| MESPA Home > Resources for Principal Leadership > Health |  | | MESPA Home > Resources for Principal Leadership > Health | | | Feel Better Minnesota | |
Feel Better Minnesota is a statewide campaign encouraging people (including school communities and students!) to seek and sustain healthy behaviors. The initiative focuses on simple steps anyone can take to improve nutrition and increase daily physical activity. The goal of the campaign is to support Minnesotans in exercising their “right to feel better” by:
- eating more fruits and vegetables,
- eating more whole grains,
- drinking more water, and
- being physically active for at least one half-hour, every day.
The campaign has simple, fun resource sheets on nutrition and a fact-based, energetic, thought-provoking 30-minute video with music and Minnesota elementary students in it. The video was produced as a television show by Ramsey County with Twin Cities Public Television and Minnesota artists. Also included are tips on healthy eating and physical
activity shared by local experts and individuals members of the Twin Cities
community working to take simple steps to improve their health and
lives. The campaign is geared toward adults and children -- and the resource materials
are excellent for families and school communities -- and can be
downloaded by schools and distributed to your communities free of charge! The television show will be shown periodically on Minnesota Public Television -- and also, is available for your use and viewing as streaming video on the Feel Better Minnesota Web site: www.feelbetterminnesota.org
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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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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| 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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| 2010 Bike Walk Week | Get tuned up! Whether it’s biking to work, taking a leisurely weekend
ride, or walking to the grocery store, residents are making the Twin
Cities region one of the top places in the country for bicycling and
walking
Bike Walk Week 2010 kicks off this summer, June 5-11, with a week of
activities across the Twin Cities, all designed to have you peddling
your wheels and moving your feet. To join the fitness routine, the MESPA staff have registered a team. Register a team of your own and join us.
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| St. Paul Schools Exercise Their Right to Feel Better! | "Health is simply a choice. Are you making it?" Patrick Bryan,
principal of Jackson Magnet, St. Paul, asked his
students at a rally on the Capitol steps. On Tuesday, April 27, the 500
students of Jackson Preparatory Magnet walked from their school to the
Capitol to kick off the city-wide Exercise Your Right to Feel Better
Minnesota campaign. There will be a 10-day relay walk connecting all
Saint Paul Public Schools, and a culminating 5K Run/Walk on May 21 as
part of this city-wide wellness campaign. For complete details on the Feel Better campaign and related health resources in St. Paul Schools, click here.
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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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| 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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