Prevention Lessons

I have had the dubious honor this week of having the county prevention nurse in my classroom. There are some really great things about that and some negative aspects as well.

Here are the good things first!

    1. Mrs. Barfield, the nurse taught all of my classes (all 155-ish students) every day all four days of last week, and will finish up tomorrow.

    2. The extra free time gave me LOTS of time to catch up. I know it sounds inefficient to be behind after only 2 weeks of school, but it's true, it happens. I did lots of sorting and putting away, the letters my students write to me on the second day of school, the parent information sheets that I send home, they are all filed, hole punched and put away!

    3. Someone else teaching all my students every day. Did I already mention that?

    4. Mrs. Barfield is a fabulous teacher, as well as a nurse. She is so matter of fact and easy for kids to understand. She just puts it right out there and has better classroom control than lots of teachers I know.

 

Now, the negative things about the health lessons:

    1. I teach Geography, it sounds really stupid to explain to people why the nurse teaches in my class instead of science class. (The FCAT – there's not one for Social Studies, there is for Science, so we take time away from Social Studies because it apparently isn't that important to the state of Florida anyway! That's also why monthly, I get to traipse all my students down to the nurse's office to do head lice checks! NOTE- this is NOT my idea!)

    2. For the first two days of health, the boys and girls are separated while they learn the lessons about puberty. I get the boys. Trust me; I could label a diagram of the male reproductive system in my sleep! The same lesson seven times in one day, followed by the embarrassment of 11, 12, and 13 year old boys having the learn about the female reproductive system. For some strange reason, on the day of that lesson, my boys won't look at me when they leave the room and they are really glad my desk is in the back of the room, not the front!

    3. Being constantly reminded that there are so many things that parents should teach their children, which apparently they never get to. I'm amazed that kids who are so streetwise can be so clueless about their own bodies.

    4. Only one more day!