Health Education

Health Education at SMS | Health Education at SHS

Health Education at Shaker Middle School

All students study one quarter of health on an every other day basis opposite physical education in grades 6-8. This NYSED mandated course is based on NYS and national standards with an emphasis on social-emotional learning.

Shaker Middle School Health Education includes the age-appropriate study of personal values, communication, decision-making, drug use/abuse, mental wellness and stress management, HIV/AIDS, relationship management, and adolescent changes. The goal of the course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to live a healthy life.

Visit the Shaker Middle School Health Education website.

Sixth Grade

Students will:

• Identify the differences between social, emotional, and physical health
• Develop organizational skills that can be used in academic and out of school settings
• Understand risk taking behaviors and the effects of positive risk taking (Knowing vs. Doing)
• Development of decision making skills (Benefits vs. Consequences)
• Develop effective communication skills
• Demonstrate conflict resolution skills and techniques
• Recognize internet and social media safety and responsibility
• Review and build HIV/AIDS education
• Review and build skill in disease prevention with emphasis on abstinence
• Review and discuss emotional changes during puberty

Seventh Grade

Students will:

• Recognize personal strengths and weaknesses
• Understand steps to planning and goal setting
• Learn effective ways to communicate
• Practice the ability to be assertive, including the use of refusal skills
• Develop skills in decision making
• Recognize signs of peer pressure
• Identify their personal/family values
• Study the negative effects of gateway drugs

Eighth Grade

Students will:

• Identify factors to increase longevity
• Discuss online behavior related to personal values
• Analyze personal stressors and stress management techniques
• Recognize risk factors for mental health and sources of support
• Identify the effects of substance abuse
• Review and examine HIV/AIDS information
• Discuss adolescent changes
• Consider the signs of a healthy dating relationship and reiterate abstinence

Adaptive Health

This course is specific to students enrolled in our 6-8th grade “functional life skills” program. 

Students will build skills in positive health behaviors with an emphasis on personal hygiene, interpersonal communication, and developmental changes. Students will be exposed to content at a developmentally appropriate level.

• Building Teacher Capacity & Expertise
  • K-5 Instructional Coaching Model
    • Cycle: Self-Directed Improvement System
    • Student-Centered Coaching & Low Inference Notes
    • Instructional Technology Coaching
    • Feedback Cycle – Teachers, Leaders, District
• Professional Growth & Sustainability
  • Teacher Learning & Development Meetings
    • Affective & Cognitive Domains
• Professional Development
  • Aligned with District Mission Priorities
  • Responsive, Tiered & Inclusive
  • Innovative & Meaningful

Health Education at the High School Level

Health is a condition of well-being that is required for the development of each individual and for society as a whole. Optimal health is dependent upon one’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. The Health course is aligned with the NYS learning standards and the Guidance Document and is approved by the North Colonie Board of Education. The Health curriculum is structured around the overarching skills of Self-Management and Relationship Management and is supported through the development of Planning and Goal Setting, Decision Making, Communication, Stress Management, and Advocacy. Topics are presented in connection to a specific skill area. The instructional focus is on promoting abstinence and to provide accurate, age appropriate information to support student’s ability to make informed decisions, to problem solve, to be safe and to achieve a high level of wellness. Health is offered during the sophomore year and students are required to pass this course in order to graduate. Students entering Shaker High School after 10th grade will be required to take Health unless the requirement was fulfilled in a previous school.

High School Health

Either semester, 1/2 unit. Prerequisite: None.
In this course topics will include dimensions of wellness, physical activity and nutrition (PAN), CPR and AED (hands only training), disordered eating, addiction, alcohol, nicotine products and other drugs, stress and stress management techniques, depression, suicide prevention, coping with loss, characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, abstinence, contraception use and rates of effectiveness/ineffectiveness, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.

Learn more by visiting the Health section of the High School Course Catalog.

• Building Teacher Capacity & Expertise
  • K-5 Instructional Coaching Model
    • Cycle: Self-Directed Improvement System
    • Student-Centered Coaching & Low Inference Notes
    • Instructional Technology Coaching
    • Feedback Cycle – Teachers, Leaders, District
• Professional Growth & Sustainability
  • Teacher Learning & Development Meetings
    • Affective & Cognitive Domains
• Professional Development
  • Aligned with District Mission Priorities
  • Responsive, Tiered & Inclusive
  • Innovative & Meaningful