Health in a Week at School of the Woods

Every year we have something called Health Week. During this week we have no regular school. Instead we have speakers come in to talk to us about various things. From mental health to love languages to sex education. The person who puts this all together is our teacher Ms. Hailey Nicholson.

At the beginning of the week we choose our “breakouts” for the following day. There is almost always something interesting for everyone during the breakouts. This year some of the options were: How to Support a Friend, Civility, Stretches, Painting, and documentaries. All of these have different speakers that come in to teach us about these things. 

Each year I look forward to Health Week because I get to learn about things that wouldn’t normally be taught in school. Here are some of the reasons why others like Health Week. Sammy Putch, a junior, said “Health Week gives us a brain break from our academic responsibilities and lets us learn cool stuff.” Ms. Karen Imas, who teaches English 3, said “I like Health Week because the different speakers have specialties that the students appreciate, and students appreciate the knowledge from the speakers on different areas of health. I also like how much work Ms. Nicholson puts into health week."

This year I chose the documentary about Mr. Rogers, Love Languages, How To Support a Friend, and Civility breakouts. I loved all of the ones I did, sometimes these things can get boring if I don’t have one that I enjoy as a choice but I always had one that I was interested in. 

In the Mr. Rogers one we also were able to make snuffle mats for dogs at the Houston Humane Society, a no kill shelter, ot decorate paper bags for Kids Meals. Everyone in there was doing at least one or the other. It’s always fun to volunteer with friends because you get to help people while talking and laughing with someone you know.

Health Week is a very important time in our school year for everyone. It is useful to our mental health for sure!