{"id":9890,"date":"2016-10-05T16:01:15","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T22:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/?p=9890"},"modified":"2016-10-05T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T22:01:15","slug":"health-and-wellness-education-at-ahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/2016\/10\/05\/health-and-wellness-education-at-ahs\/","title":{"rendered":"Health and Wellness Education at AHS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Osprey Students and Families,<br \/>\nAt Animas High School, we recognize the importance of supporting students as individuals and whole people, paying attention not just to their academic growth but also their physical, social and emotional wellbeing. We take a multifaceted approach to health and wellness education, often working with community partners to provide students resources and knowledge to help students make informed, healthy choices. \u00a0While we do not have a traditional health class, students are exposed to health and wellness programming through a variety of avenues over the course of their four years with us. \u00a0For the 2016-17 school year, we currently have the following health and wellness programming in place:<br \/>\n<strong>Healthy Relationships and Sex Education<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Educators from the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.plannedparenthood.org\/planned-parenthood-rocky-mountains\/responsible-sex-education-institute\">Responsible Sex Education Institute<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0will teach the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/All-Together-Now-Agenda.pdf\">All Together Now<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0curriculum to 9th graders over the course of four Wednesday mornings (10\/5, 11\/9, 1\/25 and 2\/22)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Educators from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.durangosaso.org\/\">Sexual Assault Services Organization<\/a>\u00a0(SASO) will conduct the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.durangosaso.org\/bystander-intervention\">Bystander Intervention Training<\/a>\u00a0for 9th graders in the spring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>SASO educators will also offer the Healthy Relationships Training to 10th graders (10\/28) and Sexual Violence Prevention to 11th (11\/4) and 12th graders (date TBA)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Substance Awareness<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Today in\u00a0<strong>advisory<\/strong>, we will analyze the data from last year\u2019s\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.gov\/pacific\/cdphe\/hkcs\">Healthy Kids Colorado Survey<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(HKCS), which our students participate in every two years.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The statewide survey is designed to help us understand what factors support teens making healthy choices. \u00a0Individual advisory groups are encouraged to select some of the data and create an an educational action piece around it that will help to move our community in a positive direction when we take the survey again next year. \u00a0We hope that this will result in student-driven and student-created resources around substance use and abuse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We will host a handful of\u00a0Osprey Parent Talks\u00a0throughout the year, providing our families with an opportunity to dive into conversations about raising healthy teens. \u00a0The first Osprey Parent Talk of the year is Tuesday, October 11 from 5:00 to 6:00 in the AHS Commons. \u00a0AHS counselor Arava Geva will be joined by\u00a0Spanish teacher\/Osprey parent Susy Raleigh and Lauren Patterson from the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ourhealthycommunities.org\/?utm_source=News+from+the+Nest+9%2F23%2F16&amp;utm_campaign=nfn+9%2F23%2F15&amp;utm_medium=email\">Celebrating Healthy Communities Coalition\u00a0<\/a>for a dialogue about how families can talk in open and productive ways about high risk behaviors including substance use, using the 2015-16 data from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey as a springboard for conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We are in the process of researching potential speakers to invite to a\u00a0<strong>NEST Meeting<\/strong>\u00a0to share research about drug and alcohol use and its impact on the developing teenaged brain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driver Safety<\/strong><br \/>\nIn December, we will welcome\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thinkfastinteractive.com\/\">ThinkFast Interactive<\/a>\u00a0to a NEST Meeting. \u00a0ThinkFast is an evidence-informed prevention intervention that uses active learning to connect young people with factual, relevant information. \u00a0Our program will focus on safe driving.<br \/>\n<strong>Physical Education<\/strong><br \/>\nOur revamped\u00a0<strong>XBlock<\/strong>\u00a0program has students engaged in a variety of physical exercise once a week for a two hour block of time. \u00a0We require three years of physical education for graduation, which exceeds the state requirement. \u00a0This semester, students are enrolled in one of the following XBlock classes, most of which meet off campus: Swimming, Hiking, CrossFit, Skateboarding, Field Games, Tennis, Rock Climbing, Yoga\/Mindfulness, Field Games, Volleyball, Athlete Study Hall.<br \/>\n<strong>Social-Emotional Wellbeing<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Advisory<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>grade-level activities<\/strong>\u00a0and excursions often include an opportunity for individual reflection and social-emotional learning. \u00a0For example, our students have taken a social styles inventory as a way to increase self-awareness, and have engaged in team building and leadership training at AHS Founder Phil Bryson\u2019s ropes course.<\/li>\n<li>Our<strong>\u00a0school counselor<\/strong>, Arava Geva, is available for individual support as needed. \u00a0She is on campus Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Student Clubs<\/strong><br \/>\nSeveral of our student clubs also work to promote wellness in our school community.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Peers Owning Wellness (POW)\u00a0<\/strong>is devoted to promoting wellness through student-led initiatives. \u00a0They are in the process of planning a Halloween dance that will provide a drug and alcohol free environment for students to socialize and celebrate together.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Animas Restorative Team (ART)\u00a0<\/strong>is a group of students who have been trained in restorative justice practices and facilitation so that they can help students in conflict with one another or with our community expectations. \u00a0Through facilitated communication circles, ART helps their peers reach workable solutions that support a healthy school community.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong>\u00a0Gay Straight Alliance<\/strong>\u00a0meets weekly to actively cultivate a culture of acceptance and kindness by involving all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As the year continues, we will undoubtedly come across additional opportunities to infuse health and wellness into our curriculum at AHS and as we do, we will keep you updated. \u00a0Please feel free to reach out to us with any ideas, resources or feedback as we all work together to give Ospreys the tools they need to lead healthy lives.<br \/>\nAll Best,<br \/>\nArava, Libby and Sean<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Osprey Students and Families, At Animas High School, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animashighschool.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}