Mighty Girls Proposal Power Point
Educators wears many hats – no longer is our role just about teaching the curriculum. As the student population continues to grow more diverse everyday so does the role of the educator. Yes, curriculum is still important but there isn’t an educator out there who isn’t also playing some other influence role in a student’s life – counselor, care taker, coach, confident, provider, nurse, etc. Being a first grade teacher, I expected to have students who needed my support with life difficulties such as divorce or poverty, but one thing I wasn’t expecting was to have six year olds who struggled with body image.
Educators wears many hats – no longer is our role just about teaching the curriculum. As the student population continues to grow more diverse everyday so does the role of the educator. Yes, curriculum is still important but there isn’t an educator out there who isn’t also playing some other influence role in a student’s life – counselor, care taker, coach, confident, provider, nurse, etc. Being a first grade teacher, I expected to have students who needed my support with life difficulties such as divorce or poverty, but one thing I wasn’t expecting was to have six year olds who struggled with body image.
Assessing the Current
Reality
I was frankly shocked to find out I
had a first grade who had stopped eating lunch as a form of “dieting”. How could such a young person already be so
dissatisfied with their body that they were participating in such dangerously
unhealthy behaviors? It was this event that opened my eyes to the harsh
realities of the world we are currently living in. According
to a report put out by CNN, “more
than half of girls and one-third of boys as young as 6 to 8 think their ideal
weight is thinner than their current size. By age 7, one in four kids has
engaged in some kind of dieting behavior” (Wallace, 2015). Once a second first grader expressed her
turmoil over the fact that “no one likes me because I’m fat” I knew something
had to be put into place to address this growing epidemic in the young girls at
our school. “Fat is the new ugly on the school
playground. Children as young as 3 worry about being fat. Four- and 5-year-olds
know "skinny" is good and "fat" is bad. Children in
elementary school are calling each other fat as a put-down” (Hetter, 2012).
Yes, the research is horrifying –
·
“Between 1999 and 2006, hospitalizations
for eating disorders among children below the age of 12 spiked 119% .
·
It is estimated that almost 1.3 million
adolescent girls in the United States have anorexia.
·
Twenty-six percent of 5-year-olds
recommend dieting behavior (not eating junk food, eating less) as a solution
for a person who has gained weight” (Pai & Schryver, 2015).
But
what was worst to me than even the research, was looking into the teared up
faces of my beautiful six-year-old students knowing that they were less than
satisfied with how they looked and were willing to take on unhealthy habits to
change that.
Proposal
Looking for ways
to support my students in embracing their perfect little selves while still
promoting healthy habits, I started to research different programs that already
existed to promote children’s healthy body image/self-esteem as well as combat
childhood obesity. There were a lot of good ideas, but nothing that targeted
the age group I was going for and had all the components I wanted. I have
recruited two other educators and together we have developed an all-girls after
school program, The PES Mighty Girls Club. The goal of this club is to create a
space where girls in grades first through fourth can come together to celebrate
their differences while empowering them to be smart, confident, courageous, and
healthy. We plan to reach out to different community partners to help with both
the funding of the program and the education planning. Primarily the program
will be funded through the 21st Century Grant, if the program
continues after the grant expires, other forms of funding will need to be
secured.
Vision
Our
society paints girls as the damsel in distress or in the role of sidekick. The
PES Mighty Girls Club believes that girls are so much more than this! They can
be the leaders, the champions, the heroes; they can be the ones that go on the
adventure, who find the cure, and who save the day! We want every girl to learn
to embrace who she is, define who she wants to be, and rise to any challenge
she faces, pursuing her dreams! At PES Mighty Girls we empower girls to be
smart, confident, and courageous by recognizing and celebrating all that makes
her MIGHTY and to build the skills and strategies to nourish our minds and
bodies so that they can achieve all that they dream of. We want girls to learn
that they CAN.
Our
Core Values
We strive to:
1.
Recognize
and honor our self-worth
2.
Embrace
our differences and find strength in our connectedness
3.
Use
our words, thoughts, and actions to spread love and optimism
4.
Nurture
our physical and emotional health
5.
Stand
up for ourselves and others
Our
principles:
·
Mighty
Girls use kind words.
·
Mighty
Girls have positive thoughts.
·
Mighty
Girls help others.
·
Mighty
Girls love themselves and others.
·
Mighty
Girls stand up for themselves and others.
·
Mighty
Girls take care of their bodies.
Goals
1. By
the end of the Mighty Girls Club, there will be a 50% improvement in the girls’
self-esteem and body image.
2. By
the end of the Mighty Girls Club, attends will be able to identify at least
three ways they can take care of their bodies in a healthy way.
