http://healtheducation.edublogs.org One teacher's refelctions on the teaching and management of Health Education. Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:02:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There comes a time when a person needs to make a decision to enable greater personal effeciency.  I need to make such a decision with my online life.  I have tried to spread my thoughts in context across three separate blogs, but feel this has only resulted in ineffective and ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/08/24/consolidation-and-transition/ Due to a few presentations I've given lately, a re-focus on the application of higher order thinking to health education has resulted.  In particular I have been focussing on whether our assessment tasks lead students to demonstrate higher order thinking and whether our evidence collection methods can demonstrate the ability ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/07/17/a-focus-on-higher-order-thinking/ Recently I took the opportunity to openly and critically reflect on Health Education as a subject with my students.  I was particularly interested in their perceptions in regard to the difficulty and workload of the subject.  I have a productive relationship with my current class and trust them to be ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/06/13/learning-from-my-class/ A few recent experiences and situations has had me thinking critically about Health Education on a number of levels.  Syllabus review, planning for professional development, merging our subject with a university project and providing guidance to a pre-service teacher has had my mind being pushed.  There has been a constant ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/06/05/thinking-in-two-minds/ Currently I am fortunate to be sharing my classroom with a motivated pre-service teacher. This has resulted in me focusing on purposeful planning for Health Education aspects, and providing an opportunity to engage in relevant discussion and reasoning for learning activities.  It was during one of thee discussions yesterday afternoon ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/06/02/planning-the-teaching-of-an-integrated-task/ By far, the most challenging aspect of health education for me is teaching the integrated task.  I believe it is also the the aspect of health education I perform least effectively.  Adding to my challenge currently is the fact that I have welcomed a pre-service teacher into my classroom and ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/05/30/teaching-the-integrated-task/ I am enjoying this unit so much.  The class has come alive with informed debate and differences of opinion.  Surprisingly the one student who I thought I would have most debates with has been the easiest to convince of the alternate point of view.  This could be used as a ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/05/18/community-health-health-at-every-size-the-debate-rages-on/ I always look forward to this unit.  It proves a real challenge to open the eyes of my students and show them one of their health beliefs is in fact false.  With this class, who are more outspoken and willing to challenge, this should be fun. Within this unit I will ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/05/07/community-health-my-favourite-unit/ The single most effective measure of my performance as a teacher lies in the results achieved by my learners in the end of unit submissions.  Did students generally achieve to their potential?  Did students fare better or worse under these conditions? With this unit, and the definite push towards independent work ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/04/15/end-of-unit-how-did-we-perform/ Within the current environmental health unit, which I purposely set up  as a practice run for the integrated task next unit, I have developed what I think may be a solid method of ensuring reasoning and validation may be completed by each student effectively. I have developed a 10 step work ... http://healtheducation.edublogs.org/2009/03/30/leading-the-students-to-reasoning-and-validation/