Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

Do you believe in the link between health and learning? Do you support the notion that healthy kids learn better? As I dig into more and more research on what creates effective, sustainable school health programs, you know what keeps coming up? Administrative support. District-wide implementation. Superintendents taking the lead and saying, "My district will work on school health initiatives because I know there is a correlation between addressing staff and student wellness and test scores, Read ▸ about 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring District Superintendents and School Administrators

As a child, I struggled as a reader. My mom loved to read and I remember her taking my brother and I on weekly visits to the library. We would come back with a stack of books. My books would sit collecting dust most of the week, untouched until heading back the following week to return the books and check out new ones. My brother's pile, however, were all over the house. He read these books in his bed, on the orange shag carpet in the den, in the car, on the toilet (I guess?!?). I was more of a Read ▸ about Reading, reading and more reading

Kudos to my new city for the public health plan released last week! The roadmap serves as a call to action to guide Louisville towards a healthier city. The mission of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW) is to promote health and wellness; prevent disease, illness, and injury; and protect the health and safety of Metro Louisville residents and visitors. The focus is prevention, evidence-based intervention and health in all policies. There are 13 goals within this Read ▸ about Healthy Louisville 2020; Creating a Healthier City

Jefferson County Public Schools in which Louisville is a part, has a district Coordinated School Health (CSH) Committee. It's an impressive group that represents internal and external partners, the way a district wellness committee should be. It demonstrates partnership and collaboration and diverse stakeholders and that schools can't do this work alone. The meeting is facilitated by Bonnie Ciarroccki, the Coordinator for Health Services/Health Promotion Schools of Excellence. I've been Read ▸ about Jefferson County Coordinated School Health Steering Committee Meeting

A lot of people ask me what a school health consultant does. Instead of abstractly communicating my mission, I'm going to share my current contracts and I think it will paint a clear picture of what we do!I will be the content lead for a conference dedicated to health disparities and childhood obesity funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with Clinton Foundation's Health Matters Initiative. Being the content lead means I work with all the content for the conference- videos Read ▸ about What does a National School Health Consultant do?

Recently the Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division released an executive summary and full report called, Investment in School Health Capacity; Payoffs in Health, Achievement and Stronger Communities. I foresee this document helping to support many around the nation implement school health programs. Basically this report makes the fiscal case that working on school health IS worth it. Not just for the health and well-being of our youth and staff in schools. Not just for our Read ▸ about Return on Investment for School Health

I'm responding to an article written in Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators, in the January/February issue called, It's Time to Include Nutrition Education in the Secondary Physical Education Curriculum.The authors did a good job of 'making the case' to increase both physical activity and nutrition education in schools. We have a childhood obesity problem and schools do play a role in awareness, education and prevention of this issue. The authors advocate for PE Read ▸ about Time to Include Nutrition Ed into PE?

Blog post by regularly guest blogger, Jamie Sparks, Director of Coordinated School Health at the Kentucky Department of Education. Twitter handle: @JamieSparksCSHI want to start with an analogy that I see year after year in government. The analogy starts with a fire, with the obvious goal being to extinguish it or at least reduce it in size.  The apparent logical solution is to use water, however, increasing the volume of water to put the fire out many times has little effect. It may put Read ▸ about It’s Like Throwing Water on a Fire