I first conceived of the idea for the Healthy Start project last year. I was teaching a Grade 3/4 split, and this project worked better than I had even hoped for my students. This year, teaching Grade 8, I revised the outline to meet the Health expectations for this grade level and was optimistic that the project would make a difference for my students, even in small ways. The goal of the Healthy Start project is to commit to starting or stopping to do something for three weeks straight. The students are tasked with journaling weekly and presenting a product to reflect their accomplishments. Like all of my Building Outside the Blocks projects, the students could choose a date when they wanted to present, but they could also choose to be part of Gallery Walk if they preferred not to make an oral presentation to the whole class. They were also welcome to share their learning in any way they saw fit. The Healthy Start project is ideal for a January back-to-school project.
This is a screenshot from my Healthy Start project outline
Here is a generalized list of their various goals that they set:
working out
general fitness
developing a yoga practice
practising mindfulness
learning tools to manage anxiety
swimming
bullet journalling
sktechnoting for calm and to track reading
eating healthier
cut out sugar
reducing junk food
overall healthy lifestyle
reduce screen time
get more sleep
learn to procrastinate less
quit ketchup
More than the many different and interesting goals the students undertook, I was deeply moved to see my students using this project to change their lives. Besides writing and reflective skills, this project helped students develop self management skills, responsibility and self regulation- some even more than others.
We had just finished a Data Management unit, so I was pleasantly surprised to see many of my students employing their graphing skills to track their Healthy Start experience in such systematic ways.
Each of my did very different things to attain these goals and share their accomplishments/progress/learning.
The students who wanted to work out learned to:
get into a routine
commit to regular exercise
swim for distance
develop more self discipline
commit to something regularly
track their workout to make sure they were doing right for their bodies
eat better to fuel their workouts
realize the value of stretching
listen to their bodies
push themselves
how useful Pokemon Go can be- even on snowy days around the house
Students who explored their anxiety learned to:
drink more water
develop tools and strategies like drinking more water, breathing techniques, using music, learning to meditate, reflective writing, thinking tools and more
The other outcomes were as individual as the learners, but everyone got something from the experience. Additionally, sharing the journey and accomplishments with the rest of the class gave many people ideas, pause for reflection, and cause for celebration. It was great to be able to cheer everyone one through each stage of the experience from the commitment to the goal, through journalling and for each presenter's time to shine. Some students even presented just to me, but that did not diminish what they were able to do when they set their mind to it.
Here are a few student reflections:
"This assignment has benefited me in many ways from getting me to eat healthier to helping me learn how to shop and make healthier foods. For me this was a very successful assignments and I hope to do more projects like this one that encourages us to make choices that benefits us." Nilofer
"In the end, I am very happy I took this opportunity and worked hard to achieve my goal. I realized how much getting more sleep can help in very simple but important ways. I will for sure continue this and try to get 8 hours of sleep every night to continue keeping myself healthy." Aida
"Overall this was a great experience and I am really happy that I tried to go sugar free because now I have two different perspectives of something I thought I was never going to have. I am not going to be continuing this because I want to get used to eating like I used to because now I don’t eat as much sugary and unhealthy foods as I did before." Valeria
"In conclusion this project helped me in relieving stress, getting a good night sleep and improving my endurance...Knowing that before this project that I would be exhausted after one lap around the field and now I can run for an hour at 7.5 km is a huge difference. In my opinion I think this project was a huge success and benefited me a lot." Adam A.
"I am so glad Mrs. Daniel has given us this assignment because I feel like without her support and idea I would have never thought of doing this. In the beginning it was hard but then now I feel so amazing!" JC
"The most surprising aspect of this experiment was that I feel different mentally. I feel a sense of satisfaction with myself and I tend to feel more relaxed. I also feel a lot less stress than before as going swimming distracted me from everything that was going on around me. I am really glad that I conducted this experiment and I will continue to go swimming after this experiment." Hirad
Here are pictures from a few of their products that included charts, images, slideshows, drawings, sketchnotes, photographs, a vision board, videos and graphs (many containing several off these):
While everyone shared that they learned something, some of the most moving conclusions, either through their presentations or in the sanctuary of their journals, was the realization of how much power they had to create change in their own lives. One of the subtitles that a student added to his project where he learned to eat less ketchup, even though his goal was to stop entirely, was " A Self Improvement Project". The Healthy Start project outline will have that subtitle next year. Another reflection noted that school had never been so personal and transformational as this project. I am so glad that many of my students have committed to continuing this work on their own. The Healthy Start Project helps students harness the power to create change for themselves.
I will be sharing a few of my students' projects in more detail when I present Using EdTech to Build Outside the Blocks at this year's Connect 2019 Conference Niagara. Given them the freedom to use different mediums allowed for many high and low tech products to be created. You can view more of the photographs from my student's presentation on Twitter or though our #HealthyStart hashtag.
