 | MESPA Home > Resources for Principal Leadership > Health | | | Feel Better Minnesota | |
Kid-tested, principal approved!
You are invited to Exercise Your Right
to Feel Better Minnesota!
Exercise Your Right to Feel Better Minnesota (EYR) encourages sustainable changes to make the healthy choice, the easy choice. The campaign is based on the idea that the opportunity for health begins in our families, neighborhoods, schools and jobs. The rising rate of childhood obesity is a concern for parents, educators and communities across Minnesota. Whether your school has already begun to address this national epidemic, or is looking at ways you might start, we invite you to join us each May for the Exercise Your Right to Feel Better Minnesota Campaign. (For more information, scroll to the print-ready invitation below.)
EYR has been kid-tested! In May 2010 -- and again in May 2011, the Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) adopted the campaign district-wide, for all students, staff and many parents and community members. Each school received a EYR toolkit and was asked to participate in a school-to-school relay, hang posters, distribute bookmarks, send home parent newsletters and read morning announcements related to health. Many schools went above and beyond, incorporating messaging into the classroom, holding family events, school assemblies and making posters to let kids tell their own ideas of Exercise Your Right. The culminating event was an Exercise Your Right to Feel Better 5K Run/ Walk at a Saint Paul park. EYR materials are easily adaptable and what you do in your school or district campaign is entirely up to you! Helping your students, staff and community take the first steps to a healthy lifestyle has never been easier.
2011 Healthy Living Innovation Award Winner!
The Feel Better Minnesota campaign received the 2011 Healthy Living Innovation Award from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. This award honors innovative health promotion projects nationwide that have
demonstrated a significant impact on the health status of a community.
Visit www.feelbetterminnesota.org to join the campaign today!
- Find ideas on simple ways to get involved
- Download professionally developed tools
- Order a free DVD of our Emmy-nominated musical TV program
SCHOOLS AND STUDENT HEALTH
Principals Give Recess Thumbs Up in Latest Gallup Poll
(March 2010 -- Dateline NAESP) A recent survey of elementary school principals reveals enthusiastic support for recess among principals, who see it benefiting kids both in the classroom and in life. The Gallup poll, sponsored by NAESP, the Robert Woods Foundation, and Playworks, surveyed almost 2,000 principals nationwide, the majority of whom report that recess has a positive impact on academic achievement. According to the resulting report, The State of Play, two-thirds of principals report that students listen better after recess and are more focused in class, while virtually all believe that recess has a positive impact on children’s social development (96 percent) and general well-being (97 percent). However, despite principals’ praise of recess, many schools have cut recess to meet testing requirements. Half of principals report that students receive between 16 and 30 minutes of recess per day. And one in five principals indicate that annual yearly progress testing requirements have led to a decrease in recess minutes at their school. Still, this research shows that even a little recess can have a big impact on the school day.
This poll is the first nationwide, scientific survey of elementary school principals devoted to the subject of recess. The survey’s findings, which find value in recess for academic, as well as non-academic reasons, compliment First Lady Michelle Obama’s obesity-fighting campaign “Let’s Move.” Schools play an important role in communities and in creating opportunities for all students to achieve their highest potential. That is why the education community will work with the campaign on at least two of the major initiatives: creating healthier schools by giving parents the support they need, providing healthier food in schools, and helping kids to be more physically active, and increasing opportunities for kids to be physically active by supporting the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.
Health and Your Environment: Schools
Visit the MESPA Press Room to read the October 7, 2009 Minnesota Public Radio News story (by Tom Weber)
about Jackson Preparatory Magnet School (St. Paul, Principal Patrick Bryan) --
and the school's effort to show students how to fight the twin
childhood epidemics of obesity and diabetes.
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Exercise_Your_Right_Invitation.pdf
Germ_City.pdf
Small poster describing Germ City -- with contact information for bringing Germ City to your school.
Statewide_Digital_Cable_Coverage.pdf
Digital and Cable statewide television coverage of the Feel Better Minnesota production.
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| Feel Better on You Tube and MN Channel! | Feel Better Minnesota! is built around a 30-minute Twin Cities Public Television Minnesota Channel production that provides tips and encouragement for making simple sustainable changes that can make us all feel better. The production is available in its entirety or in 15 short segments which have been posted on
You Tube for your use! For a complete schedule of cable television coverage, scroll to the schedule below.
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| Prevent Inhalant Abuse | MESPA has joined a coalition to help Strike Out inhalant abuse!
