You are What you Eat: Nutrition 101

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

I am a high school humanities teacher at a small, public alternative transfer school that serves 'at-risk' students who come to us after failing to succeed at other high schools for a variety of reasons. Our student body is predominantly Latino and Black, and most of our students come from low-income families. Although many of our students have faced difficulties and inconsistencies in their personal and academic histories, many of them are successful at our school and go on to college. Part of the reason why so many of our students are successful after being unsuccessful in other larger, traditional schools is because of the smaller setting we provide. Students receive individual attention in all of their classes and in their advisory groups. Our staff works to improve our students' learning experience by re-involving and re-committing our students to the world around them by engaging them in their learning process. For the entire time that our students are enrolled at our school, they are a part of the same advisory group, called "Family Group." These Family Groups on average have 16-18 students and we work closely with our students as their academic and personal advisers for their entire stay at our school. This year, I have been working with my students to improve their health and nutrition. For many of my students, breakfast is candy, soda and chips while lunch is a meal of full of fat and grease. I then see the same students with constant stomachaches and headaches. I have been teaching my students the importance of eating healthy and eating properly. I see that many of them don't know that they are not eating well. In fact, they don't know what they are eating at all. They don't make the connection between how they feel and what they eat. I have been using "Nutrition for Dummies" to teach my students how to eat more balanced and regular meals. The text has been essential is guiding my students how to eat better, to read ingredients and labels. The students literally 'eat up' this resource, looking up their meals and snacks to learn about what they are eating. I hope to continue to work with my students to improve their health and eating habits. I hope to do this by giving each student in my Family Group a copy of "Nutrition for Dummies" so that they can have it for personal reference. I am hoping to start a culture of better living and better eating within my Family Group and school community.