Episode 105: New Ideas for Creating Community in Health Classes

Michelle Shoffstall shares her experiences in making her Health classroom a place of vibrant discussion at Princess Anne Middle School In Virginia Beach with host Stevie Ray Gray. 

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hfCl5xWG2EU 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:14

I'm your host, TV Ray Gray, and this is Fix Connection. Thank you for coming and spending a little time with us today.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

We're going to be talking about health with healthy kids and healthy schools and healthy communities. So let's get moving. I have with me today an amazing health teacher who's doing some really cool things in her health classroom.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Uh, I want to just start off by having you introduce yourself. So, uh, what's your name and where do you teach? And how about what level you teach?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

All right, I am Michelle Schaustall. I teach at Princess Ann Middle School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and I teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Awesome. So we've got a secondary teacher of in middle school, which is a totally different beast. I want to talk about your middle school classroom and what it looks like because my middle school experience, I'm sure a lot of our listeners' middle school experience is a lot of it a lot of different than uh what you're doing right now. I distinctly remember a couple of my middle school teachers, uh specifically health teachers, just assigning things and kind of just letting us go, like boring, reading pages out of a book or putting on a movie and watching a movie. Uh, so what is your classroom look like? What's a what's a morning in the student life coming inside your classroom?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yeah, yeah. My uh my distinct memory of middle school is is a green chalkboard, my health teacher up there, and uh just teaching about oral hygiene and how to brush teeth the right way. And and you know, it was desks in rows. I had my own little desk, and and I think I just remember like, okay, oral hygiene is very, very important.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

And I just remember just like a book open and just like read this, and then there were like those 10 questions at the back, and then it was just really us getting yelled at for goofing around in this 90-minute block while we're reading, you know, paragraphs and filling out worksheets.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

90 minutes in middle school.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

90 minute blocks in middle school, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Wow, okay. We were still on a bell schedule, and I'm still on a bell schedule as well, so which is nice. So we're we're at about about an hour for class. Um, but as far as my classroom, uh, you know, I'm always at the door. Um, it's it's loud when you come in. Uh, I I believe that children should talk and and communicate with one another. And so I have music playing. Um, and and at Princess Ann Middle School here, we implement like a daily slide. And so there's a daily slide up on the board, um, and it and it has like what the kids should be doing now. Um, all of the desks are actually like big tables, and so the kids work actually with the same squad that they work with in the gym during PE class. They sit at a squad table with those those friends as well. Um, but sometimes we do move and shake that up a little bit uh just so that they can get different perspectives, obviously, than always working with the same people over and over and over again. Um, so when they come in, like I said, music is playing. There's always like a kind of like an attendance question, or or we call it a table talk. And I actually got that from uh Kim Morton, who wrote this wonderful curriculum, um, and it's called Choice Led Health. And so I what I did is um Virginia Beach City Public Schools started using this curriculum amongst their teachers or their health and PE teachers. So one of the things that she always had in there was this table talk, and it's just like a good icebreaker, you know, the kids are coming in and and they're coming from all different, you know, core classes. And so once they come in here, it's kind of getting everybody on the same page. Uh so like today's question was would you rather eat out or would you rather cook? And then, like, why? Why do you want to eat out?

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Like, what is eating out all the time, not even a question out?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

I know, but it's so expensive. And so, um, but anyway, so you know, but then then we debate some of those things. But um, I see I'm not an eating out. I'm I'm not like I would rather cook at home.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Oh, that's interesting. No, I just I've got three boys here, and and eating out is a lot easier than trying to find something for all of them, right? Yeah, so you mentioned uh Kim Morton, who is an awesome health APE teacher from North Carolina, I think. Yes, somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

That's where she was last time. I yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

And this choice-led curriculum. Can you just like very uh briefly explain how you implement that in your health classroom?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Okay, so choice-led health. Um, I and I believe she titled that because it gives a lot of student voice and choice within it. So um, no matter what we're doing, like it can be a choice of how you show um that you know your vocabulary. It can be, you know, if we're talking about mental health, it's not like everybody's reading this article about stress, and and you're all going to answer the same 10 questions, like you you said earlier, like from your health experience. So they might have their choice to read from three different articles that are provided, and then they so they can learn more about what they're interested in. So at the end of the day, the SOLs are all the same and they're all there. It's just not every student's path to get to that learning or to to meet that expectation of that SOL and having that knowledge. Um, it can be a little bit different, and that's okay. So it's that I like I absolutely love that they get to kind of personalize it.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah, that's really cool. I'm sure it's much more applicable when it's individualized like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Um if you get to choose what you get to do, like you I feel like kids are more motivated to complete that rather than just being like, oh, I've got these, you know, I've got to read an article or I've got to do this project.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, because totally check out. But then if they get to choose, then how do you decide which facts we're gonna focus on the day or what's what's important for them to learn to then show you how they've learned it? How do you pick that?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So, like with the articles, there's questions that are kind of embedded with each article of like kind of what you want to like pull out of there. Um, but like the different projects that they can do, um, like making a, you know, an anti-vaping poster or just an anti-substance abuse poster. So then it's like, okay, just give me like some key facts, like, you know, or give me good refusal skills that you could use. So anything that can demonstrate that they are actually getting that knowledge and that they can apply those, you know, and those skills in the real world. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

