Introduction

Health Education in the Elementary School is an introduction to the content and methods of health education. The course will survey basic wellness issues such as nutrition, fitness, sexuality, drug abuse, stress management, death and dying, and communicable and chronic diseases. The theory and practice of health education programs at the elementary level is studied and discussed, including the use of a variety of methods and the development of relevant materials.

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Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course you will:

• understand the major concepts of healthful living
• value school health education as an integral part of the elementary school curriculum
• be able to apply positive decision making to attain an optimal level of personal wellness
• have developed a working philosophy of health education
• be able to identify topics, controversies, and teaching techniques appropriate to health education in the elementary school
• be able to identify and implement strategies for integration of health education into other topics, and other topics into health education
• be able to gather the information necessary to teach health education in the elementary school
• have begun to develop, identify, and evaluate resources and materials appropriate to grade level and content.

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Textbook

The required text for the course is:

Edlin, G. & Golanty, E. (2004). Health and wellness (8^th ed.). Boston: Jones & Bartlett.

This well-written and nicely illustrated book will provide you with unique and comprehensive information for teaching health and will serve as an excellent reference for personal health information.

Health and Wellness has a free companion Web site, Health and Wellness Online, that includes self-assessments, Web exercises, interactive summaries, flashcards, crossword puzzles, and glossaries. You are encouraged to take advantage of this resource.

The textbook can be obtained from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center in person, by ordering online, or by printing and mailing the book order form.

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Course Requirements

• Required Reading
• Written Assignments
• Lesson Plan
• Essay Test

Required Reading

Every lesson contains lecture material and “handouts” in the Discussion section. Most lessons assign readings from the textbook and offer more detailed instruction in the Application to Teaching section. All are required reading.

Written Assignments

The written assignments are designed to ensure comprehension of the material and to help you integrate it with the basic tenets of stress management and emotional health. These assignments support the material covered in the textbook and my discussions. Proofread your assignments carefully for punctuation, spelling, grammar, and so on before submitting them. Be sure to keep a copy of all work you submit.

Some of the lessons include activities that require you to visit and evaluate Web sites. These Internet resources provide an interactive dimension to the course material. They include school health sites, print and electronic media supplements geared toward elementary education students, and sites encouraging you to assess your own health (for example, by tracking daily stress management, exercise, and nutritional intake). Some of the Web sites you will explore present a case for the importance of school health programs in the elementary school, outlining the available research on the relationship between health risks of students and their academic achievement. The sites are useful resources to help current and future teachers stay up-to-date on a variety of health topics. Some sites contain articles reporting on the latest health news and research.

With the exceptions noted below, your written assignments are worth twenty points each.

Assignment Length Philosophy Statement

You must, in almost every case, exceed the minimum required page length in order to comprehensively answer the questions and obtain the best grade. (Single space your name/heading and do not insert blank lines at the top of the first page so that I may easily measure actual content when counting pages.)

Answer all questions to the best of your ability.

I will briefly use my professional experiences here to convince you that more is better. Years ago, as a doctoral student, I completed a take-home exam in an advanced nutrition class. Ruth, my neighbor and friend (and very busy mother of four children) was also enrolled in the course and asked to see my exam prior to turning it in.

After looking through my twenty-page plus exam, Ruth exclaimed, “My God, John, why did you write so much?” A bit confused, I asked why she made the comment, and her reply was “I only wrote three pages.” My answer to her was that I wanted to remove all doubt in the professor’s mind what grade I wanted—an “A.”

Be assured here that my intent in writing this is not an exercise in ego gratification. Having followed this philosophy for the past sixteen years at Appalachian State University I have been promoted to full professor (coming up the ranks from assistant to full professor is kind of like earning a black belt in karate).

Professionally, I have also been given the Board of Governors Teaching Award, the Reich College of Education’s Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Reich College of Education’s Scholarship Award. In addition, each year I have received merit pay for publishing, exceptional teaching, community service, and other professional endeavors.

Many of you have attained success in academic and cultural endeavors and in competitive sports so you know what I mean when I say that hard work pays off.

