Tag Archives: health and wellbeing

My learning goals

Learning Goals (1 hr)

Identify 3 learning goals at the start of the module and write reflections at three identified points during the module to indicate your progress in learning related to your stated goals.

1. To have a better knowledge and understanding about some of the services that are available within the local area that help support the health and well-being of children.

I believe that the HWB module has really opened my eyes and encouraged me to go and find out about the different services available for pupils to help support them as they are growing up. I watched a program on BBC about the Dundee foodbanks which really made me realise how oblivious I was to the variety of services that need to be available for people within my local community. I was actually quite embarrassed that I had no idea this even existed until I watched this program. I knew that some areas of Dundee were deprived areas however I did not realise the extent to which poverty exists within this community. I think this program was a great way to raise awareness about this service and I am very glad that I know know about this service, who can use it and how to help contribute.

To find out more information about the Dundee Foodbanks and the work they do, or if you want to contribute by donating food, here is the link to the website. http://dundee.foodbank.org.uk/

SACRO- Open day visit

Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders- I got sent an email from the University providing us information about an open day, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about the service. I had heard about SACRO in second year in within out Interagency module however it was just briefly mentioned and I had never heard of it since then so thought it would be beneficial for my professional development to go along to this event.

All of the staff that worked there were really friendly and gave us lots of information about what they do and the resources they use. When we first arrived we were given information pack that gave us contact details for lots of people that we could get in touch with within the service. I think within schools it would be the Youth Justice team that I would most likely be working with in future as the service use restorative practice which they find is a really effective method to prevent youth from re-offending again.

See webpage for more information

http://www.sacro.org.uk/services/youth-justice

Linda Temple Foundation: Eating Disorders Fife

This service has just recently been available for people suffering from an eating disorder in Fife. There was an open evening that I thought would be interesting to go to so I got in touch with them however it was more aimed for families that were affected by an eating disorder. Staff got back to my message and were more than happy to give me information about where I could get further information. At the moment this service is only for people over the age of 18.

For more information about this service or if you want to make a decision to this group, please visit the website

Home

I think throughout my time living in Dundee and also when I am working I will continue to find out about the services available as I I think it is important to have an awareness of the services pupils or families that I am working with can use to support them.

2. Find out how schools can support pupils with mental health issues

One of the lectures within my HWB elective explored mental health and discussed mental health illnesses. One of the activities within this workshop was to work in groups and decide from different symptoms what disorder we would diagnose a child. This really increased group discussion and I felt this was a really appropriate task because these are some of the symptoms that as teacher I would need to be looking out for and sharing this information with other staff and services to provide the appropriate support for a child.

I found this lecture really interesting therefore I wanted to research what schools can do to help support a child’s mental health.

Here is what I found:

Try to promote positive mental health and inform children on how they can help themselves. This can be for example by taking part in physical activities, after school clubs and breakfast clubs.
Stay connected- make sure that pupils are keeping in touch with others, having secure and close relationships can improve mental health
Engage parents- improving the link between home and school. Ensuring that parents are given advice and are aware of the services available for pupils
Help others- this can be from volunteering or doing something for the good of others. Even smiling at someone can help change their mood… Happiness is contagious!
Encourage pupils to do something different- this can be a new hobby or just by going somewhere you have never been before, by learning new things we are helping ourselves
Having an open and supportive environment in schools- an environment where pupils can express their feelings openly, they have good relationships with staff so as they feel comfortable speaking to them.
Schools having good relationships with partners to work collaboratively and support the needs of the children.

From what I have read, I feel as if I would have a better understanding of how to help support a child that is suffering from a mental illness. I know that I would not be able to cure it on my own however from what I have read promoting positive mental wellbeing can be beneficial for anyone, including myself, therefore I would be able to give advice to students on how what makes me feel better. I think the most important thing is that I am aware of the support and services that can be available for them and ensure that I have a good relationship with pupils so as they can talk to me comfortably.