So are you focusing on the skills themselves, like with decision making, or is it more I'm assuming it's not just like memorizing a lot of facts and then like regurgitating them kind of? Are you doing any kind uh right?

SPEAKER_01 7:10

So so we'll do role plays. So if it is like a refusal skill thing, so you know, we we get up and we'll break into groups and they can do some role play where they actually have to with a peer, you know, use those refusal skills. Um so and some of the things that I'll do um like during our empathy, like we talk about empathy a little bit and you know, what is empathy and and how do you know somebody's showing empathy? So with like those kind of activities, I will do um like a give one, get one uh type of thing where they'll write down on a post-it note what they think empathy is, um, and then on one another post-it note, maybe how do they know somebody is showing them empathy? And so then they'll go around the room and they will give somebody theirs and explain to them, you know, this is what I think empathy is. And so then they give one away, the one that they explain, and then they get one that was explained to them, and then they get to rotate and find somebody else. And so, yeah, like it's I don't know, there's a lot of movement in the classroom, I guess, rather than us always just um sitting.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

So which I feel like is really important, especially in a health and PE scenario. Like when we're teaching, a lot of the things that we're doing are movement based. I don't think that they can go from a movement to just sitting and and listening and then like writing down answers, right? They should be up. Yeah, yeah. It should be moving.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh yeah, it was I was just gonna say another thing that I like to do is like during our body systems unit, like I'll bring in a heart. So seventh grade, they study the circulatory system. So off I go to the grocery store and I will pick up a pig heart. Um, sixth grade. Like a real pig heart, like a real pig heart, yes. And then I will also get um kidneys for the sixth graders um because they they learn about the urinary system. And so, you know, my husband, he God love him, because I'm like, um, we have to go to the special grocery store this weekend because I'm teaching that lesson. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, I got you. And then he's my surgeon that that helps uh to dissect a little bit. So we'll cut into them. So then I can bring in the heart because, like, how much better is it to understand something when you can see it, you can touch it, you can feel like and they get to see like all the valves in the heart. So yeah, it's just very hands-on, yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

And so I love the hands-on approach because again, I just remember sitting and staring at a board for for all the longest time and not really taking in any of it. I think I really could have benefited from all the the role play stuff. Um but how do you, and this is just like in general, but it could be you specifically, do you ever have situations where somebody would be like, I was in this real life scenario like over the weekend, um, and I had to practice these decision-making skills? Um and I was just wondering, like, how do you go from like just I don't want to do this because it's bad or this isn't a healthy choice? Like, is there part of your teaching where students are coming to you and saying, I need to apply this in real life in middle school?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Um, not a ton in middle school. Uh, you know, I think at this age, we're just trying to give them the skills because we know that those moments are gonna come. Um and they need those tools in their tool chest. Um, but um every now and then I would say, I will have a kid, maybe not in front of the whole class, but that will pull me aside and say, you know, you know, when you talked about um like I'm I'm like with the eighth grade when they we talk about suicide and and with mental health and things like that. And you know, and they'll say, you know, I had a friend and and they were really going through a tough time. And so they'll tell me, you know, I did report it to the right people, like you said, like tell a trusted adult. And so we were able to get that person help. Like that just happened this year, where I had a young lady who came and told me, like, that she was able to apply that. So, yeah, and and I that's such a tough thing, too, you know, for for a kid that age. Um, but I don't feel like there's a lot of it at middle school. Um, today we were talking about uh safety in the car and with sixth graders, like texting and driving, and like how do you advocate for yourself if it's your parent that's texting and driving and how dangerous it is? And uh so you know, there's quite a few of them that have like great stories of oh my mom. Well, one kid told me today that his his dad was texting and driving, and he was at a stop sign or a stoplight, and he was texting, and the cars next to him started to go, and so his dad just went, but it was like the turn, but his dad was the straight, and so his dad went, and then it was a car, and I was like, you've gotta advocate, you gotta tell dad, hey, put that down, or I can send a text message for you if it's that important in this moment, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

