Last updated: Sep 19, 2022

Looking to infuse wellness into your classroom, school, or school authority all year long? Watch this page for new resources, announcements, and tips for health-related theme days. We've got you covered!

Announcements:

  • Walk and roll this September
  • Calling all grade 4, 5, and 6 teachers: Try our new mental health literacy resource!
  • Student leadership opportunity: AHS Nutrition Youth Advisory Panel

New resources:

  • GeminAI Rising: New opportunities in tobacco and vaping prevention
  • Just updated: 50+ wellness resources for students
  • The walking school bus: Start–up guide and tools
  • Re-thinking conversations around youth substance use

Mark your calendar

Announcements

Walk and roll this September

Busy roads, pathways, and sidewalks are a sure sign that back-to-school season is here! Whether your students bus, walk, wheel, or catch a ride to school, there’s a lot you can do to help them stay safe. For example:

Calling all grade 4, 5, and 6 teachers: Try our new mental health literacy resource! 

The AHS Mental Health Literacy team—the folks behind mentalhealthliteracy.org—are hard at work on a new mental health literacy resource for Alberta students in grades 4, 5, and 6. They’re collaborating with educators, youth, and mental health experts to design tools to improve elementary students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours around mental health and wellbeing.

Throughout the 2022/23 school year, the team will be connecting with teachers in grades 4, 5, or 6 (or grades 4/5 or 5/6) who’d like to try the resource in their classrooms and give feedback on how it’s working.

Interested? Check out the Elementary Mental Health Literacy Resource (EMHLR): Alberta-wide research in schools poster for details, or email mhliterate@gmail.com.

Student leadership opportunity: AHS Nutrition Youth Advisory Panel

AHS is recruiting new members for the Nutrition Youth Advisory Panel (NYAP), a provincial network of young people who share their perspectives on food and nutrition. Our members connect virtually each month to collaborate with registered dietitians, co-designing tools and resources to support healthy eating.

We welcome students who will be in grades 10, 11, or 12 in the 2022/23 school year to get involved in NYAP. If you know an interested student, please encourage them to visit the Nutrition Youth Advisory Panel webpage. The deadline to apply is September 30, 2022.

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New resources

GeminAI Rising: New opportunities in tobacco and vaping prevention

GeminAI Rising is a new online learning experience for students in grades 7 to 9, offered by AHS and aligned with Alberta’s Health and Life Skills curriculum. It’s based on evidence that improving social competence in young people can help them avoid or delay smoking, vaping, and other substance use.

Through engaging virtual activities and lessons, GeminAI Rising helps students learn and practice five domains of social competence: problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, self-concept, and coping skills. This approach builds their skills and confidence to handle life’s challenges, and offers students a rich, meaningful learning experience.

Just updated: 50+ wellness resources for students

Kids Help Phone is hearing that youth have mixed emotions about going back to school. They’ve updated their digital collection of 50+ wellness resources for students to learn and practice. Share them with students and their families to help support a healthy return to learning this fall.

The walking school bus: Start–up guide and tools

Just like a traditional school bus, a walking school bus has a planned route with scheduled stops. This unique way of getting to school has benefits for kids and families alike, like socializing with friends and neighbours, being active outdoors, and getting ready to learn. Start a walking school bus at your school with new resources from the Canadian Cancer Society, including route planning tools, leader training guides, and tips for volunteer recruitment.

Re-thinking conversation around youth substance use

New resources from the Joint Consortium for School Health and the Students Commission of Canada are sure to get you thinking about the ways that educators and adult allies approach youth substance use.

  • River parable is a 2-minute video that introduces us to what works – upstream prevention, harm reduction, stigma reduction, and equity-oriented approaches.
  • Just think ahead is a video and discussion guide to help open up conversations with students in grades 6 to 8. 
  • Eight cups of coffee is a video and resource list encouraging a peer-helper approach for students in grades 9 to 12. 

To check out these innovative new materials, go to re-thinking conversation around youth substance use.

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Mark your calendar

Taking part in health-related days, weeks, or month-long events is a great way to bring your school community together. These events can raise awareness of health topics and kick-start important conversations around wellness at school.

Be sure to connect health-related events back to the priorities, goals, and action plans in place in your school or school authority. Use the comprehensive school health framework to guide activities that are coordinated, meaningful, and likely to last.

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