3, Improve my own health and wellbeing

This module made me consider the lifestyle I have at the moment and how the decisions I make have an impact on my health and wellbeing in some form therefore, throughout this module I wanted to try and take small steps to improve my health and wellbeing.

The first thing I wanted to change was increase the amount of fruit and vegetables I have in a day. I realised I was hardly eating any fruit and veg therefor I began to think of meals and ways that I could incorporate these in my diet.

Smoothies- this was a really easy and quick way to increase fruit and vegetables. I found out that you can freeze all fruit (amazing!) which meant that I could buy fruit in one go and it would not go to waste.

Top tip: prepare all fruit by washing and cutting into smaller pieces then create pop all the ingredients for a smoothie in a freezer bag so as it just needs to go in the smoothie maker in the morning. This means that you can make your smoothie in less that 5 mins. Another suggestion for those of you that do not like milk in your smoothie is to try a adding fruit tea, for me this makes it taste better.

Grünes_Smoothie

I try to have a smoothie a day which is definitely making me a feel a bit healthier. I try and have it in the morning before I go out anywhere and I am finding that this is making me want to eat better for the rest of the day. I have also started adding kale and spinach in my smoothie to try and make them more nutritious.

Here are some examples of easy smoothies

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/smoothie

Drink more water- this is something that I feel I still need to work on. When I am working or at placement I only drink water, whereas when I am in my flat I tend t have cups of tea (which then leads to a chocolate biscuit) so I still need to think of ways that I can cut out the tea and coffee.
To not be on my phone or on my laptop late at night- this is another area that I really need to work on as I am finding this this is now affecting my sleep. I think I need to get into the habit of stopping work earlier so as this will help me sleep earlier. It is so easy to get into the habit of going on Facebook and Twitter and before you know it, half an hour has been and gone! I know social networking has it benefits in terms of communicating with others and sharing information however I feel I really need to work on limiting my use of social networking sites.

HWB lesson plan- using story

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Choose a book and plan a lesson around it (2 hrs)

Choose a story book and build up a lesson around any of the curricular areas of HWB. Make up a practical activity the children could do in class related to the book. Write up the lesson plan – writing out E and O, Learning Intention, Success criteria, assessment and activities. whats happening to me

Using story is a great way get pupils to think about experiences and situations without them having to talk about their own experiences. I thought that I would choose an area that I was probably less comfortable teaching which is why this lesson is about growing up and changes to the body.

Changes in my body

Here are some references that discuss the importance of using story within HWB:

http://www.story-well.co.uk/sectors/health

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/training_and_consultancy/for_schools/wellbeing/story_work

Another story that I think would be a good resource to use at the moment for pupils to begin to understand their feelings and emotions is Inside out! I think this would be a good way of motivating and engaging children as the film was released earlier this year so it would be a relevant context for learning.

inside out

Here are some links to show how this resource can be used in the classroom. http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_lessons_from_inside_out_to_discuss_with_kids

12 Ways to use Inside Out to Teach SEL, STEM, and Life’s Ups & Downs

Team Building

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Learn a good team building activity. (2 Hours)

Choose a team building activity that you could use to promote ‘building relationships’ in the classroom. Organise a group of volunteers from the MA course and try out the activity (Aim for a full class!)

I think team building activities are a great way to build relationships, I found both of the following activities really fun and I think you do not even realise how much you are enjoying yourself until you are finished.

If you were doing team building activities with the whole class, you would need to consider pupils if they have an additional support need of some form and adapt the game depending on their needs and what would be best for them. Any game or activity can be adapted to fit the needs of the individuals in the class some way.

You would also need to consider the location whether you want to take this activity outside or is it best kept indoors? This would be depending on what space was available near the school and whether or not the teacher to pupil ratio would be appropriate.

Team Building Activity

This activity was really fun, however i think if it was with a large class it would need to be split up into groups so as people were not left standing for a really long period of time. If this was the case then perhaps the activity would be more successful if there was more staff available to help support the groups. As you can see from the images that we were outside when we completed this activity and it was raining however I personally think this activity could have been completed indoors. There would also need to be enough blindfolds and resources.

