Brandi Burtts
Drama Educator
Health and Wellness in the Classroom
If you're like me you're probably wondering how health and wellness is incorporated into the classroom. I have to admit when I first touched on this concept I was stumped how this worked in the teachers role. But when you think about the influence we have on our students and the time we spend with them, it becomes obvious that we play key roles in helping them stay positive and healthy inside, and outside, the classroom. Here are some ways I incorporate a healthy lifestyle in my classroom and school.
​
One of the first things I do in my drama room is a warm up activity. The starter is an active participation activity where the students get up and moving. As mentioned in an article from The New York Times, John Ratey states “movement activates all the brain cells kids are using to learn, it wakes up the brain”. This activity happens at the beginning of the class to get the students motivated to learn for the remainder of the class.
​
​
​
You might be surprised, but students love to get moving. And my students actually ask to play this activity before class. ------------->
Try this warmup
Shout out any of these cues and the students have to perform the movements-
​
Wall- Students have to press themselves again the wall
TV- Students have to sit as if watching TV
Magnet- Students have to stand and stretch up as if being pulled by a giant magnet.
Fire- Students have to run on the floor as if on fire
Fly- Students pretend to fly around the room
Dead Fly- Student have to drop to the floor as a dead fly.
​
In between your commands the students should be simply walking around the room.
​
Think about what the kids see!
It's easy to focus on ourselves in school, but we should also consider how much time we spend with our students. What they see us do, they do. Therefore, we can preach a healthy lifestyle to them but wouldn't we be hypocrites if we didn't live by the same standards. To make sure my students see the healthy lifestyle I talk about they will see me doing or hear me talking about the following things at school.
​
-
Running on the treadmill or on the track
-
Eating from the salad bar at lunch
-
Snacking on healthy foods like almonds or carrots
-
Discussing positive self image
​
Although these are small things they can have a huge effect on your students.
​
See how this school in NYC improved by focusing the students on a healthy lifestyle!
Move onto the next step here ---------->