The moral of this story is, always try to hit a home run on the first pitch, and if you don’t succeed, try again.

You may submit each written assignment only one time (no revisions). Therefore, it is important that you give each assignment your best college try, paying attention to length, content, grammar, spelling, APA references, and so on.

Lesson Plan

In Lesson 3, your written assignment will be preparing a lesson plan following the Effective Teacher Training format. This assignment is worth twenty points.

Field Observation Assignment

As your final lesson, you will observe either an elementary school, middle school, or high school lesson on health education and write a critique. You will be responsible for setting up one observation of a health education lesson for any age group (grades K-12) in a public or private school. See details in Lesson 15. This assignment is worth twenty points.

Extra Credit

After completing the field observation assignment, you may earn fifty points of extra credit by volunteering to teach a brief lesson on health education in an elementary school setting. See details in Lesson 15.

Essay

In order to complete the course, you will write one comprehensive essay. The questions are available to you now on the Essay page, and you may begin working on your essay when you feel ready. Finish the essay after you have completed all course work and submit it just as you would any other assignment. The essay is worth 100 points.

There is no supervised final exam in this course.

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Submitting Assignments

Assignment Format

1. Write the assignment using Microsoft Word and save/send the document using the older 2004 version, as I will be opening these documents using a Mac computer, which does not currently support the newer PC Microsoft Word 2007 version. Name the file yourlastname-lesson#.doc.
2. Include your full name, date, course title, and a heading at the top of the first page. For example:
   Peggy Greene
   June 9, 2008
   HED 3645
   Lesson #
3. Meet or exceed the required number of pages. Use a standard 12-point font such as Times New Roman. Double-space the text.
4. Use the following margins: 1.0" margins for top, bottom, and right side; 1.25" margins for left side.
5. Use Microsoft Word's Spelling and Grammar tool to correct any errors.
6. As a final step, read and use the proper E-mail Etiquette as articulated in this course’s home page. Please note: I will not grade assignments or respond to e-mails sent without professional/formal and polite communication as explained in the E-mail Etiquette section.

Send your assignments to be graded by clicking the "Submit Assignment" button at the bottom of each lesson that opens a pre-addressed e-mail to me and the Self-paced Courses office (they need to track your progress). Attach your file to the e-mail and add your name to the end of the subject line.

Save Your Work

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send via e-mail. If I don't receive your message, you must have a copy of the e-mail with the attached file, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails as well as the attached files, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Submit One at a Time

Submit no more than one assignment at a time and wait to receive that assignment back from me before submitting the next one. In addition, please do not attempt to complete too many assignments at the end of your enrollment period, as I may not be available or able to return grades to you in a timely manner.

Also, at certain times of the year, I may experience time constraints due to other courses that I teach at Appalachian State University, a holiday, or other professional obligations (such as presenting at a conference, and so on). If you wish to attempt completion of this course outside of my preferred outline above, you may discuss this with me. However, please note that the Friday Center for Continuing Education is interested in your success in the course, and the submission restrictions are in place for your benefit. To succeed in this course, you should take your time to get feedback from me along the way, and be patient with the delivery method that we use.

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Evaluation

The policies of the Self-paced Courses program require that I evaluate student progress and assign grades. Please keep in mind that the primary emphasis of this course is personal involvement. Each lesson will include a thought-provoking activity to encourage you to examine your thoughts and feelings about health on a personal and professional level. Evaluation of submitted materials will be based on completeness (sufficient length and content), clarity, creativity, neatness, and evidence of importance to you. This means the evaluation is predominantly a subjective one.

Your course grade is based on the following:

Letter grades will be based on the following percentages:

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Honor Code

All work done in relation to this course is bound by the Honor Code. It is essential that you adhere to the principles outlined in the Honor Code at all times. All work that you reference must be cited in APA format. The UNC Writing Center offers handouts on several topics, including one on plagiarism and one on APA style. Another good online APA guide comes from Western Carolina University.

