The acknowledgment of educators on the importance of students' health and wellness is imperative to student growth and academic success. Planning for movement, physical activity, and social-emotional growth should be well thought out by an educator. It is vital that educators 

that educators provide as many opportunities for students to get up and move as possible. Realizing all students achieve higher when they are socially, emotionally, and physically healthy. Countless hours of research have been done, showing students achieve higher scores, concentration is greater, attendance is better and behavior is more positive when students are in a healthy state both emotionally and physically. Planning lessons that allow students to move around the classroom promotes oxygen and blood flow to vital organs, which improves cognitive development, mental health, and overall well-being of our students. Students are in a physical and mental state to learn when they are well-rested and have the proper nutrition to increase focus on new material.

 

All schools should provide a means to provide this nutrition to students who do not receive this at home. Nutritional balance is often met through school breakfast and lunch programs for a minimal cost to families. State free and reduced lunch programs often assist families with low income in providing meals to students. Educators must be privy that what a student receives through the school lunch programs might be their only source of nutrition in the day.

 

Promoting and supporting healthy lifestyles can be supported and reinforced within each classroom. Allowing students healthy snacks such as fruit, vegetables, water, and natural juices alternatively to high sugar sodas, energy drinks, junk snacks, and candies. These alternatives can both increase the focus of hungry students by have shown to provide the necessary energy to keep students motivated.

Keeping students active within a class is also an important way to break up classroom activities within a lesson by also keeping students engaged. Physical activities also promote healthy choices by getting students moving and involved in some sort of physical exercise. 

 

I tried to implement one activity into every lesson that got students out of their seats. I would often plan for gallery walks. For a gallery walk, I would usually hang papers around the room that have QR codes on them for the students to read with their phones and then respond to. I know that, as educators, we push for students to keep their phones out of sight, but I have always fought for the importance of teaching students when it’s an appropriate time to use technology and when they need to have their phones away. After all, we are preparing them for college and careers, which allow the use of phones at the appropriate times. Another one of my favorite activities to implement is in-classroom field trips. I know the first thing we think about is usually virtual field trips, but I’m talking more than scheduling a zoom call, I bring the field trip into my classroom. I set up my room just as if students were actually on the field trip. When I was teaching agriculture, I would set my room up like a farm during the animal science unit. I would have each station represent a different animal, its food or fiber, and their by-products. Then, the students would venture to each area of the room to learn about the different species involved in the animal science industry. Students were responsible for taking notes, so I could ensure that they had made their way to each station in the room. Field trips can often be expensive and hard to plan around a schedule when other teachers need the students in their room, too. So, I came up with this idea because it honestly isn’t feasible to take all students to businesses or farms that raise each species of an animal when it comes to cost, time, or transportation.

 

Through FFA - our agriculture student organization - I would host a ‘Barnyard Day’ where the first graders from Bennett School District would come to the high school and get to tour through the shop and a parking lot filled with equipment and animals that the high school students in FFA brought in. This was always a day looked forward to by high schoolers and first graders, alike. The high schools would make posters and plan mini-lessons about their species to present to the first graders.

 

I would be remised if I didn't mention encouraging students to get involved in athletics or activities. I feel that is one of the biggest ways to ensure that students stay on top of their grades and keep healthy overall well-being. As human beings, we crave to be involved in something bigger than ourselves and without it, we are without purpose. I honestly believe this is our biggest struggle in education because, without afterschool or extracurricular activities, we are breeding a culture of laziness - not just in our schools, but in our nation. Extracurricular activities positively influence students’ self-esteem, create opportunities for students to connect with others, teach students how to work with others, and be a part of a team along with other important life skills and have been directly linked to improve academically and personally.