Exercise & Fitness are part of a Healthy Lifestyle!

We very often speak about the importance of a balanced diet, eating colorful foods, and reducing the amount of fat we consume. Keep in mind that these messages are only part of the equation for creating a healthy lifestyle! The other important component is exercise...that is, daily exercise to imporve you health! Adults need to have 60 - 90 minutes per day of exercise for good health. Children need at least 60 minutes per day too.
Your exercise plan can be a simple as walking everyday! If you are looking for website that offer useful information andout exercise check out the following:
Exercise is Medicine
The National Association for Sport & Physical Education
American Heart Association Exercise & Fitness Page
American Council on Exercise

Finding Recipes Online

Most people have become used to using online recipe database when searching for something good and healthy to create in the kitchen. The younger generations prefers searching for recipes exclusively online rather than using cookbooks. The Food Network is my personal favorite when I need a recipe. Their index has thousands of recipes to choose from. A friend of mine likes Gold Mine Recipes or the one on Self (the magazine). Prevention (the magazine) also feature a database of recipes. As for me, I'll continue to use my good old fashioned cookbook collection for the old standby recipes I love and search online when I want to try something new! It looks like the best of both worlds to me!

Another Excellent Resource Web Site!

I just love it when I find awesome website! This one is a great NJ resource. Check out the Get Moving-Get Healthy New Jersey site for: physical activities for families, nutrition information, food of the month information, links to BMI calculator, heart rate calculator, calorie counter....and lots more. Within the next week the Walk NJ Point-to-Point (virtual walk) will be live online. It would be fun to challenge yourself, your family, or your colleagues to count their steps each day and track them on the online calculator. The walk will feature pictures of the sights along the way which is a terrific learning experience for children. Take the walking challenge and see if you can walk 10,000 steps per day! Your health is well worth the effort!

Parents Need Resources to Help Their Children Live a Healthy Lifestyle!

Last night I participated in a school wellness health fair In Atlantic County and today I spoke to parents at an Atlantic City School. I heard the same message loud and clear....we need resources to help us deal with eating issues/food likes & dislikes/healthy snacks/portion control. My best advice is for them to first visit the MyPyramid website for information about portion control and caloric needs for children (adults too). The children will be attracted to the fun (educational) games that help them learn about eating healthy. Together the family can set goals about how they are going to change their eating habits. The next stop on their journey can be to the Get Moving-Get Healthy New Jersey website. The site provides information on physical activity and has the Walk New Jersey Point to Point virtual walk. Families can increase their activity level and have fun keeping track of their number of steps each day. The family can learn about NJ as they travel from High Point to Cape May!

Excellent Websites!

There are so many excellent websites out there, but here are a few that top the list of resources for families:
* The National Safety Council has fact sheets for just about everything
* Kids Health (Nemours Foundation) is very user friendly for kids (and parents) and offers interesting fun related to kids health
* How to Understand the Food Label provides lots of information to help you better understand the rules and regs on food labeling
Check out theses sites and share them with parents and educators!

Internet Safety for Families

Internet safety is a huge issue for families. Parents want their children to be computer literate yet they want to make sure the children are safe when they are online. We know that kids (and adults) like to use social network tools like FaceBook and YouTube. But how do we ensure our safety while interacting on these websites? I am looking for good articles about this issue! I thought this article was worth reading 12 Safety Tips on Blogging for Parents and Kids. Although the article was written in 2006 the information holds true today.

Blogging for Information

If you are an educator you can find great ideas at blog sites! Try some of these links to see if you can locate an exciting new lesson idea for your students:
* Edublogs
* Kidzlog
* Bloglines
Blogs can be an excellent tool for the classroom. Think about sharing information with your students online, then having them reflect in writing on your blog. Instead of having 30 students each turn in a paper you can have all of them do their writing in one place! That's easier for you!

Healthy Youth Resources

There seems to be a million great resources out there! The CDC has an excellent Healthy Youth Resource page that address STD's & HIV, physical activity, nutrition, safety, tobacco and asthma. Wow! This resource is useful for FCS, physical education educators, and school nurses.

Trying to Understand Blogs?

It seems that some of our readers need to know a little bit more about blogs. A blog is an electronic journal. The best and most simple description of blogs can be found at Blogs in Plain English and click on the little newsman. It is well worth the 3 minutes (that's all!) it takes to better understand blogging.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Everyone needs to know the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans! This is a good site for you the teacher, and it is also a good site for you the parent/grandparent/friend/neighbor. The government updates the guidelines every 5 years, so be sure to know the current version. The site includes PowerPoint's and other tools that you can use in your classroom.

Resource links from today's presentation at Curriculum Connections

I appreciated the opportunity to speak to so many teachers today at Curriculum Connections! Professional development is a powerful component of your work and I applaud the fact that you took the time to attend. Here are the links I included in the technology presentation:
* Visions Newsletter
Click on the link for Vol. 20, No. 1
* Building a Collaborative Classroom Wiki
* Good Examples of pbwiki in the Classroom
For the two pbwik links- go to the site, then click on How to Create a Collaborative Classroom, then complete the brief request to download
* 7 Things You Should Know About Series (Educause)
Look for the downloads for the following- Wikis, Blogs, Podcasting