Be Cool (and Healthy) in the Pool
July 19, 2011 at 3:34 pm | Posted in Contests, Healthy tips, Pop Culture, Safety | Leave a comment
One video takes a look at the ways superheroes fight recreational water illness at the pool.
Everybody in the pool! Not so fast, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You might think a dip in the pool is a great way to get some healthy exercise this summer, but sometimes what’s lurking in the water isn’t healthy at all. To educate the public about recreational water illnesses—icky sicknesses caused by germs in places where people swim—the CDC is holding a video contest. Five finalists have been chosen, and you can vote for the winner!
Each video puts a different spin on the four main messages about healthy swimming that the CDC would like people to know:
Another video follows the (fictional) Recreational Water Illness Police on a case.
• You can protect yourself and other swimmers from recreational water illnesses.
• Chlorine, a chemical used to keep the water in most pools clean, doesn’t kill all germs instantly.
• Never go swimming when you have diarrhea. Germs from gastrointestinal sickness can get in the water and make other people sick.
• Always keep pool water out of your mouth. Any germs in the water can, if swallowed, make you sick.
It’s too late to create your own video for the contest (but that doesn’t mean you can’t make one anyway!), but you can vote for one of the five finalists through Friday, July 22. Visit healthyswimming.challenge.gov/submissions to view each of the 60-second videos, vote for your favorite, and learn more about keeping healthy at the pool. The winning video is scheduled to be announced Monday, July 25.
Are You Ready for Anything?
May 20, 2011 at 12:53 pm | Posted in News, Pop Culture | Leave a comment
Are you ready for … oh, I don’t know … say, a zombie apocalypse, for instance? If not, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is here to help.
The agency is getting a lot of attention this week for using a fictional takeover by the undead as an example of the sort of disaster that you can, in fact, be prepared for. “If you’re ready for a zombie apocalypse, then you’re ready for any emergency,” their materials say.
In all seriousness, however, this creative move by the nation’s public health authorities was prompted, according to The Washington Post, by the fact that May 22-28 is National Hurricane Preparedness Week. In years that hurricanes and tropical storms are active, those storms can disrupt the lives of many Americans along the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf coast. Preparing a handy disaster supplies kit now, rather than rushing at the last minute to try and round up supplies, can help if you need to get to a safe place or if a storm means you are stuck at home for a while.
Wet summer storms aren’t the only emergencies for which a kit can come in handy. Find a complete list of items to keep in a disaster preparedness kit here, and learn more about advance planning for emergencies from several government agencies at www.ready.gov.
Thanks for a great school year!
May 10, 2011 at 12:40 pm | Posted in Administrative, For Teachers | Leave a comment
Hello teachers! If you’re a Current Health subscriber, we want to take a minute to thank you for choosing us this school year. We hope the magazine and online features have proved valuable to you and your students.
We’ll post here periodically over the summer and will be back in the fall with even more health teaching ideas, news, and more for you and your students.
Don’t forget, there’s more online for magazine subscribers right now, including bonus reproducible work sheets (one for each feature article in every issue), the year-end index, and of course the monthly digital edition for use on interactive whiteboards, projectors, and computers. Log in at www.weeklyreader.com/SubscriberOnly (all you need is your account number, printed on the back of your Teacher’s Guide) for all those things and more.
Still need to renew or subscribe for next year? You can do that at www.weeklyreader.com/pubstore or call our Customer Service department at 1-800-446-3355.
And if you have the time, please take our year-end surveys to help us make the magazines even better. CHKids subscribers, your survey is at www.surveymonkey.com/s/chkids2011. CHTeens subscribers, yours is at www.surveymonkey.com/s/CHTeens2011.
Thanks again! Have a healthy and happy summer.
–The staff of Current Health
Unique Project Brings Cyberbullying Lessons to Life
April 15, 2011 at 9:06 am | Posted in Events, News, Pop Culture | Leave a commentCyberbullying is a real concern for many young people and the adults who care about them. That’s why the editors of Current Health Teens magazine would like to let you know about a first-of-its-kind social media theater production of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, produced by our colleagues at READ magazine.
For three days, starting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, an updated version of Shakespeare’s classic comedy will be presented on Facebook. The story will unfold through status updates, comments, videos, and more. Teachers, students, parents, and Shakespeare fans everywhere can “like” all the characters’ fan pages and participate as the play is performed live in their Facebook news feeds! It’s an exciting way to experience Shakespeare, as well as a perfect opportunity to open up class discussions about cyberbullying and social aggression.
Go to www.weeklyreader.com/ado to learn more, and to “like” READ magazine, project collaborator The Ophelia Project, and all the characters in the play. Then, on April 26, 27, and 28, enjoy the performance!
Japan’s Radiation Crisis: Effects on Health
March 17, 2011 at 11:36 am | Posted in News, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
In just a few short days, the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 have become old news. What the media, health officials, and many people are focused on now is the tenuous state of the nuclear power plants in the quake zone. And the dangers to human health from this situation may be on the minds of your students.
After all, people get sick and die from nuclear radiation, right? And weather systems can blow all of that toxic air over the Pacific Ocean to the United States, right? A qualified “yes” to the first question, and “no” to the second. The Japanese government quickly evacuated the area around the Fukushima reactors, so most people in the area won’t be harmed. (The workers trying hard to contain the damage and prevent a nuclear meltdown are another story; Continue Reading Japan’s Radiation Crisis: Effects on Health…
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