Reflecting on my Food Journal

Keeping a food and exercise journal did not necessarily give me any new information about my habits. I am always very conscious about what I eat, how much and when. The same thing holds true for the physical activity, which is part of my everyday life. On the other hand I realize that many people and especially children are not as preoccupied about this issue as I am. Or, if they are, they might lack the means and methods to keep track of their eating and exercising habits. The food journal could prove to be the easiest and the best method to do just that and then to decide on the appropriate changes that need to me made.

Looking over my food journal I am pleased with what I see. My menu includes many vegetables and fruits every day, healthy and nutritious, home cooked food and no sugary snacks or drinks. I also exercise regularly, 3 or 4 times a week, at the gym or outside: hikes, walks, bike rides. As long as I keep the same routine I would say that I am on the right track and I am in a good spot to talk to my students about health and fitness and to give them good information and advice.

I found it hard to decide on a goal, something to change about my eating habits. Finally I decided to try an experiment and see if I can completely eliminate desserts and sugary products from my menu. My experiment worked pretty well but I did trespass the sugar interdiction a few times. The first time I ate a slice of pecan cake because I was visiting friends and that’s what I was offered, it would have been rude to refuse it. I regard the other two instances when I ate sugary products as much less important because they involved only two teaspoons of strawberry jam. I have to admit that there were a few moments when I craved something sweet. I satisfied the craving with toasted bread, one teaspoon unsweetened and unsalted peanut butter and one teaspoon jam. It was enough sweetness for me for a whole day. So although I did not accomplish my goal of completely eliminating sweets from my diet I am satisfied with my overall “performance” and I would advise my students to act in a similar way when confronted with a situation like this: if you really cannot avoid breaking your goal consume very small quantities of the product in question.

As a conclusion I think that the food journal is a very useful tool while working with children because it can help them become aware of the things they eat. Having this “database” will allow them to analyze their eating habits and to make informed decisions about changes that they want to enforce. Moreover, the journal can be used outside a health and fitness class because it has applications in many other domains:

- Writing - it is first and foremost a daily writing activity.
- Math – it can be used to discuss about quantities, proportions, or simply to add up the calories provided by the food.
- Science – to talk about hypothesis, predictions, conclusions. It can be regarded as a scientific experiment. It can also be used to talk about the sources of food, how different food products are processed, packaged, transported etc.
- Social studies – it can be a starting point for discussions about different cultures and their food or problems related to food availability around the world.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 8

I enjoyed tricking my brain during today's class. Most of the experiments that we did were familiar too me, but nonetheless fascinating.I am sure it would be an equally surprising and fun experience for children but I am not sure how in depth I could go with the explanations and how easy it would be for students to understand what and why it is happening. Another thing that I was thinking about is the children that will not manage to see what other children see during the experiment. During the dragon experiment for example I did not manage to see what I was "supposed" to see and it was a little frustrating even for me. For children it would be much more difficult to accept that they cannot see what some of their peers see, especially while the others have so much fun with the dragon. The video that we saw afterward helped, but I do not think it will be enough to alleviate the children's sadness.

Going further,I liked a lot the Brain Rules reading. It made me want to read the whole book. I liked it because it has very accessible information and practical advice. Although I am familiar with most of the things that I have read and I am already very conscious about the way I include exercise and sleep in my life and the way I treat stress, it is always good to be reminded about these things and to see them written down. If reading about these things has this effect on me I can see the use of talking and reading about similar things with my students.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 7

I loved the activities that we did today in class and the resources that we were introduced to. I think they will be very useful for teaching sexual health.

First of all the icebreaker activity is great for starting a discussion about sex and its anatomy and physiology. It gives students the opportunity to say out loud words that they might be afraid to pronounce and to laugh about them with the teacher and the rest of the class. It's like saying: OK, let's get it over with this and then get to the more serious discussion.

Secondly, I really loved the idea of the survey and the way we implemented it, it can be used in so many situations in which people would not feel comfortable expressing out loud their opinions.

Lastly, I like the "It's amazing" book and it is refreshing to know that such resources exist and are there to help us talk to children about these subjects: as parents and as teachers.

After today's class I think I feel much more confident that I can talk comfortably about sex health and related issues. Great class!

