Hello!

We are Meaghan D., Megan V. and Angie, and together we are the peer health educators for the grade 4/5/6 split class at Rideau Public School!

Our main goal with the class has been to build a trusting bond with the students and to ensure that they feel comfortable learning the material while still enjoying the time they spend with us in the classroom!  The class is extremely engaging, enthusiastic and love to take part in class discussion and activities. The students are great critical thinkers and eager to learn all about healthy living.  Each week we begin by answering anonymous questions from the question box. This is a great opportunity for students to ask questions they may not be comfortable asking in front of the class.

So far this school year we have been working on substance use and abuse.  Angie is currently working with the grade fours on smoking and peer pressure. Along with their lessons, the students have made wonderful anti-smoking posters and have done skits and role-playing about peer pressure.  Megan V. has been working with the grade fives on alcohol. They have had some great lessons on the short and long term effects of alcohol, drinking safely and responsibly, classifying drinking, and recent trends in youth alcohol consumption such as “neknominations”.  Meaghan D. has been working with the grade 6s on marijuana, other illegal substances, and other pressures the students will face in middle and high school. They have watched a number of multi media presentations, and have had great group discussions on the dangers of drugs, marijuana as a ‘gate way drug’ and, the domino effect of drugs influences someone’s whole life.  

We have loved working at Rideau! The students and staff have been amazing and we look forward to the rest of the school year!

Meaghan, Megan and Angie

Hi There!

We are Holly and Megan and we teach the grade 5 and 6 split class at Rideau Public School!

Our aim when we became Peer Educators was to provide the students with health information in a fun and engaging way. We wanted to really develop a connection with the students. What we love most about the students at Rideau is that they love to learn. They are so engaged in our lessons, which allows us to have some great class discussions! The students have amazing critical thinking skills, sometimes they stump us with the questions they ask about why things in our society are the way they are! Our other favourite part is our anonymous question box, where the students can write questions to us that they might not feel comfortable asking in class. We think this is a great opportunity to get their real questions answered.

So far in the class, we have covered material on smoking, peer pressure, and effective decision making. Since January, we have split the class in two. Megan has been working with the grade 5s on alcohol and Holly has been with the grade 6s, teaching about marijuana and other illegal substances! In the next few weeks we are hoping to cover information to do with healthy living and eating. Following this, we would like to give the students the chance to be creative and have some fun by creating skits and posters to do with the information they have learned with us so far! We are also very excited for our last class, when we will all create time capsules with letters written to ourselves that we will open in 5 years!

We have had a great time being peer educators at Rideau. Every week is new and exciting. We really feel that we have learned a lot from the students as well which has been such a rewarding experience.

Holly & Megan

Hello!

We are Angie and Chelsea! We are so sad that our time with Mrs. Kirk’s Gr. 9 girls health class at QECVI has come to an end. Although we only had a few weeks in the class, we covered a variety of topics in sexual health.

In our first class we wanted to ensure that the material we would be covering was going to be valuable and useful to them. The girls were quick to all identify pregnancy as a major health concern among their peers. We targeted our lessons towards this issue, as well as other ones they acknowledged as prevalent. As such, we believe the girls acquired the knowledge and skills to make informed health decisions in the future.

We discussed what sources of information were accurate and reliable. In the following few classes we covered contraception, the implications of becoming pregnant and healthy relationships. Our final lesson covered sexually transmitted infections (STIs). We discussed how infections were transmitted, symptoms, prevention and treatment.

Throughout our time in the classroom we debunked some of the common misconceptions related to contraception and STIs, demonstrating the vast amount of false information that prevails in society and the importance of critically thinking.

Recognizing that everyone has a different comfort level with these subjects, we were so proud of the girls’ participation in discussions and class activities. Together we feel that peer education was a highly effective method to convey this health information to an adolescent population. Sexual health can sometimes be awkward or uncomfortable, but we believe peer education helped to minimize these feelings and create and open environment. We feel privileged to have been welcomed into this class, loved all their questions and wish them a happy rest of high school full of healthy choices.   Thats all for now!

Angie & Chelsea