3. Because
of the implementation of The Mighty Girls Club, teachers will see a positive
increase in attendees’ attitudes, perceptions, and treatment of others.
Action
Steps
1. Propose
program to principal and grant coordinator.
2. Acquire
funding, hopefully through the 21st Century Grant, under youth
development.
3. Determine
transportation options.
4. Create
and release informational fliers about the program to all 1st – 4th
grade female students and families.
5. Set
up an informational table at Open House to answer questions and promote the
program.
6. Create
social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) to promote the program
and share our mission, vision, and values.
7. Begin
enrollment.
8. Run
program.
9. Evaluate
success of program. Determine eligibility for continuing the program in the
future.
Resources
The PES Mighty
Girls Club will rely heavily on funding from the 21st Century Grant.
These funds will pay the three facilitators, provide the snacks for students,
and any educational supplies. Donations will also be requested and used to
supplement these funds. Members of the club will have the opportunity to
purchase shirts, the proceeds from this will go towards funding celebrations
and possible off campus field trips. The club will also partner with the
Community Fitness Center to utilize their athletic facilities for fitness
programs such as dance, yoga, aerobics, and swimming. All curriculum will be
created and designed by the three facilitators and turned in the Grant
Coordinator for approval.
Strategies and Activities
Because
PES Mighty Girls Club is being created to meet the needs of our students, it is
expected to be flexible and fluid in its activities and lessons. Each week’s
focus will be specifically chosen to match one of our principles and the needs
of the girls in the club. It is anticipated that each 8-week term will have an
overarching theme or framework, but this will change with start of each new
term.
For
the first term, the structure of the club will be set up in three station
rotations, each ran by one of facilitators. Each station will tie to the week’s
principle, one will focus on a healthy snack and the feature of a real life
Mighty Girl that embodies that week’s principle, another on a fitness activity,
and the last will be the lesson on the week principle.
By
our second term, the girls will be familiar with our principles so we will no
longer focus on them as independent entities, but rather how Mighty Girls
encompass all the principles. Our lessons and activities will be more whole
group and resemble more of a club mentality where we start with a healthy snack
and then we do an activity together that enriches our growth as mighty girls.
Finally,
the third term, will focus on being a critical thinker and challenging
society’s perception of girls. We will analyze different Disney princesses to
see beyond the dress and find the traits that make them Mighty Girls. We will
redefine what it means to be a “princess” keeping our core values at the center
of our lessons and conversations.
Conclusion: Evidence Base
As
mentioned at the beginning of this proposal, the research is disturbing: “nearly half of the nation’s girls are unhappy with
their bodies. According to the Center for Disease Control and National
Association of Eating Disorders, by age 6 girls start to express concerns about
their own weight or shape. Additionally, around half of elementary school girls
are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat” (PBS, 2013).
Through programs like PES Mighty Girls, we can “help girls develop positive
body images, healthy eating and exercise habits — and to help them not succumb
to images promoted by the culture and adopted by their best friends” (PBS,
2013). Research on a similar program in
Arizona, Go Girls, found that participation in the program improved students’
self-esteem and self-confidence (SEDL, 2008). Youth development programs like
PES Mighty Girls, doesn’t just lead to more positive thinking kids, it also
effects student achievement. “A decade of research and evaluation studies, as
well as large-scale, rigorously conducted syntheses looking across many
research and evaluation studies, confirms that children and youth who
participate in after school programs can reap a host of positive benefits in a
number of interrelated outcome areas—academic, social/emotional, prevention,
and health and wellness” (SEDL, 2008). When students are not bogged down with
concerns about how they look and feel, the have better attitudes about school,
can focus better, and can allocate their energies to building on their talents,
rather than tearing themselves down. It helps build the confidence students
need to take risks in the classroom, teaches goal setting, and how to
constructively handle setbacks, in and out of the classroom.
References
Hetter, K. (2012, March 16). Fat is
the new ugly on the playground. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/16/living/body-image-kids/
Pai, S., & Schryver, K. (2015). Children, Teens, Media, and Body
Image : A Common Sense Media Research Brief (Issue brief). Retrieved Wallace,
K. (2015, February 13). Kids as young as 5 concerned about body image. CNN.
Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/living/feat-body-image-kids-younger-ages/
PBS. (2013, October 11). Raising a
Girl with a Positive Body Image. Body Image & Identity. Raising Girls.
Parenting. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/parenting/raising-girls/body-image-identity/raising-a-girl-with-a-positive-body-image/
SEDL. (2008, August). Afterschool,
Family, and Community. SEDL
Letter, XX(2), 6-9.
Wallace, K. (2015, February 13).
Kids as young as 5 concerned about body image. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/living/feat-body-image-kids-younger-ages/
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