Inhalant abuse refers to deliberate inhalation or “sniffing” of fumes, vapors or gases from common household products for the purpose of getting high. -
Studies have shown more than 1 in 5 kids will abuse inhalants by the eighth grade.
- With over 1,400 common household and commercial products that can be abused there are a lot of options for kids.
Make sure you, your staff, and students’ parents stay informed! Visit www.Inhalant.org for information and to download a free Inhalant Prevention Kit. The Kit contains background on inhalant abuse, signs, symptoms, treatment resources, latest statistics, and a PowerPoint presentation.
Please step up to the plate and help us Strike Out inhalants!Your efforts in raising awareness in your school will make a difference.
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| Minnesota Action for Healthy Kids | Several MESPA members presented at the 2010 Healthy Schools Conference, Creating a Strong Foundation for Student Success. Keynote and breakout session presentations from the conference are posted on the Minnesota Action for Healthy Kids Web. The presenters request that if you use their information/slides you credit them appropriately. Click here and scroll down to the Healthy Schools Conference information.
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| Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act | December 2010: The U.S. House passed The Healthy, Hunger-Free
Kids Act (S. 3307) and the bill now heads to President Obama for
signature, which he is expected to do quickly. There are several
significant changes including a 6 cent/lunch increase, guidelines for
competitive foods and other improvements. For a summary of the act’s
major provisions, click here.
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| St. Paul Schools Exercise Their Right to Feel Better! | "Health is simply a choice. Are you making it?" Patrick Bryan, past principal of Jackson Magnet, St. Paul, asked 500 students at a rally on the Capitol steps. In spring 2010 they walked from their school to the
Capitol to kick off the city-wide Exercise Your Right to Feel Better
Minnesota campaign. For complete details on the Feel Better campaign and related health resources in St. Paul Schools, click here.
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| Fitness at Groveland Elementary, Minnetonka | From Cool in School, October 7, 2010 on KARE - 11 (Click here to see the video and read the whole story!)
MINNETONKA,
Minn. -- Teachers know when kids don't get recess, they grow restless,
and concentration can go out the window. That's not a problem at
Groveland Elementary in Minnetonka where
students run, play, jump and climb before, during and after school.
"Fitness has become a big deal for us because we started a couple of
years ago with this idea that fitness would increase student learning,"
said Principal David Parker.
Recent studies back that up.
This past spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went
on record saying physical activity, such as the kind found in physical
education classes and recess, can improve academic performance. At
Groveland, staff try to build in physical activity whenever possible.
"When we build math or reading goals in our classrooms, we integrate
those in the gym," said Parker. "We also integrate it outside in our
playgrounds and Kid Power."
Kid Power is an unusual playground that Parker likens to a video game
come to life. Kids have different play stations that power up only by
some sort of physical activity connected to it. Click on the link above to read more.
(Copyright 2010 by KARE. All rights reserved.)
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| Is PE an Rx for ABCs? | (May 12, 2010 -- by Sarah LeMagie) In the struggle to teach students to read, Jack Olwell may seem an
unlikely role model. He's a teacher, yes, but his subject? Physical education. Yet Olwell has drawn praise for his efforts to boost test scores at
North Trail Elementary in Farmington. A program he started has taken
students behind in reading or math and put them in the gym the first
thing in the morning, right before they head to classes in those
subjects.
The idea is that exercise helps kids learn -- and it's not just
Olwell who believes this. A growing body of research links physical
activity and academic performance, according to a report released last
month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Visit the Minneapolis
StarTribune for the rest of the article.
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| SHIP | The goal of the Statewide Health
Improvement Program (SHIP) is to help
Minnesotans live longer, better, healthier lives by reducing the burden
of chronic disease. For more information on SHIP and what the
program can and is doing for schools, visit Statewide Health
Improvement Program on the St. Paul Public Schools Web. You may
also download a: - SHIP Fact Sheet
- SHIP Schools Fact
Sheet
- Feel Better MN Fact Sheet
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| Minnesota Department of Health |
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| Bring Germ City to Your School! | Minnesota Department of Health Food Safety Partnership “Germ City” handwashing displays are available for use at your community or school event. Germ City is a science based, educational program to improve the effectiveness and frequency of hand washing behaviors in adults and children. Volunteers apply GlitterBug lotion to visitors’ hands. Visitors enter Germ City to see ‘pretend germs’ glow under the black lights. Then they wash their hands, and re-enter Germ City unit to see how well they washed. For more information, or to reserve Germ City, contact Deborah Durkin at MDH: deborah.durkin@state.mn.us, 651-201-4509 or 651-295-5392 -- or scroll to the PDF below.
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