š« Middle School Health Education Teacher š 2021 National Health Education Teacher of The Year š¤ Conference Presenter
Try This When Teaching Accessing Information
|
Happy March! I didn't get an email out in February. I had one ready to send, but I decided to sit on it for a little bit to adjust some of the information I shared before I send it out. In this email, I want to explain how I used a Google tool to scaffold the skill of accessing information in a sixth-grade health class. In my health class, when we cover the content area of puberty in the sixth grade, it's paired with the skill of accessing information from the National Health Education Standards. Students learn to access valid information online and analyze health information for validity and reliability. Using those skills, they find accurate information about puberty and hygiene. I wasn't sure that my sixth graders could jump right into Google and enter search terms related to puberty without being overwhelmed, nervous, or concerned they were looking up something that was "bad." There was always the possibility that they would find their way to sites blocked by the school district, too. So, I decided to make a custom search engine through Google for my students to use. Google allows you to create a programmable search engine, where you control which sites it pulls search results from. I decided to create a search engine specifically for my sixth-grade health students. This way, they would access a very specific part of the Internet and develop confidence and competence in the skill of accessing information in a controlled environment. The websites I added to the search engine are all websites that I know provide accurate, valid information in a way that middle schoolers can understand. I simply placed the link to the search engine in Google Classroom for students to access. I knew which sites would come up and could better be prepared to answer student questions that popped up. I used this for the skill practice portions of my curriculum, and when we got to the final assessment, I set them loose to the wild world of the Internet. This video from Richard Byrne walks you through the process of setting up a programmable search engine. I ran into one of the issues he mentioned, where one site has so many articles and pages of information that it dominates search results, with the website KidsHealth. I'll have to adjust by being more specific the next time we get to this unit. Thanks for reading! I'll be in Cleveland for SHAPE this week. On Thursday, I'm presenting "50 in 50!" with Jessica Matheson at 8:00 AM. We'll go over 50 "knock-out" ideas, tools, strategies, activities, etc., in 50 minutes. Later that day, Jess and I will present with Ask, Listen, Learn at 2:00 PM. And on Friday, I'll be presenting "Developing Infinite Skills-Based Practice Opportunities" at 12:00 PM. If you're in SHAPE, please say hello! Please reach out with any comments or questions. Thank you again for reading! Jeff B.
|
Level Up Health Education
Helping health educators improve their teaching.
š« Middle School Health Education Teacher š 2021 National Health Education Teacher of The Year š¤ Conference Presenter
Interpersonal Communication Assessment Happy Friday! Continuing to...roll...with last email's theme about using dice in the classroom, I want to share a summative assessment: a skill practice demonstration focused on refusal skills. I know many other health educators use dice in a similar way: Jessica Matheson, Andy Milne, and more. I can't take credit for the initial idea. I can share with you how I've taken that idea, remixed it, and aligned it with the National Health Education Standard...
"Dicebreaker" Questions for the NHES Happy Monday! At SHAPE Cleveland last month, Jessica Matheson and I presented a session called, "50 Tips in 50 Minutes!" We covered 50 different tools, strategies, and resources to help teachers improve their teaching in health education. We had an entire section on using dice based on Jessica's Slow Chat Health blog post from last year. After working to put our presentation together and hearing Jess's ideas, I knew I wanted to use dice more in my...
Happy New Year! I apologize for the click-baitish title! In today's newsletter, I want to share a free professional development resource that you use today that can help you level up your teaching in as little as 15 minutes. I'll also share other resources in a PDF. Read on for more information, or click the big blue buttons in this email to go right to the resources. Before I continue, I want to mention that I'm not affiliated with any of these resources or organizations in any way, and they...