Eben Hopson Middle School

This morning we woke up nice and early (not so nice) and went with Mirri over to Eben Hopson Middle School, where we spent the morning teaching about 600 middle school students about different health topics. Boy, what an energy-expenditure it was to “bring myself back” mentally to a sixth grade level!!!!! My mind and feet were definitely spent by the time we got done at noon! I was in Ms. Parks’s classroom the whole time, presenting seven times, each for thirty minutes. I taught about community health and school health, stress reduction and relaxation with the seventh graders, hand hygiene, gowning and gloving, health careers, nutrition, and blood pressure. The most successful two presentations were the stress reduction presentation and the Glo-Germ activity during the hygiene presentation. The kids ALL understand now that handwashing is THEEEE NUMBER ONE WAY TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF ILLNESS! I think, by the end, I was shouting it at the top of my lungs. Poor Ms. Parks was the behavioral monitor for the sixth graders. Endless rowdiness, I tell you. It was a lot of fun to be introduced as an out-of-state speaker and nursing student! Some of the kids were really smart and most were able to call out ideas about current stressors, current health topics, and ways to keep themselves healthy in this environment. I was very pleased! This is such a critical developmental time and while I slightly expected their focus to be elsewhere than the classroom, they were able to rein in the energy and pay attention. Throughout our time the Wellness Center said our time at the middle school teaching would be very beneficial because it’s highly needed; and I would have to agree! We have tomorrow off and then Friday we will go to Kiita, the alternative high school, and present on community health and available health careers. Then it’s home on Saturday!