Team building Activity 2

Here is a link to other examples of team building activities that can be used or adapted for a class.

The Most Complete Collection of Engaging Team Building Activities

Story-telling

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Story Telling ( 1.5 hours)

Can you think of a story you might use to explore the following themes:

Bullying

Loneliness

Conquering fears

Loss

The first document explores the theme of loss. I think that this short story explains loss it quite a nice way. I know there will be a lot of resources out there that might be more suitable to certain classes however I think because I am not yet in a school I do not have a lot of resources so I was trying to find books online. I think that once I have my own class I will be able to build up my resources and have more examples of stories that would be appropriate for this theme.

Story Telling 1

I just thought I would share this website as it is can be quite useful for both practitioners and pupils as it gives some advice, resources and training opportunities for children and families dealing with bereavement.

http://www.winstonswish.org.uk/supporting-you/

The second book could be explored through the themes of bullying and loneliness.

Story Telling 2

Loneliness is area that has recently been on the news with the John Lewis advert hoping to raise awareness of this issue we have in our society. Channel 4 are also raising awareness about the campaign End Loneliness. Using this advert or videos could also be a way of showing how this happens in real life and what we can do to support people in the community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuz2ILq4UeA

Students can perhaps organise and set up ways of giving back to the elderly in the community by have coffee mornings, tea dances or trying to connect with them in some way so as they are building relationships and being effective contributors in the community.

I believe that this is a really relevant topic to be discussing with children. If we teach our children about the affects of lonliness and encourage them to help others in some form then this will hopefully benefit the community.

Why not get them to pupils to create story?

Conquering fears

Pupils can think of something that they are scared of or something that they do not like but they can use this to create an adventure story on how there character is going to face their fears.

Pupils can use their imagination and develop their literacy skills as well as thinking about how they are going to conquer there fears through their own story telling. Pupils may want to share their story with their peers and the class can discuss what the character was scared of and how they managed to face what they are scared of. How the character(s) felt before and after the event.

Food and Health Resources

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Food and Health Resources (1 hour)

Spend some time looking at the vast resources around the area of food and health provided by Education Scotland. Choose two areas and resources that you could use in the classroom.

Please click on the following link for the food resources:

Food Resources

Skill that can be developed from using the resources in the document

Pupils:

independence
skills for life
preparation for adulthood
healthy diets
knowledge of healthy produce/recipes
literacy & numeracy skills
make informed decisions
good choices
the foundations now for future generations

staff:

positive role model- if we expect pupils to either change their diets to have a more balanced diet, this could be a whole school approach where pupils and staff are all trying to have a more balanced diet
awareness of balanced diets
ability to make small changes within classroom/school- this could be by recording how you travel to school, how many pieces of fruit and veg you have ha or recording how many bottles of water in a day.

Substance Misuse

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Substance Misuse (1 hour)

Collect a bag of objects that could be used to introduce a topic on substance misuse in second level CFE. Consider how you could use active teaching strategies and write a lesson outline. (2 hours)

This is not a bag of objects however we have worked together to discuss what objects we think would be appropriate for introducing a topic like this.

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Our lesson plan involves pupils working in groups and feeding back to the class once they have had a discussion. At this point teachers will be able to add in any teaching points. Pupils could then draw around one person in the group and visually show where on the body they think this substance will effect them.

Assessment will be through discussion and observation throughout the lesson.

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Equality Game

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The Equality game

Learn to play ‘The Equality Game’ and organise a game with other members of the wider MA programme. Consider how you could use this in the classroom to promote fairness and build relationships. You will find more information about the game via the weblink below. Reflect on the appropriateness of this activity and decide how it links to HWB.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jan/28/teach-students-equality-smarties

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvGfbEt9Fec&feature=youtu.be

This was our attempt at the equality game, however this is a short extract from our discussion.

