properly maintaining the interest of the children. Making sure they are not sitting for all hours of the day. They also made some points about having the support of the local and federal government. Making sure teachers are supported through proper pay and resources are one way to motivate teachers and in turn pass their motivation onto their students.
I feel rushed everyday and never feel I have enough time to complete everything I need to. I feel I do not have time to teach everything my students need. But is extending the school day the answer? My day already begins at 8:05, so I don’t think it would work to go any earlier. But we end at 2:45 so that allows for plenty of room for extension. But how long would create positive results? Half hour? Forty-five minutes? An hour? What change would it bring for my students? What change would it bring for my school? Do we only find out if we give it a try?
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