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Healthy Hoosiers Success Stories
Healthy Hoosiers are beginning to show up all across the state of Indiana as schools become more knowledgeable about how student health positively effects student academic achievement. The Indiana Coordinated School Health Program is being instituted in many school corporations with great success. This website illustrates just a few programs that schools have implemented to improve the health of their students.
East Allen County Schools Physical education teacher, Tom Kneller, teaches at the Village Elementary School in East Allen County. Village elementary is a Title I funded school on the eastern edge of Fort Wayne. Mr. Kneller, a veteran teacher, has been teaching for 33 years and shows his passion for developing healthy students every day. He is a strong motivator and know how to encourage his students to live an active lifestyle. Each year, Mr. Kneller collaborates with his fellow teachers and health care professionals from the community and conducts a workshop to teach children about various aspects of being healthy. He invites all second grade students from other elementary schools in East Allen County to attend the workshop on one of two days. The workshop is called Focus on Health. Since the program was developed and piloted at Village Elementary School in 1994, more than 7,000 students have participated in the event. The children learn six healthy living lessons: “Say No to Strangers,” healthy diet, oral hygiene, proper hand washing techniques, fitness and exercise, and healthy lungs. Partners who helped support the program in 2004 included St. Joseph Hospital, Time Corners Lions Club, and Parkview Hospital. Focus on Health is a project of the Midwest Alliance for Health Education Community Affairs. Focus on Health is a once a year program that Mr. Kneller supports the rest of the year with a walking program that students do during recess. Students complete laps around a track and earn tiny, colorful “toe tags” to hang on their shoelaces or on a necklace to wear around the neck. Mr. Kneller said that some of the students learned that they could earn the tags quicker by running their laps. Students receive one toe tag for every three miles they walk or run. Village Elementary has also implemented a simple change that has shown some large returns – recess is scheduled before lunch instead of after. The staff in the lunchroom reported that students are eating more and have less plate loss. This is probably due to the fact that they are not rushing through lunch to go out and play at recess. Also, because of Mr. Kneller’s emphasis on health, students are choosing healthier foods in the cafeteria and teachers are reporting fewer students with afternoon headaches.
Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation Fit, Healthy and Ready to Learn at Dexter Elementary Dexter Elementary is embarking on a journey of healthy lifestyles for our staff and students. We are always looking for ways we can address the issue of childhood obesity and decreased activity of our youth today. The idea of the Dexter Dare Fear Factor with
Food came from that desire to improve the health of children.
Capitalizing on the TV show of Fear Factor, the students could “dare” each
other to try the healthy food. After trying the food, the students chart their response to the food with colored stickers. Green stickers indicate they loved it. Yellow stickers indicate it was ok. Blue stickers indicate that they were too scared to even try the food. Red stickers show they tried the food but did not like it. The charts are gathered at the end of the day. The classrooms with the most students trying the food are put in a drawing for a low calorie frozen treat. The food of the month is then reintroduced
in another way later in the month. Only one food is charted with
the student response. This introduces the idea to the students
that the food may come in many forms that they may like. Foods
that have been used for the Dexter Dare are as follows: A video is shown to the students before each food to get the students excited about trying the food. We have used the local firemen to eat cantaloupe. The liaison police officer and his son did a video showing how eating sweet potatoes helped him to grow up to be the police officer he always wanted to be. We have also had students do a rap to eating cabbage and slaw. A group of fifth grades lip-synced the Popeye the sailor man song to encourage eating spinach. Several gifts have been given to the students
for participating in the Dexter Dare throughout the year. August,
December and May did not have a dare. A posttest will be given
to determine if the students find themselves trying foods that
they would not have done prior to participating in the Dexter
Dare. The Recharge After School program provided by Action For Healthy Kids has been used as a guide for curriculum. Here at Dexter we are committed to doing all we can for the health of our students. We have a willing staff and parent support in this partnership for students who are fit, healthy and ready to learn. Dexter Leads Way To a Make Schools a Healthy Place to Learn A remarkable thing is happening at Dexter Elementary School: The kids there are eating brussel sprouts. And they like them! But that’s not all. In this school that has gotten serious about being a healthy place for children, a quiet evolution is underway. Room mothers in the PTA are bringing apple slices, fruit roll-ups and other healthy treats, as alternatives to just cupcakes and cookies, for class parties. Fourth and fifth graders spend part of their gym classes attached to computerized heart-rate monitors, learning to exercise at a pace that will gain them the most cardiovascular benefits. Students in another class learn to spell words while doing jumping jacks. Every teacher in every subject is doing something
about health, explained music teacher Kris Weimer. The PTA has
joined in the effort. And so, too, have
a variety of community agencies and health professionals. Ginny O’Connor, assistant project director for the EVSC School-Community Council, said the program represents a paradigm shift in schools’ traditional approach of simply having gym and health classes for kids. This new program involves the entire school and faculty, plus parents and the community, all in a coordinated effort to improve children’s health and give them the information they need to make healthy choices in life. The approach, initiated by the School-Community Council’s Health Team has put the EVSC far ahead of most other school corporations in Indiana in preparing for coming requirements for all school districts to develop system-wide wellness plans. “Evansville is really
far and away ahead, compared to the rest of the state,” said
Suzanne Crouch, director of the Indiana Department of Education’s
Coordinated School Health Program. She said most school corporations