Health and Fitness Education, Day 6

Yesterday's microteaching activities offered great opportunities for learning, as usual. I have to remember how and what to ask students while they work in small groups and I circulate between them. It is really important and I had the chance to see how useful good questions can be: they can serve both the student and the teacher. It helps the student because it invites him/her to think critically and to go deeper in the subject and it helps the teacher with assessment.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 5

CPS training today, for the second time for me in the last six months. Last time I took it for my work place and it was not nearly as long as today. I really don't think three hours were necessary for this presentation. I get it, there are many gray areas and we could spend a whole week talking about the many variables that we should keep in mind while deciding on what is the best way to act. But ultimately it all comes down to one simple idea: if you are in doubt to whether it is a case of abuse or neglect or not, call CPS. It is as simple as that and I do not understand why we had to spend so much time talking about a hundred possible scenarios. I do not think we will ever be alone in making a difficult decision, we will always have the help of our colleagues: fellow teachers and administrative employees.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 4

I find it very useful and interesting to observe my classmates` micro-teaching and I feel I will be learning a lot every day through the reflection that we do afterwards. The two lessons that we had today have been both great. I consider them much better executed than my lesson, two days ago. Important things that I have learned from the micro-teaching activities so far:

- always tell children what to watch/observe before you play them a video.
- give handouts that makes it easier for students to go back to the new information that you have just introduced and that you want them to use during a class activity
- make very sure that you use age appropriate language.
- do not take it for granted that your students know the terms that you are using. Even the simple ones (for you) might be unknown to your students.
- always give directions before you ask students to stand up and reorganize.

I will add more to this list every day, as we go along.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 3

Today it was quite a day. That's because besides the class discussions we also had the first micro-teaching experience and me and my partner presented our lesson about sugar.

Firstly, it was interesting to discuss with my small group partners about our grocery store observations. I was surprised to see how similar our observations were. We have all concentrated on pretty much the same thing and it was helpful to be able to exchange ideas. I think my ideas about the refelction paper that I am going to write are much clearer now.

The discussion about food labels was also interesting and everybody had good ideas and arguments. But on the other hand I don't feel that it has helped me a lot to navigate the complexity of this issue. I will be as lost as ever while shopping because I find it so hard to make sense of all the nutrition information that we are being bombarded with. I don't know who or what to trust. This was an issue while preparing for the sugar lesson too. I used the internet extensively and I found very contradictory opinions and information.

Lastly...our lesson about sugar...I have mixed feelings about it. I know it was far from perfect but I'm not completely ashamed of it either. All the reactions that we got from our classmates and instructor are very helpful and they will be useful for my future lessons. I'm looking forward to seeing the video. It will be a first: I've never seen myself in front of a classroom!

Health and Fitness Education, Day 2

Today we talked for the very first time about a central issue in teaching: lesson planning. Some of the things were familiar to me, as I have written lesson plans before, in Romania. Still, there are obviously differences between what I learned and did in Romania and what is required here. As in most of the things that we have done so far there is a much higher degree of flexibility in the rules that we have to follow while writing a lesson plan. For example I was expecting to have to be much more concerned about the way I phrase the lesson objectives. In the lesson plans that I created before the wording was very important, the type of verbs that I was supposed to use etc. It might be that the expectations are not as high yet because we are just getting started with writing lesson plans. We might get there later. But then we might not.

It is a wonderful journey for me, learning about teaching in the US and approaching everything in ways that are very different from the way they are approached in my home country. I am looking forward to getting more practice in writing lesson plans and I'm going to get started pretty soon, as I have my microteaching assignment on Tuesday.

Health and Fitness Education, Day 1

Today I learned and played with a pre-assessment method that I was not familiar with: the concept map. I think I could use it my classroom in many situations, it is a fun and challenging way to organize information. I liked the fact that it got us all very involved in what we were doing, it captured all our attention and required a lot of energy, communication and concession from all the group members. I am confident it would have the same effect on a group of young students.

Going further, I am looking forward to our next classes, I find the subjects that we are going to discuss very interesting. Having a healthy lifestyle is very important for me and I spend quite a lot of time thinking about it: while I'm shopping for groceries, while I cook for me and my husband, when I go to the gym or when I decide how I want to spend my free time. I've always considered that it is very important to educate our students about health and fitness and I am anxious to discover ways of doing that.