Lindsey's Reflection

Childhood obesity is a serious matter in schools today. In order to change this issue in a positive way, we need to educate students on what it means to be obese and how they can eat healthier to feel healthier. However, even before doing this, I think it is important that parents are aware of the issues at hand as well. It all begins at home. There is only so much we can do as teachers. Parents are going to feed their children what they want. But we can limit the things that we give students for snacks, and hot lunches. Encouraging students to eat healthy will hopefully follow them home as well. The Horace Mann School does a tremendous job encouraging students to eat fruit for snack time and I even see the teachers eating healthy as well. I have yet to see a teacher eating cookies or candy in front of a student and I think that is great. Students are going to model their teacher and by seeing their teachers eating healthy, they are more likely to model this behavior and eat healthy as well.

For my service learning project, I am going to complete a contact binder including organizations that help schools provide their students with information about healthy eating. I am still searching for organizations but I am going to reach out to the school nurse at Horace Mann to inform her of my service learning project and see what she has to offer me. There are many posters around the school and I hope that she will be able to steer me in the right direction about which organizations I will find the most helpful and willing to speak with me about my service learning project. I would also like to read a children's book to my class about healthy eating habits. I think that is something they would enjoy rather than being lectured about the topic. I want to make a difference in a fun but productive way. And by making a difference in my own field placement, it makes it even more personal for me. Posted below is a link to a website about book that encourage healthy eating. I think this website could be beneficial for many of us as future teachers.

http://extension.missouri.edu/fnep/childrensbooks.htm

I want to spread the word in the best way possible. I think we can make a big difference even in just our own field placements. We have to start somewhere and I am hoping that this is a good starting point for all of us.