I haven't really shared much about what I actually do for a living so I thought I'd shed a little light on what my life is like as a middle school health and p.e. teacher. What can I say, I am one of the lucky ones that really enjoys what they do for a living. What I like most is that I am able to constantly practice what I preach...that is living a healthy/active lifestyle, and that is more than just about triathlon.
There are many different areas of wellness...not just physical health. Some of these other areas are mental/emotional health, social health, spiritual, financial, and so on. The one's we focus on for teaching are the first 3. I teach 2 blocks of p.e. a day and 1 of health. For health right now I have my 8th graders. This is probably one of the most challenging years a person goes through in their life. The social aspect is so important...to the point where kids will do whatever is necessary in order to fit in and have friends. I try my best to make things like being respectful and working hard the cool things that I reward in my class. I don't like the days when I have to get right into a kids "grill" (yes I tend to use a fair amount of the kids' silly language now since it's all I hear every day). That is one benefit of being pretty young, yet having complete authority of my classes. If I challenge a student in class the reaction tends to be positive the next time around because I'm still considered "cool."
Anyways, I am teaching substance abuse right now. For 8th grade I mostly focus on drugs, but spend a couple days on tobacco and alcohol. This is a tough unit to teach because of the varying knowledge/maturity levels. Some kids know way too much whereas some know nothing at all. Facilitating the questions is always interesting. Is it bad I find out about new street names for different drugs every year? So the last couple of days we have used the drunk goggles . These goggles impair your vision so that it seems as if you were drunk. I had 3 different levels of goggles...basically mild, strong, and very strong. I would put the students through various tasks and it was quite funny. I did the basic try to walk on a straight line and then turn around and come back. I threw them a soft ball and probably 2 out of 60 caught it. I had them try to shoot a basketball into the hoop...only one made it. I had them try to hit a wiffle ball...hilarious. It's been a lot of fun, but I think the students really realized how much alcohol can alter their body/mind so mission accomplished.
On a bit of a sad note, it is true that kids pretty much everywhere are getting lazier and lazier. There are a lot of people responsible for this. We do our part about exercising the students and teaching them why living a healthy lifestyle is so important, but parents really need to start taking a bigger role. It is clear which students have a strong support network at home and which ones don't. So please...if you're a parent out there...don't ever underestimate the importance of teaching your kids about healthy habits. They will thank you later and enjoy life more.
So that's a little glimpse about what I actually do for a living. My job fits in about as well as any for training/racing...you would have thought I had planned that, but when I gradated from college I had no idea triathlon would be such a passion of mine. I guess it was kind of meant to be.
Okay enough of that...gotta go punish myself on the trainer for a bit. Bring on the pain!
Thanks for reading.
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