What happened to the good ol' days?

I'm sure that this is not a surprise to anyone but I just came across this story and I had to stop and ponder about it. Meals today at many fast food establishments have tried to include healthy food, but as you can see there are too many unhealthy choices. Students now are growing up in a culture where it's not only ok to be lazy, but with the facebook, and myspace, and everything else, why would a teenager want to leave their home this summer? As role models we also have to make smarter choices, and we can also try to incorporate some health fitness into the classroom.

I know that many of us are not P.E. teachers, but that doesn't mean we can't bring a little of that into the classroom. As teachers we can have the students discuss what makes a healthy food choice and an unhealthy food choice. Have them sort ads from a Sunday paper and discuss what they have experienced. Another way is to graph their heartbeat. Have them start cold, and find their pulse and record their rate. Then turn on some music have do some light aerobics for a few min and again record their pulse. You can increase the level of difficulty a few more times, and then do a warm down and take a pulse.

Activities such as these will not only have your students engaged in the lesson, but also aware of good healthy choices. Which is exactly what we as educators should all strive for. We need to encourage more activites just like we had when we were kids.