I often find that I discover a campaign (like teen dating violence prevention month) the day or week before it is occurring and I don’t have time to plan ways to incorporate current events such as this into my teaching. I received this update via the kidshealth.org newsletter and thought I would post since this is happening next month (not next week or tomorrow)!

When you sign for the kidshealth.org newsletter you receive periodic updates about a variety of topics.  Sometimes it bugs me to have a million emails coming into my inbox but I do appreciate when someone else can do some work for me which is what kidshealth.org does! They provide information, include links to other sites/information and links to lesson plans on their site – all in one email. It only takes a minute to review to see if there is anything included that is useful to me. Here is a link to sign up for the newsletter. The latest newsletter included a variety of resources related to teen dating violence (hyperlink to loveisrespect.org).

Connecting your units with these types of advocacy campaigns (awareness months) can help connect students with resources, provide examples of advocacy campaigns as models for students and keeps the curriculum relevant.

You could have your students create their own advocacy projects for the school or the community to heighten awareness beyond the classroom. You could have students create brochures with information and resources for other teens (accessing information/resources and advocacy). You could have students critique the campaigns and make suggestions that could make the campaign more relevant for students. You could create a bulletin board (or have your students do it) with information and resources. Or it could be more “simple” and you could plan to cover dating violence in February (perhaps in an interpersonal communication, advocacy or decision-making unit).

Kidshealth.org is also a good resource both because it is a reliable resource that has information geared toward kids, teens and adults but they also have lesson plans available! It is worth checking out if you haven’t already.