Get Moving with These Healthy Schools Chicago Events
January 21, 2015 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign
Staying active during the cold winter months is never an easy task. But these events will help you get moving and incorporate movement and nutrition in the classroom and beyond.
Staying active during the cold winter months is never an easy task. But these events will help you get moving and incorporate movement and nutrition in the classroom and beyond. Fit to Learn, HSC’s wellness-focused professional development program, helps teachers and principals do just that through in-person workshops and online webinars. But that’s not the only way to get involved and moving this month.
January 22: Fit to Learn Principal Workshop: Boosting Student Learning with the New PE
We know that healthy students are better learners. They’re also less likely to miss school and are better able to focus in class. Yet many schools, both in Chicago and throughout the country, struggle to integrate physical education and activity into the school day. This workshop at Daley Elementary will highlight principals who have increased students’ PE time and have implemented creative strategies to overcome common barriers to PE at their schools. Register here.
January 30: School Garden and Wellness Mid-Year Professional Development
This workshop, put on by Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Student Health and Wellness, will cover topics for school gardeners, physical education teachers, recess supervisor and Wellness Champions. The workshop, held at Solorio High School, will help jump start the 2015 growing season. Register here.
February 12: Fit to Learn Teacher Booster: Nutrition in the Classroom
This booster session will get teachers moving! Daylan Dufelmeier from UIC’s Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion will share strategies to help teachers make nutrition education fun and engaging. Dylan uses the Organwise Guys method, which uses animated characters and puppets to teach kids and adults about their organs and why health matters. Melissa Graham from Purple Asparagus will run a fun food taste test designed to help teachers get students interested in eating their fruits and vegetables.
February 19: Fit to Learn Principal Webinar: ABC’s of School Gardens
This webinar will feature Anne Gillespie, principal at Academy for Global Citizenship (AGC); Michael Heidkamp, principal at Greene Elementary; and Drew Thomas, Chicago Public Schools’ school garden coordinator, who will share their successes with implementing school gardens. At AGC, the garden is used both for food and for knowledge, serving as a tool for teaching math, science, history, geography and culture. The webinar will lay out for principals the basics of starting, using and sustaining a school garden. Register here.
February 20: Parents United for Healthy Schools Principals’ Breakfast
School leaders and parents will shine a spotlight on the work of Chicago schools to meet high standards for school food, nutrition education and physical activity. Despite common barriers, schools are making changes to meet the CPS School Wellness Policy and Healthy Snack and Beverage Policy, as well as working to implement daily PE. This breakfast serves as a celebration of recent accomplishments as well as a launch pad for the next phase of work. For more information about this event, contact Jovita Flores at (312) 342-0224 or Angelique Harris (312) 419-1810.
