Twelve Lays of Teaching

The students of E class in the 4th Primary School of Amaliada surveyed students of all the other classes in the school, about some of their habits. The aim was to show how healthy or unhealthy students habits are, and this is how we did it:

First I gave each student of E1 and E2 a handout with the following questions:

How often do you eat souvlaki?

1. Four or more times a week
2. Once a week
3. Once every two weeks
4. Once a month or less

Do you eat healthy snacks (fruit, dried nuts, sesame bar, yoghurt, home-made pies etc.) at school?

1. Yes, I usually eat healthy snacks.
2. Yes, but I sometimes eat unhealthy snacks.
3. No, never, because I don’t like healthy snacks.
4. No, because my friends always eat unhealthy snacks, too.

Do you drink 8 cups of water every day?

1. Yes, I usually do.
2. No, I don’t. I always prefer soft drinks.
3. Yes, but I sometimes drink soft drinks, too.
4. No, I don’t. I forget to drink water.

Do you exercise?

1. Yes, I play a lot of football!
2. Yes, I go to my dance class / swim at the swimming pool / go to my tae kwon do class etc. two or three times a week.
3. No, not really. I only walk a little.
4. No, I don’t. I don’t exercise at all.

What time do you sleep at night?

1. I sleep at 9 o’clock in the evening, because I am always tired at that time.
2. I go to bed at 10:30 p.m., because I have a lot of homework to finish before bedtime.
3. I go to sleep at 11:30 because I want to play a lot of computer games before I sleep.
4. I go to bed after midnight, because I watch TV till early in the morning. I find it hard to wake up the next day!

Then, we carried out an in-class mini survey, and in both E1 and E2 the results were almost identical: Most children have habits that tend to be healthy, as they mostly eat souvlaki once a week, they usually eat healthy snacks, they usually drink 8 cups of water every day, they exercise systematically and they sleep between 9-10:30 p.m., which is appropriate. There were exceptions, of course, but the vast majority is found in the “healthy habits” category.

After the in-class survey, the students were willing to conduct a larger one, where I would divide them in teams and send them off to interview students from another class. All the rest eight classes of our school were interviewed, at least a sample of 10 students (or more) from each one. I was really surprised by how fast it happened, since I had given them 5 working days to complete this phase. I was also surprised by how talkative some shy students became, for the sake of their project.

When they finally came back with their answers, we concentrated and grouped them. I thought it would be a tedious procedure, but it turned out they were paying enough attention to count the As, Bs, Cs and Ds corrently!

These are the sentences they wrote:

• Most kids eat souvlaki once a week.
• Most kids eat healthy snacks at school.
• Most kids drink 8 cups of water every day.
• Most kids exercise 2-3 times a week.
• Most kids sleep early.

Good job! And above all, this is very good news!