Respected resources to teach students about depression and anxiety

Robin Williams

With the passing today of Robin Williams due to his reported battle with depression it might be a worthwhile process to discuss depression with your teenage students.

Whilst many students would be aware of bullying and unsociable behavior from the moment they enter school, it would be rare that they are made aware of depression and the devastating effects it can have on on individuals and families.

It is a silent killer, In my homeland of Australia more than twice as many people die as a result of suicide than is claimed by the road toll.  Of them more than two thirds are young males.

So here are a few recognized organizations that provide information to students about understanding and dealing with depression. 

Teen Depression from helpguide.org

NHS UK - Child Depression information

Headspace Australia

Kids Helpline

Great digital learning resources on the London Olympics and the science of sport

Maths and Sport:  Countdown to the Olympics

Explore maths and science through the London 2012 Olympic and paralympic Games.  Activities arranged by learning level, plus a searchable sport index with interactives, Olympic measurements and current records.

Get in the Zone

experiments, kits and games supporting discovery and participation in sport. Download teacher and student resources, plus links to pe-related sites.  Similar pages for ages 11 to 19:

english for the games

Literacy-focused Olympic activities. Lesson plans incorporating language skills, plus great pDF and Word-illustrated guides to many sports ready for student annotation.

Top end sports

Sport, fitness and nutrition information covering all aspects of sports science, plus online journals, training, major sporting event links and sport clip art.

Better health channel image library

View 3D rotatable images of key components of physiology including respiratory, digestive, heart and circulatory, brain and nervous systems.

A Place for Students to track their sporting performance

A space for students to track and develop their sporting performance, at whatever level they play and whichever sport. Ask students to key in statistics from each match and generate a graph and analyse the

data - great for numeracy activities.  Students can also keep a diary to  eflect on their performances.  Access Sportzstats.com

5 cool ideas for physical education teachers

It is often difficult to incorporate physical education and technology together easily as they can diametrically oppose each other at times.  However I came across this great presentation about some web tools and technologies allow you to do just that.  Take a look at it here and I would love to hear of any great technologies that you use in your own phys ed classes.

Get your students to find out alomst anything at Factmonster.com

What will I find on the Fact Monster site?  Fact Monster is an ideal reference site for kids ages 8-14 that provides entertainment and educational resources. It combines the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas, and several almanacs loaded with statistics, facts, and historical records. A single search engine allows you to search all these sources at once.

What sources are featured on Fact Monster?

In addition to an electronic database that is continuously updated and expanded, the Fact Monster site includes information from the following reference works:

• The TIME for Kids Almanac^®, edited by Beth Rowen of Fact Monster and published by Time Inc.
• Selected content from The TIME Almanac, with Information Please^®, edited by Borgna Brunner of Information Please and published by Time Inc.
• The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, published by Columbia University Press.
• Infoplease Dictionary, based on the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
• The Infoplease Atlas, which includes several hundred maps from Magellan Geographix.

Factmonster is an ideal resource for general classroom information about people and places around the world.  Access it here.



Get fit watching the Tube

I don't know whether the students or us teachers will get more benefit out of this one but I got sent a link to Excercise TV a site that does have finacial goals but the vast majority of it is free.  It contains a rangoe of free workout plans and heaps of excercise and meditiation videos and has some worthwhile diet and lifestyle content.  Definitely aimed at your teen to adult market.  Check it out here.