Healthy School News
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How to Steer Kids Through the Social Media Labyrinth
How to steer kids through the social-media labyrinth, written by Geoff Johnson, appeared in the Times Colonist Aug 28/22. Adult supervision is not always welcome by kids when it comes to steering them through the social media labyrinth. The Geoff Johnson article...
Using the medicine/wellness wheel
From the article Changing within to strengthen community: Gina Wilson joined the Canadian federal government 25 years ago and has steadily risen through the ranks. Ms. Wilson is currently the deputy minister of women and gender equality and youth. She is an...
A School’s Guide to Success: The 7 Cs
I was one of the authors of The Wellness Priorities Survey Project, Dec 2000. The design was completed by a team at Reynolds Secondary School, Victoria, BC, Canada. The foundation was the Wellness Wheel. The 7 Cs that lead to success in schools: Concentrating on...
The Importance of Social Connections
The Mental Health Foundation in the UK have published a report on Relationships in the 21st century: the forgotten foundation of mental health and wellbeing. From the website: People who are more socially connected to family, friends, or their community are happier,...
Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum
The US' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have described the characteristics of an effective health education curriculum according to reviews of effective programs and curricula and experts in the field of health education. These characteristics are all...
School Connectedness
The US' Center for Disease Control and Prevention has produced an excellent strategy guide: School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth (PDF). Families, schools and communities all need to work together to create an environment that...
Mindset “The Power of Yet” – believing you can improve
Carol Dweck, a renowned psychologist, researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not...
What Makes an Effective Health Education Curriculum?
CDC Healthy Schools (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - US) have published an informative report on Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum. Countries have direct contact with the major portion of young people aged 5 to 17 years during...
Adolescent Development Explained
The Office of Population Affairs offers helpful resources for parents and other adults who care for and work with adolescents: Adolescent Development Explained. Teens' lives are complex, can change quickly, and can present issues that did not exist (e.g. social media)...
Adolescence & School Health Videos from CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Adolescence and School Health Videos These videos provide valuable information about taking a school health approach. Investing in Student Health - The Importance of Partnerships - The video outlines how important...
Keep your Children Safe Online
This recently published comprehensive guide to internet safety is very useful. Founded in 2017, Pixel Privacy is a small team of privacy enthusiasts who work remotely from the US, Mexico and Australia. Their online privacy guides help hundreds of thousands of people...
Alcohol Link to Cancer
Even mild to moderate drinking poses risk of developing the disease, WHO researchers say. The findings are part of a modelling study from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published in the journal Lancet Oncology. ...
A lesson on fate
One's fate is in your control! INVICTUS By William Ernest Henley, 1875 Out of the night that covers me Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud....
Research for Today’s Educators
Relevant research for today's educators from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Usable Knowledge makes education research accessible to teachers, education leaders, and parents. Sign up for the Usable Knowledge newsletter. In the complex world of education HGSE...
A Study: Physical Activity & Cognitive Outcomes
I recently came across an informative article, Effects of physical activity interventions on cognitive outcomes and academic performance in adolescents and young adults: A meta-analysis. The following questions are answered in the “Conclusion." There are positive...
Sleep Better, Perform Better
Alliance for a Healthier Generation offer a number of useful resources to help improve the quality of the whole family's sleep. Healthy Sleep Toolkit How Kids Can Sleep Smarter and Perform Better Strike a Healthy Balance Between Sleep & Screentime Super Sleep...
Building Resilience
I found some excellent resources on building resilience on the American Psychological Association website. We all face stresses in our lives. Resilience is a quality that we need to understand so that obstacles can be overcome. The APA provides a road map on how to...
UNESCO and WHO urge countries to make every school a health-promoting school
UNESCO and the World Health Organization have launched the Global Standards for Health-promoting Schools, a resource package for schools to improve the health and well-being of 1.9 billion school-aged children and adolescents. The closure of many schools around the...
5-Week Guide for Creating a Caring School
Alliance for a Healthier Generation offers useful 20-minute, grade specific activities to build a caring in-person or virtual classroom community. There are also resources for staff and families. Included in the 5-Week Guide for Creating a Caring School:...
Teaching Teens About Money
While many parents want to teach their kids about the stock market, there are other financial concepts for them to grasp first. Rob Carrick, Personal Finance Columnist, outlines the 5 lessons for teens about money that are more important than learning about stocks....
A resource for teens who are drinking
Alcohol Rehab Help is an informational web guide founded in 2020. The site was created to help those struggling with alcohol use disorders (AUD), substance use disorders (SUD), and/or co-occurring mental health disorders. The goal is to help individuals understand...
The Secret to Living Longer
Social isolation is the public health risk of our time. Building your village is a matter of life and death. The secret to living longer may be your social life. Building your village can make you healthier, happier and smarter. Susan Pinker explores how our social...
What I Was Taught as an Educator
Throughout my career, I discovered teachers learn just as much from students as students learn from us. Anthony Caruso wrote this inspiring first person account well worth a read. The written student responses are taken from exit cards after a question is posed at the...
Emotional Intelligence from a Teenage Perspective
Maximillian Park speaks as a vulnerable teen to the necessity to have emotional intelligence classes in schools. He addresses the needs that young people have for the skills that come along with a high EQ. He discusses his experience with emotional intelligence, the...
Free lesson plan: Autobiography in 5 short chapters
There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk: Autobiography in Five Short Chapters I. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost…. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out. II. I walk down the same street. There...
Podcast: Tanya Talaga’s Seven Truths
Tanya Talaga’s Seven Truths highlights the fight for human rights among First Nations peoples. The basis for the Audible.ca podcast Seven Truths comes from the Seven Grandfather Teachings that guide Anishinaabe life - humility, love, honesty, bravery respect, wisdom...
Why it’s time to feel less guilty about screen time
Instead of obsessing over the hours children spend using devices, experts now suggest considering how kids are using them. Some key points from an article by Dave McGinn, Globe and Mail, January 16, 2021 - Why it’s time to feel less guilty about screen time during...
We are our Choices
French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote some of his most influential work including a theatrical drama about Christmas while he spent nine months as a prisoner of war in Stalag 12 in Nice and acknowledged, possibly for the first time, the full meaning and broader...
“Teens and Transition” Guides – ReachOut Australia
ReachOut Australia has more than 20 years’ experience of delivering digital mental health and wellbeing programs backed by their own in-house digital team. A strengths-based prevention and early intervention model is used. ReachOut is trusted by and able to...
Sex Education for Parents!
Watch this 5 minute hilarious video of a parent trying to explain the ‘facts of life’ to his son… Is this where things are now in the field of sex ed? Talk about changes to the role of parents when discussing this topic! What if grandparents, aunties, uncles are asked...