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E-mail Etiquette

When you e-mail friends, you can be as informal as you wish. However, when you write to your employer, professor, or supervisor you should use proper and polite language. Why? You can communicate more effectively, and it gives people a better impression of your manners and abilities, which might be important if your supervisor is asked to write a reference for you in the future. In addition, by training yourself to write properly, you develop skills necessary to deal with future clients and supervisors, who are unlikely to tolerate bad e-mail manners. Please use the following guidelines when e-mailing me and other professors.

• Even telephone conversations start with “Hello” and end with “Goodbye.” Therefore, please use a formal salutation when e-mailing professors, such as:

     Dear Dr. Janowiak

• When e-mailing faculty, remember that you are not communicating with a friend or relative, therefore do not use informal language in your e-mails.
• If you have a request, say it politely. You can start with “I would like to ...”, “I wonder if you can ...”, “May I ...”, “Is it possible to ... “, “Do you mind ...”. DO NOT WRITE: “I want to know ...,” “I want you to…,” “Send this to me …,” “Tell me when ....” Just adding the word “please” does not mean that you are being polite. “Please” can be used in commands, for example, “Please behave yourself” or “Please finish the project tomorrow.”
• Your identity is an important clue to the context of the message. Every semester I teach approximately 100 students in four classes, therefore identify yourself as a student in the class you are enrolled in, such as:

  Dear Dr. Janowiak,

  I am a student enrolled in your Self-paced Health Education in the Elementary School course.

• Be concise. Faculty get many e-mail messages every day, and often read them quickly. E-mails that are too lengthy may not be read carefully, or may be left unread until more time is available.
• Always, re-read your e-mails and check for spelling and grammatical mistakes before sending them.
• When making an appointment, you can suggest a few time slots, but always say something like “If these times do not suit you, please feel free to let me know any other time that you prefer / that is convenient to you.” If you cannot make the date suggested, say, “I am sorry, but I cannot come to see you on [Monday].” Do not say, “I am not available on [Monday].”

In conclusion, if you do not use a formal salutation and my name (Dr. Janowiak) or establish who you are and what class you are enrolled in, your e-mail message will not be read or responded to.

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Course Mechanics

Library Services and E-reserves

Students enrolled in Self-paced Courses can access online library resources from the UNC-Chapel Hill Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves and e-journals. When you click on a restricted library resource, you may be prompted to enter your UNC-Chapel Hill Onyen. If you are unable to access the library's licensed resources, please contact the proxy team for further assistance.

E-mail

If you change to another e-mail address, notify me and Janice Durham at the Friday Center of the change.

Other Questions

Contact your instructor with questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. (There is an e-mail link at the top of every lesson page.) Please include “SPC HED 3645” in the subject line of your e-mail.

Contact the Instructional Designer at the Friday Center about problems with this Web site, including bad links.

If you have any logistical questions as you work through the course (enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on), contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669).

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How to Begin

The course schedule is up to you. You can complete the course in as few as twelve weeks or take as long as nine months.

Since this course is not held in a classroom, I may never meet you in person. Still, I would like to know something about you so that I can associate each e-mail message from you with something more than a name. Therefore, your first task is to send me a Personal Information Sheet: Save this Word Document to your hard drive (or copy and paste from this Web page into your word processing program), fill it out, and attach it to an e-mail to me. This also gives us a chance to make sure our lines of communication are working.

When you have reviewed the information on this home page, click on the Lesson 1 link below. Complete the reading assignment in the textbook, and then read the Discussion and the Application for Teaching sections. When you are prepared, complete the written assignment. Be sure to follow the instructions in each lesson for submitting your assignment.

You will follow this procedure for each lesson in the course.

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Course Outline

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A Final Word

I want you to find Health Education in the Elementary School engaging, interesting, and enjoyable. You may proceed at your own pace through assignments, lessons, and activities. The Indian philosopher Krishnamurti wrote, “There can be no true learning where there is fear or competition.” In the absence of these negative incentives and through personal involvement, I am confident that you will begin the lifelong process of achieving for yourself the changes you wish to see in your students' health and happiness.

Lesson 1