So yeah, that's that's a tricky situation too, because you have to help them to compare like healthy choices versus like family values or or like you know, personal identity values, you know. So do you ever have trouble? I guess ex I would I'm thinking of my current school. I would have a little bit of trouble expressing healthy choices and pathways while trying to remain like inclusive, I guess, or at least neutral.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Do you have any I don't know, maybe like tips or strategies for any like middle school and high school teachers out there who are in a community that might place value on a certain behavior. You know what I'm saying? Like there's there's certain things you have to you have to damp around when you're a teacher, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:20

You can't just come out and say right.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

It's this fine line that you walk. Um I don't know. I just try to keep everything balanced as much as I can and and listening to the kids, you know, like like taking their feedback and their input on things. And because there's I I just feel like there's value in everyone's kind of opinions. So like I do like to listen to it from other perspectives and and things like that. Um, and then we, you know, we do like in any kind of class discussion, we try to apply kind of how everybody sees like how things could be a little bit different. Um, but I think some of that just comes with being in the profession for a while, you know. I think maybe for a first couple years teacher, you know, first year, second year teacher, that's probably a little bit harder to try to figure that out right away. Um, but the longer you do it, then it's a little bit easier to try to make sure that everybody's values are being heard and balanced within what we're trying to teach the kids as far as it relates to what our Virginia SLLs are.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah. Do you have any problems with like kids asking questions out loud in class without oh, how do we phrase this? What do you do in your classroom to help students not feel judged for asking questions or expressing beliefs? Like the I when I was, and this is the only experience I have teaching health was of student teaching, and we were doing like a family life unit, and I just had like that old question box, and they would just do anonymous questions. But you know, that was what was my student teaching like 20 years ago. So is there anything that's new or different about getting into tricky topics or you know, information subjects? And people have real questions that they might feel like, oh, I don't want to ask this out loud, or I don't want to say that in front of people. Like, is there something that you do specifically to help them get through that?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

So a lot of times we will do kind of a debrief at their because they're at these tables amongst with their squad. So I love like the shoulder partner, the turn and talk, or you know, at your table discuss this, and then so that can kind of I think help get again others' perspectives on things and where they don't feel like, you know, I'm I mean, I don't know how your class sizes are, but I have you know, a couple classes have 38 middle schoolers in them. Um yeah, all in a health classroom. Um, and so it it helps them because I mean I love kids and they always, you know, the hands are up and they want to tell stories, and I'm like, oh my gosh, we have like 55 minutes. And so um sometimes it's a tight 55 too, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

And so it's so great when they can at their table and with their peers talk, um, and then we can kind of bring it back whole group because then I think it takes some of that pressure on so off to some of those kids that might have like you know, that that weird question or something where they or where they perceive like, oh, I don't want to ask this, or maybe I do want to ask this, or you know, so that way not only do they get to talk with their peers, which in middle school is very important to them, is the socialization piece. Uh-huh. Um, but then you know, we can reel it back in whole group and kind of debrief too. So yeah. Like I said, my classroom's loud. It would there's a lot of talking in my class.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

That's good. It helps us to process some things. Yeah. Yeah. So after like certain activities, and let's say we've talked about a little something and we've done some role playing, and now we are taking this either in the classroom or out into real life. Um and they're making these decisions, right? Is there part of the curriculum that will help them to reflect on the decisions that they've made? Or or I can double I can double this up. Um, is there anything that we as teachers or parents should be teaching our students about how to ask themselves questions for reflections in these like in these like health-based um topics? Does that make sense? Am I is that a question that I can ask out? It's a big one. It might be one that you haven't really thought about, but I'm just thinking like my son is in middle school. I've got students that are going off into middle school, and I know that that grade level is more about taking the things that they've kind of learned and applying it. We're saying I'm giving you a lot of personal responsibilities now. It's your choice to or it's your job to make good choices. And so how in the health classroom do we reflect on those good choices?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Um, I'm I do a like I try to have them reflect every day at the end of the lesson, just a short reflection as far as, you know, what did you get out of today? What is your big aha moment? What's your takeaway? What do you think that you can apply once you walk out that door? Um so, you know, hopefully that helps a little bit as far as that reflection piece. Um, you know, like like with nutrition, for example. So we, you know, we learn about all the the macronutrients and we and we learn all of those things. And then we talk about, okay, you know, maybe after a weekend and they come back in and and we're in that unit, and I'll say, okay, what you know, what kind of decisions about foods did you make? Like, like we talked about what empty calories were, and so like just trying to pull those threads, I guess, you know, like like how did you apply that? Um, but I do think I could probably do better in that aspect as far as that reflection piece.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Um, I wasn't trying to like judge any part of it, I was just asking like maybe just like a conversation, you know, because you're in that, you're in that world. Right. And I am just now dabbling into it. You know, I've only been on the outer edge. My health classroom is inside of my elementary classroom. So I'm teaching through movement and through games. Right. Um, and you've got a little bit more of a concrete foothold in the in the health world. So I was just wondering.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah, yeah. No, I I mean, but I feel like reflection is really hard, like just in general, like to get kids to think back, like, okay, and and how could I apply that better? Or how could I, you know? Um, but again, their life experience is a little bit different than ours, and and they're still, you know, formulating all of that stuff. So yeah, it's that's a tough one.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Is there is there any part of the reflection that goes into the um their choice of like showing you what they know in the choice led? Is it choice led? I keep forgetting what the name of it is.

