My name is Joe Frenna, and I am out of shape.I teach Language Arts at Malcolm Price Laboratory School in Cedar Falls, IA. Our school is working on a comprehensive wellness initiative designed to make our school and community healthier. This includes providing instruction for our K-12 students about health literacy as well as working to make sure that our faculty models positive behaviors that promote wellness. As my students know, I am the least athletic living person. Although a hard worker when it comes to my job, I am extremely LAZY about exercise. Thanks to the efforts of our PE department to motivate their colleagues to model healthy habits, I have been forced to confront the fact that, not only are my students aware that I do not exercise, but my unhealthy habits have become a running joke. Aside from self-deprecating comments I make about my own lack of physical fitness, kids that I teach also notice the amount of coffee and soda that I consume and my complete ignorance about anything related to athletics.
I also cannot escape the fact that I am being a bit hypocritical when I ask students to push themselves beyond what is comfortable and easy for them in their school work. I preach abo
ut exerting effort and pushing through even when you don't think you can go any further. When they struggle with generating writing, processing challenging reading material, or simply finding the motivation to begin an assignment, I talk and act like a coach. In fact, one of my most frequent motivational analogies is to compare the work they do in my class to lifting weights. I equate the struggle against that resistance which strenghtens their muscles with the struggle I want them to engage in to strengthen their minds. How stand I, then, when I refuse to follow my own advice and do what I know is right for me simply because it is difficult?
ut exerting effort and pushing through even when you don't think you can go any further. When they struggle with generating writing, processing challenging reading material, or simply finding the motivation to begin an assignment, I talk and act like a coach. In fact, one of my most frequent motivational analogies is to compare the work they do in my class to lifting weights. I equate the struggle against that resistance which strenghtens their muscles with the struggle I want them to engage in to strengthen their minds. How stand I, then, when I refuse to follow my own advice and do what I know is right for me simply because it is difficult?As a teacher, I have a responsibility to be a positive example to my students. I also have a responsibility to myself and my family. Having made the decision to become healthier, the first thing I need to do is make a plan. Part of the plan is to record and reflect on my progress in this blog. This public forum will give my students (whom I will invite to follow) an opportunity to see how I set and work toward a goal that we all know will not be easy for me. It will also make it more difficult for me to quit once I have started.
