Health 101

  This semester I've often been left feeling quite overwhelmed. It's weird to think that in just 2 short weeks I will be out at Spring Creek Elementary teaching cute little 1st graders. Weird... and scary. Classes are trying their best to prepare us with every detail of lesson planning, how to's, and everything you need to know to teach...in just a month in a half. Needless to say its a lot in a little time. However, I would like to say something about my health class.
   My teacher is Cougar Hall. Funny right? He claims it has nothing to do with BYU though. The first day of class we walked in and he told us he'd try to memorize our names, but that before that, we'd all be "girlfriend",  or "sister". Of course he said he didn't mean anything by this because his wife is his favorite and she is "Sister Hottypants" :).
  Mr. Hall's goal for the class is to help us see how to implement health in a REALISTIC way. He teaches us to teach the functional knowledge that kids need to know. (For instance - do 1st graders really need to know that smoking kills? NO, then they're going to go home thinking their mom is going to die because she smokes. Also, do 10th graders really need to learn the food pyramid for the 8th time? As he stated what are they going to do with it? Flip it, twist it? Teach them how to implement it! )  Most teachers in the elementary level do not implement health because they feel they don't have the time. He teaches us how to implement health with simple ideas like having the kids get up and stretch for 30 seconds, giving a 10 minute lesson every Friday, etc.
  The most important thing he does though is that he teaches us not just about health, not just about teaching, but about life. I have learned so many valuable lessons from him. He takes the time to tell stories about his experiences and teaches us what we can learn from them. Some of my favorite things he's said are :
  "Don't focus on what you can't do, focus on what you can do"
  "You don't need to be THE best, you need to be YOUR best."
Last week, we talked about how sometimes we can't make everything right for students, and we need to give them a new perspective instead. Helping them gain resiliance and a new perspective helps them do that. If you've never seen Boundin from Pixar, you should watch it. It's a great clip we watched in class. We also talked about a boy named  Patrick Henry Hughes who sees his disabilities as abilities, and his teacher who told him what needed to happen and then made it happen.
  So here's a shout out to Mr. Hall, for not only teaching me how to teach health, but way more than that, teaching me the important lessons of life. Thank you!