SPEAKER_05 20:47

Yeah, yeah, it's choice.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

So I'm assuming it's like you present information and they choose how to show you what they've learned to a certain extent. Right. So is there any part of their um assignments or assessments that come back to you um that feels like it might be a reflection?

SPEAKER_05 21:10

No.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Or is there any part of that where you can like assess like a decision-making process?

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Right. I uh for some of maybe the projects that they can do, you know, where it where you can go back and see like, okay, could they come up with um the you know, certain refusal skills or um, you know, like that kind of stuff, I guess. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

But do you have a like one assignment that was turned in that really stands out to you as like, oh, this was awesome on any unit or project?

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Oh, I had a kid write um like a hip hop song, like which is awesome because I do show um, like uh I don't know if you know uh Andy, I think it's Andy. He does a lot of uh health raps, or like he has one for like the urinary system, he has one about hydration. Like I've never heard these.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Andy Horn.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Andy Horn, uh-huh. You'll have to look him up on YouTube. And like I rock out with like these hip hop songs, and it's all like like it's like ice ice baby, but then it's those are not the lyrics. It is something health-based, and it's fabulous. And I'm like, the cheesier that this can be, like the better, because I know they're gonna like remember that.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

They're gonna be like, this is really weird, but this is kind of you know, like, oh, this is so cringe, but they're gonna be doing it for themselves in the hallway.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Oh yeah, oh yeah. So, like, I I know like so. I've had a kid either he wrote a uh uh hip hop health song also, so that one kind of stands out, which was pretty that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Yeah, that's awesome. And so when he did that, is this uh is this like an individual project? Do they do it in those little tables, or is it something we can be like I'm doing this on my own?

SPEAKER_01 23:06

I guess it varies on the yeah, it varies, it varies, yeah. Sometimes it can be a group thing and sometimes it's individual, yeah. Yeah, his was individual though, so it was but it would have to be.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

You can't like run group rap.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Then you could apply that song, which I have this just like an aha moment for me. I could have them apply that song to dance in PE where we dance over to the hip hop song about hydration.

SPEAKER_03 23:35

So speak of my language. I love the dance part. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

I'm glad I could uh help you to that aha moment.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

There we go. They have an all defense, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Oh, that's good. And we're still learning because we're teachers. Um, I think my only last question I have for you was just a funny one. And it's are there is there any questions that pop out to you that were just like too hilarious that you had to react to? Or is it just you know one that you had to kind of really think hard about in a unit? I feel like every health teacher I know, they always got that one question where one of the students just totally took them off guard and they had no idea how to respond to it.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

That always happens during family life because it's so scripted, you know, like our our school division is very scripted, and you do not leave your script. And so sometimes that's really hard. Um, because you know, kids have questions, and so and and middle school, and and I'm like, okay, like how can I I gotta hold this together?

SPEAKER_04 24:48

How can you dance around this in an appropriate and professional way?

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

All right, well, I want to say thank you so much to our guests today, Michelle, for spending a little bit of time with us and sharing your knowledge. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Thank you for having me, of course, and I want to say thank you to our listeners too for spending your time with us. Uh, as always, we're gonna try and keep those heart rates as high as our spirits, and we'll catch you on the next lap. I've been Stevie Gray. This is the Fit Connection. Take care, be well. See you next time.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Fit Connection is produced by Blue Ridge PBS in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Education, hosted by Stevie Ray Gray, with assistance from VPOEL, physical, family life, and driver education coordinator, and better. The Blue Rich PBS production staff and fluids podcast product and graphics, and the red craft on episode on episode, subscribe to podcasts on episode, podcast, and the podcast.