Page 5 - SaintAlphonsus

Saint Alphonsus Health System ﬁrst brought HealthTeacher to Idaho in January 2010 to provide curriculum to teachers at more than 100 schools in Ada County as a free health educa-tion resource. Over 52,000 students in Joint School District No. 2 and Boise School District now beneﬁt from the comprehensive K-12 online health education provided by HealthTeacher. Saint Alphonsus is proud to announce the Idaho State Department of Educa-tion adopted HealthTeacher as an accepted health education curriculum for the state of Idaho in November 2010.

In December 2010, Middleton School District began using HealthTeacher. After a two-day training process in which HealthTeacher’s Education Coordinator helped orient 74 teach-ers, counselors and nurses and other staff on the beneﬁts and use of the system, Rebecca Jones, Curricu-lum Director for Middleton School District, wrote: “The members who participated in the training were very complimentary. They found the curriculum to be easy to navigate and ﬁlled with up-to-date information they could use to teach students.”

The HealthTeacher curriculum covers 10 key topic areas designed to help students develop knowledge and skills needed to pursue healthy lifestyles throughout their lives. The HealthTeacher curriculum is aligned with the National Health Education Standards and Idaho Standards for Health Enhancement, which requires instruction in ﬁve key areas:

resources provided through Health-Teacher and teacher training for participating schools as part of its efforts to improve the health of children and teens. Many high-risk health behaviors often are established during childhood and adolescence, which extend into adulthood. These behaviors can be addressed and pre-vented with proper education. Saint Alphonsus hopes to eventually make this resource available to every child from Boise to Baker City and beyond.

Look for the monthly online newslet-ter covering such topics as bullying, depression, nutrition and more. These newsletters provide current informa-tion that beneﬁts the entire family. If you haven’t heard of HealthTeacher or seen your monthly newsletter, ask your child’s teacher or principal for further information.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest in children’s health news: Facebook.com/HealthTeacher Twitter.com/HealthTeacher

s the school year winds down, the end-of-year testing season gears up. Your child has studied hard all year long to ace the exam, but if he or she can’t concentrate, studying might not make much difference. Not being able to concentrate in school is a common issue facing students, and the most likely culprit is a combination of poor nutrition and a lack of physical activity. That’s right; not only can good nutrition and regular exercise keep health problems like childhood obesity at bay, they can also help improve students’ performance at school.

ween Academics outh Risk Behavior Survey, a ey conducted by the Centers ontrol and Prevention’s dolescent and School Health, udents with higher grades are ess likely to have engaged in h as: Being physically active at least 60 minutes per day fewer than fve days per week. (Current guidelines recommend daily activity.) • Watching television three or more hours per day. • Using computers three or more hours per day.

“Exercise activates the brain. With exercise, your heart rate increases, and oxygen and blood fow to the brain increase,” says Sarah Lee, a health scientist at the CDC. As for the link between good nutrition and academic performance, Lee’s colleague, Caitlin Merlo, says research on eating breakfast offers the strongest evidence. “Most of the research has found that kids who eat breakfast had increased attendance rates, improved mood and improved academic performance,” Merlo says Despite this, Merlo says approximately 23 percent of children and 32 percent of adolescents skip the most important meal of the day. So what can you do to help make sure your child achieves optimal brain power? Check out our tips on the next page and start implementing them today.