Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

“What messages are parents and the school sending when we are rewarding coming to school 100% of days? The message is this: We want you at school no matter what it takes. ” About a year ago, I attended a graduation for an elementary school in which students received recognition and awards for perfect attendance. Granted, the two students who won received bicycles (yah for promoting a health recognition gift versus a Pizza Hut gift card), however I want to address how this Read ▸ about Stop Rewarding for Perfect Attendance

By Samantha LoweMedia literacy refers to the ability to check if your source is creditable and ensure the information you are reading is accurate and based in science. And, it’s becoming increasingly more important. The skill of media literacy should be applied to all information you read on the internet but often people tend to believe whatever they read, credible or not. We often address “fake” news/information in adult populations, but what about adolescents? Young teens and teens are even Read ▸ about An Argument for Media Literacy within Middle School Sex Education

By Liz Thorne I recently worked with the Oregon School Based Health Alliance to develop and facilitate a training to build capacity for staff that coordinate youth action councils or school health action councils (YACs or SHACs). The work is funded through the Oregon Health Read ▸ about Building Youth-Adult Partnerships

How can our tobacco prevention public health partners support youth tobacco prevention and cessation? In a couple of weeks, I have the opportunity to work with 75 Kentucky county tobacco coordinators. My hope is to work with them on some visioning and discuss evidence-based strategies when doing this work. I won't have time to focus specifically on adolescent health, as the day's focus is on all of Kentucky's population, however, wanted to suggest some ideas for anyone working on youth tobacco Read ▸ about Adolescent Health- Tobacco Prevention Ideas!

With so little time to teach health education and so many content areas being added annually, health education instruction is not as not as effective as it could be. Meth bills, opioid bills, bullying prevention bills... is that really the answer? Putting more pressure on health teachers to teach more content? Read ▸ about Another Reactive Legislative Bill Isn’t Going to Help

The entire K-12 content area or discipline of health education needs a new identity. My generation and older remembers health ed as the class where you learned to Just Say No, or that having sex means you'll have blisters on your genitalia. We remember reading Chapter 11 on smoking cigarettes and answering 5 questions at the end of the chapter to assess our knowledge that smoking is bad.Unfortunately, health education has continued to be branded in peoples' minds as drug ed and sex ed. Those Read ▸ about Health Education Blog Post Series Part 1: Health Education Needs a New Identity

By Liz ThorneThe #MeToo movement has shown the extent to which acts of rape, sexual violence and sexual misconduct permeate the lives of countless women, as well the people and institutions that allow it to perpetuate like an “open secret”. Last month, the news of allegations of sexual misconduct against Asis Ansari added a new dimension to the #MeToo discourse. There was a debate about whether the actions of Asis belonged in the same conversation as the actions of Harvey Weinstein or Larry Read ▸ about Supporting K-12 Schools to #TeachThem in a Time of #MeToo

By Samantha LoweAdolescent perceptions of parental interactions do not get as much attention as they deserve, gone are the days of the common "because I said so" parent reasoning, it is now time for open, honest, and factual conversations about sex and contraception.  Speaking with your adolescents about sexual encounters is important, currently over 40% of adolescents report they had sex before any conversation with their parents about contraception  (Grossman et al., 2017).  Read ▸ about An Article Review: “We Talked About Sex.” “No, We Didn’t”: Exploring Adolescent and Parent Agreement About Sexuality Communication