Hi everyone!

We are Jonathan and Carolyn and we teach at Limestone School. Every week we have the chance to work with an amazing group of students in middle and high school.

Our students tend to be a bit quieter, so we try to include a mix of individual activities and small group discussions in our lessons. So far we’ve learned about healthy lifestyles, body image, values, and goal-setting. The students are witty and thoughtful; they always have new and interesting ideas to share.

During our first lesson on healthy lifestyles, we asked the students to draw pictures of typical “healthy” and “unhealthy” people to gauge the students’ understanding of healthy lifestyles. We were impressed by the students’ varied and creative drawings. One student, however, chose to leave her sheet of paper blank. She explained that it was impossible to judge whether or not a person was healthy based on their physical appearance, sparking an in-depth discussion about body image that extended into the next lesson.

Every week has a new and exciting twist to it. In our most recent lesson on values and goal-setting we ran a simulation of a sinking ship. On the sinking ship each person could take three items from the ship to the deserted island. All the items had a value assigned to them. For example, handy/ creative was assigned to the toolbox. In smaller groups we talked about why each of us chose are items. This simulation was helpful for the students to see how their choices relate back to the values they embody.

This opportunity has been a great way for the kids to open up and learn new information, while it has given us the chance to connect with the students. We have learned so much from these students and we look forward to the rest of the year.

Jonathan and Carolyn