Warrior Wellness: An inside look at Willowbrook’s Health Education program

By Willowbrook physical education teachers Rachel Karos, Steven Belknap, Eduardo DeLaCruz, Benjamin Maher and Megan Murphy (substitute: Matthew Bacinich)

Willowbrook students are working hard every day to become more educated with their health and wellness, and we are thrilled to feature those accomplishments through this monthly column.

In this edition of Warrior Wellness, we showcase our Health Education program. It has certainly been an interesting and challenging year for all of us because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. For some, it has brought on the realization that our health and the health of others isn’t guaranteed. Since March, our nation’s mental and physical health have been in the headlines and are more important than ever.

In Health Education, we take our role of helping students maintain their mental, emotional, physical and social health extremely seriously, and we have worked hard to create a remote learning experience that is as valuable as our in-person classes. Our classrooms might be empty, but we are committed to providing pupils with real tools, knowledge and decision-making skills. Students have been working to improve their health literacy to advocate for themselves and others. Here is a look at what we have accomplished this semester:

• Daily mindfulness: Students spent the beginning of each class period reflecting on their personal life and social issues and practicing empathy.
  
  
• Health and wellness: Students analyzed various influences on their overall health.
  
  
• Body systems: Students expanded their knowledge of all body systems and how those systems interact with one another. They created presentations on specific body systems to help educate their fellow classmates.
  
  
• Communicable disease: Students learned the ins and outs of infectious diseases, how they spread and how we can prevent them. Students also played the role of an epidemiologist to discover what was causing a mysterious disease.
  
  
• Non-communicable disease: Students increased their knowledge of prevention strategies to help limit their chances of developing non-communicable diseases. Students researched their families to discover which diseases they might be more likely to develop.
  
  
• CPR/First Aid: Students learned basic first aid strategies and Hands-Only CPR.
  
  
• Fitness/nutrition: Students learned how to fuel the body properly; created healthy, sugar-free snacks; and reviewed the basics and importance of physical education.
  
  
• Mental health:

• • Willowbrook School Counselor Kimberly Mikesell (pictured above) and Guidance Department intern Matt Renas provided a presentation to help students learn about mental illness and discussed signs/symptoms, available resources, coping skills and strategies. The goal was to break the stigma regarding mental illness and to promote the importance of mental health.

• • Students created holiday cards for veterans at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital and local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) posts (pictured above).

Upcoming topics/units include:

• Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
  
  
• Human sexuality and relationships

Stay connected:
Want to keep up with what we are doing in Health Education classes? Follow us on Twitter at @education_wb.

• The monthly Warrior Wellness column provides an inside look into the physical education, health and driver education classes at Willowbrook. This feature will highlight what students are working on in class, as well as student successes in those departments.