We felt that this activity could be used in a lesson built around the following experiences and outcomes from health and wellbeing:

Through contributing my views, time and talents, I play a part in bringing about positive change in my school and wider community. HWB 0-13a / HWB 1-13a / HWB 2-13a / HWB 3-13a / HWB 4-13a

As I explore the rights to which I and others are entitled, I am able to exercise these rights appropriately and accept the responsibilities that go with them. I show respect for the rights of others. HWB 0-09a / HWB 1-09a / HWB 2-09a / HWB 3-09a / HWB 4-09a

I think this game would be really interesting in a classroom setting to find out how the discussion would progress. It would be interesting to find out the different views of pupils and see how they would distribute the smarties. This could then lead on to the discussion that if people worked hard for the sweetie then they are more deserving and how do you then measure hard work as this may be different depending on the person.

I think this would be an enjoyable exercise in the classroom and could be an introduction to debating, having different sides, ensuring you listen to what others have to say.

Music and HWB

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Music and HWB

Choose a piece of music and consider how you could use this in a HWB lesson about mental health.

I think using music and health and wellbeing can be a good way of using cross curricular links within the classroom. I think that this task could have been completed in a variety of ways depending on what aspect of HWB and music you were looking at.

The lesson examples can be found in the word documents

Music task

music task lesson idea

I also think it would be a good idea to get pupils to think about what kind of music makes them happy? Why they like a piece of music? What do they like about it and why? How does it make them feel?

Here is one song that always seems to put a smile on my face!

Restorative Approaches

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Restorative Approaches (1.5 hours)

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJWgayvuWXw

Evidence : Create a PowerPoint that can be used to explain Restorative Approaches to a Primary 7 class and the role that they can play in supporting a whole school approach.

Restorative Approaches Powerpoint

Restorative approaches (2 hours)

Plan: A series of three linked lessons to explore the concept of conflict and conflict resolution with a Primary 2 class.

Evidence – Write up a curriculum plan and identify learning intentions, success criteria, assessment, activities and resources.

Curriculum Plan for restorative practice

When we went to the SACRO visit day the Youth Justice team talked about restorative practice and how they find this an effective method for individuals and prevents them from re-offending. It is time consuming therefore I do not think it could be used all the time in schools, however it is a good way for individuals to learn how to listen to other points of view and negotiate to come to an agreement.

Learning to make bread

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Learn to make bread. (1 hour)

Have a go at learning to make bread (from scratch). You will find recipes online.

Making bread was a lot easier than I originally thought it was going to be. We thought that we would make soup to go with our wholemeal bread to have a healthy, home-made, nutritious lunch.

Recipe- Bread

Ingredients

500g granary, strong wholewheat or white bread flour (I used granary)
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp clear honey

Method

Tip the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and mix together with your hands. Stir 300ml hand-hot water with the oil and honey, then stir into the dry ingredients to make a soft dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins, until the dough no longer feels sticky, sprinkling with a little more flour if you need it.
Oil the loaf tin and put the dough in the tin, pressing it in evenly. Put in a large plastic food bag and leave to rise for 1 hr, until the dough has risen to fill the tin and it no longer springs back when you press it with your finger.
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Make several slashes across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife, then bake for 30-35 mins until the loaf is risen and golden. Tip it out onto a cooling rack and tap the base of the bread to check it is cooked. It should sound hollow. Leave to cool.

Taken from BBC good food website:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10121/bread-in-four-easy-steps

Recipe- soup

I have made soup before, however I had never made this recipe before but I will certainly be making it again as it was delicious and so easy!

Method

Melt butter into a pan.

Chop onions and pancetta and put in the pan to cook until onions are soft.

Add the stock cubes, lentils and hot water.

Let cook on medium heat for half an hour.

I will definitely be making soup while I am on placement as it is a great way to get in lots of vegetables and is really filling.

Top tip: you can freeze soup if you do not want to eat it all within a couple of days as long as it is thoroughly defrosted before heating it up again.

We did this task before we went to Madras college as we were unaware we were going to be making bread there.

Here are some pictures from out experience in Madras High School