in the state “are
just beginning to become aware of future requirements.” Students have also taken a lead role. The Fifth Grade Service Club, which in the past has sold cookies and candy to raise funds for the fifth graders’ annual field trip to Vincennes, is now selling fruit instead. When the club introduced other Dexter students to some treats many had never tasted before -- star fruit and clementines -- the result was a sell-out. Parents have been enthusiastic participants. PTA President Kate Langford and her crew organized a “Heart Hospital in the Jungle” for Dexter’s open house in February. The whole evening was designed to let kids and their parents learn that exercise can be a fun thing that families can do together, at low cost. Pat Barsumian, supervisor of food services
for EVSC, has been introducing Dexter students to a variety of
vegetables and other healthy, low-fat foods. And
their response has surprised even her. “I was afraid the majority would not even try them,” Mrs. Barsumian said of the veggies. “But the children have been receptive. All the spinach was gone!” She and dietitian Janet Rennels think maybe kids have become bored with junk food and want to eat a healthy, balanced diet. “Kids are asking me good questions about nutrition,” Mrs. Rennels said. “I think they’re tired of eating poorly.” Mrs. Rennels is one of two employees of St. Mary’s Medical Center -- along with respiratory therapist Jackie Richards -- who are loaned by the hospital to work fulltime in EVSC schools. They’ve been a major partner in the Dexter program, working with students, faculty and parents to address childhood obesity, asthma and other major health issues affecting the children. The Greater Evansville Runners/Walkers Club is sponsoring Dexter’s after-school Step Up Club, in which third-graders are “walking through Indiana.” Each day the kids compute the total miles they’ve walked and mark it off on a map of the state, turning the exercise into a geography lesson as well. By February, they had reached Elkhart. The
routes they walk, both inside and outside the school, were established
by physical education teacher Derek Faucett and are being used
by other students and faculty as well. One of the two indoor
routes includes 44 stairsteps and “really gets their hearts
going,” Faucett said. The 40 high-tech,
computerized heart-rate monitors being used in Faucett’s
gym classes for fourth and fifth graders were purchased with a
grant of more than $18,000 from the Welborn Foundation. Her target rate, based on size and age, was 149 beats per minute. Asked what that meant, she responded, “It means my heart is beating great and I’m getting really good exercise and I’ll probably get an A in this class!” Kristen Greathouse, also 11, said she exercises “a whole lot more now” since she started using the heart-rate monitor. “And I’ve gotten better at running,” she added proudly. One advantage of the monitors is that they enable each child to do his or her personal best, without facing the discouragement of competing with class athletes, Mrs. Duncan said. In the meantime, Dexter’s school nurse, Linda Lutz, is working on creating a homemade gym, using things that every family probably has, like milk jugs and detergent jugs for making weights. “We don’t have a bunch of wealthy kids. They can’t join a gym,” she explained. Her message to kids and their parents is that a healthy lifestyle “doesn’t have to be expensive.” If the program convinces kids and their parents to adopt healthier habits, it will be a giant step forward when measured against some national statistics on children’s health, including that more than 15 percent of elementary school-aged youngsters are obese -- double the percentage just 20 years ago. Mrs. Rennels said Dexter’s approach is recognizing that schools need to address “more than just academics. Kids can’t come to school and be ready to learn if they haven’t had good nutrition, sleep and (physical) activity. They just can’t function the way they should to be a good student.” And, she added, “Schools can’t do it alone. The community has to be a partner in this.” But what’s been done at Dexter so far is just the beginning. The school’s overall programming for student health and safety is currently being inventoried with use of a new tool, the “Healthy School Report Card,” developed by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. It’s divided into 11 different “indicators” and “characteristics” of a health-promoting school -- including not just nutrition, physical education and the health curriculum, but also mental health services and such issues as student codes of conduct and discipline, the structural safety of the school facilities including playgrounds, and involvement of the students‚ families and the greater community. Mrs. O’Connor said the Report Card will help Dexter know what it’s doing right and what more it needs to do. Eventually, it will be used in other school -- possibly throughout Indiana and the nation. Indianapolis Public Schools In Indianapolis, students at Howe Academy who want to lose weight, exercise more and eat healthier participate in an after school program called the FAST Club. FAST stands for fitness, achievement, success and togetherness. The club program is directed by Audrey Satterblom, a Howe teacher and also the President of the Indiana Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. The program began in fall 2003 when Ms. Satterblom was able to obtain a grant from the Indianapolis Health Foundation that she used to provide pedometers for her students in the program to borrow. The students do a variety of activities from stretching to prepare for exercise to running up and down the stairs in the school. Ms. Satterblom also infuses a healthy serving of health concepts into the after school curriculum. Students discuss what foods are healthy and which ones are unhealthy. Ms. Satterblom encourages the students to influence their parents to purchase healthy foods and to find time in their busy day to include physical activity. The pedometers are not the only perk the Howe students receive. Ms. Satterblom also provides the students with a healthy snack that she pays for herself, a sample of her passion for healthy living. An extension of that passion was played out last year in the form of a grant application to the United States Department of Education that Ms. Satterblom initiated. With the help of the IPS administration, Ms. Satterblom successfully received a three year grant for $771,687. She was also instrumental in helping IPS receive a grant for intensive Coordinated School Health Leadership training for the IPS CSHP team. Ms. Satterblom is a shining example of what a school corporation can do when they have a champion, willing to go the extra mile to improve the health of students.
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Indiana Department of Education |
