Hosts Elizabeth Tingle and Jamie Anderson introduce themselves and the new series Conversations on School Health. They discuss their own backgrounds in education, and have a conversation on land acknowledgements and what the series holds for listeners.

Elizabeth talks with Scott Bailey, a wellness consultant with Ever Active Schools, about the importance of health promotion in schools and why they're an ideal place for upstream approaches to improve wellness. They discuss what Comprehensive School Health is and what it looks like in practice.

Additional Resources:

• Government of Canada: “Social determinants of health and health inequalities”
• Alberta Health Services Provincial Teacher Resource List 2019-2020
• Reimagining School Sport
• Loose Parts Play (like tarps and tires)
• Sports as a Platform for Resilience in Indigenous Schools
• Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program
• Don’t Walk in the Hallway
• Girls Only Run Club
• Youth Run Club in High Schools

Jamie is joined by Chrysta Bell, a program consultant in Alberta Health Services’ Tobacco Reduction Program, who shares her knowledge and expertise around tangible strategies for preventing tobacco use by students.

Additional Resources:

• Alberta Health Services Information for Schools & Educators
• Alberta Quits
• Alberta Quits - Resources for Teachers and Schools
• Alberta Quits - The Academy for Tobacco Prevention

Elizabeth talks with Medical Health Officers Dr. Hu and Dr. Gustafson in November 2020 to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the school context. They share how the pandemic has highlighted social inequities and the importance of multidimensional wellbeing and how to keep perspective as a teacher.

Elizabeth talks with Katherine Zavodni and Anna Lutz, dietitians with expertise in treating eating disorders, about striking the right balance when teaching about healthy eating and nutrition in schools. They provide suggestions for a developmentally appropriate and protective approach so that students can have a positive relationship with food and their bodies.

Additional Resources:

• Ellyn Satter Institute
• Tribole, E. & Resch, E. (2020). Intuitive eating (4th ed.) St. Martin’s Press.

Dr. Shannon Kell, associate professor at Mount Royal University, joins Jamie to discuss the benefits to both students and teachers of being outside and connecting with nature. Dr. Kell shares ways to gradually incorporate the outdoors into your teaching practice and lessons learned from the (literal and figurative) field of outdoor education.

Additional Resources:

• Childhood by Nature
• Take Me Outside
• Facebook groups: search “Nature Resources” and/or “Nature Learning”

Jamie chats with Chris Fenlon-MacDonald, a specialist with the Calgary Board of Education, on ways to incorporate physical activity and movement into the school day and why all teachers share in the responsibility to help students move more.

Additional Resources:

• Ever Active Schools
• Be Fit for Life Network
• Active for Life
• Health and Physical Education Council

Elizabeth and Dr. Shelly Russell-Mayhew, a psychologist who researches weight-based issues as a professor at the University of Calgary, talk about weight bias and how to promote holistic health at school. They share how to respond to weight-based bullying and how to make schools more accepting of everyBODY.

Additional Resources:

• UConn Rudd Center
• Piran, N. (2004). Teachers: On "being" (rather than "doing") prevention. Eating Disorders, 12, 1-9.
• Nutter, S., Ireland, A., Alberga, A. S., Brun, I., Lefebvre, D., Hayden, K. A., & Russell-Mayhew, S. (2019). Weight bias in educational settings: A systematic review. Current Obesity Reports, 8, 185-200.
• Health at Every Size in the school setting