CitySLUSD Liaison Highlights 2007 1107

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much money to implement the intervention over the 8 schools and in the community ($50,000/year). Administrators, teachers, food service workers, nurses and other related staff will all be required to participate in one full day of professional development training a year. With other demands on professional development time, it may not be possible to conduct the necessary training Teachers will be required to weave the intervention into their day-to-day curriculum. This intervention consists of 16, 30 minute lessons that teachers can implement approximately once a week at a time of their choosing {given that the school year is 32 weeks, the curriculum will have to be implemented every other week throughout the entire year). Lessons were designed to be flexible, and to meet the Mass. Department of Education guidelines for each grade level in academic subjects including math, science, and reading. • In addition to the 161essons, the in school curriculum also includes "Cool Moves", ten minute micro units of physical activity ideas that can be implemented in classroom spaces, as chosen. It may just be too much to ask considering all the other educational mandates teachers must meet. The curriculum is currently being updated so sample lesson are not yet available. • The lead agency will also be responsible for parent outreach/training, coordinating community events, and interfacing with the business community to promote healthy food choices at restaurants. Again, a lot of work. Things to think about: In order for the intervention to work we must have teacher and administrator buy-in. As would be expected, the Children in Balance Program Director reported that schools that had more teacher buy-in to the program got better results. We need teacher support. If we make it past the first round of scrutiny, we will have a site visit from the Tufts team. If we don't have teacher support, our application will no longer be considered for funding. I don't know how competitive this grant will be. During the teleconference the Tufts people stressed that they were interested in having school districts involved across the country. The majority of interest seemed to come from folks from the East Coast and Mid West. There were only two other West Coast organizations that participated. Also, the majority of these organizations were not school districts. I don't know their level of understanding regarding the work involved in implementing curriculum on a district level or if they have buy-in from their school districts/teachers.