Carolyn Erbaugh is the Physical Education & Health Department Chair for Gayle Middle School in Stafford County Public Schools, Fredericksburg, Va. She teaches approximately 210 students in grades 6 – 8. “I love working with middle school students and I have worked with this age group for all 27 years of my teaching career” says Erbaugh. She is concerned, however, about children today because of their “lack of physical fitness and wellness and the obesity problem that they face.” In order to help her students become healthier, Erbaugh incorporates fun and innovative activities into her classes.

Many of her ideas involve hands-on lessons to allow opportunities to grasp intricate health concepts or visually see and understand accurate serving sizes. One activity she conducts with students is to calculate the amount of sugar in one can of soda. Students measure sand and fill an empty can with an amount equivalent to that of the sugar. It really makes an impact when students see just how much sugar is consumed in one can!

Carolyn is also one of LearntobeHealthy.org’s biggest cheerleaders! “What you guys have is very animated and fun. The students like computers, so it keeps their attention.” LearntobeHealthy.org is also ideal for teachers who use a Differentiated Instruction (DI) approach as Carolyn does. DI applies an approach to teaching and learning so that students have multiple opportunities to take in information and make sense of ideas. Teachers using DI must be flexible in their approach to teaching and should adjust the presentation of information to learners rather than expecting students to modify themselves to the curriculum. LearntobeHealthy enables students to absorb information by seeing, hearing, and doing activities! “LearntobeHealthy worked for my accelerated and gifted students as well as my special needs students because they were able to work at their own pace. During their exams, most of the information the students got correct was from LearntobeHealthy. That is worth its weight in gold! I wish all of my classes were like this!”