3 Simple Ways You Can Increase the Health of Your Classroom

organization Mar 12, 2020

When we think of best practices for having a healthy classroom, you probably think it's just simple common sense. But when we're moving at 100mph every day, we can unknowingly opt for practices that undermine student [and teacher] health. Here's 3 simple, do-able ways you can improve the health of your classroom.

1. [Obviously] Keep the Outside Germs Out

I once did an interesting germ experiment with a 2nd grade class. I prepped sterile petri dishes with plain gelatin, got gloves and a box of q-tips. Students gathered germs from various surfaces in the school using gloved hands with q-tips [playground equipment, door knob and light switches, library, desks, hand rails...]. Groups of students were assigned to various places. Then, they rubbed their q-tips on the gelatin in the petri dishes, put the lid on and labelled them. Once strange things began to grow, [using masks and gloves] we looked at them under microscopes and compared them to pictures of various germs. 

Every student became a committed hand washer that day! Bonus: Hardly anyone was sick for the rest of the year.

Well, I'm not saying you need to go out and do the same thing. In fact, in today's climate, you probably couldn't get the gloves and masks you'd need. However, you can do a retraining of both hand washing practices and the health lesson behind in. I do believe it's something we have to train and retrain students in a couple times a year.

In addition...

Put hand sanitizer and/or baby wipes near your door. Train your students to quickly clean their hands as they come into your classroom. 

2. School Supplies

Get rid of shared supplies. I know. It so easy to have bins of crayons and pencils in your classroom. However, they are a germ cesspool. Classrooms where students have their own supplies have a students out sick less often than classroom with shared supplies. That shouldn't be a shock to any of us. And yet, shared supplies are the norm in most elementary  [and especially primary] classrooms around the country. 

Do This Instead

Each child should have a labelled pencil box or gallon sized baggie with their own supplies that can be stored in a bin for their group, in their desk, in a chair pocket or in their group's bin on a shelf.

3. The Pencil Problem

Pencil sharpening can mean either messy shavings all over your floor or students lined up [or waiting to jump up when someone else finishes] at a pencil sharpener. Even worse is when the smallest pencil wars begin. You know what I'm talking about. Students "breaking" their pencil several times a day and wasting time at the pencil sharpener seeing who can get the smallest pencil. Happens every year!

I love a sharpened pencil/dull pencil system where pencils get sharpened once a day and students just trade in broken pencils and get back to work. It's a productivity game changer. BUT, it's also a germ nightmare.

Here's how to reduce the germs and still keep your system. Have a tub of wipes next to the pencil jars. Train your student to wipe their old pencil down and put it in the dull pencil jar before grabbing a sharpened pencil. It's not perfect, but it will reduce the germs and keep the pencil insanity down to a minimum.

There's tons of other things you could do, but I find it's best to start with the little things that we'll actually have quick success with.

Praying you and your students have a healthy rest of your year.

 

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