I observed a teacher during my clinicals teaching the students about health.  The teacher gives a word a day that the students need to figure out what it means.  The students write what they think the word means and then they discussed it.  Then the teacher would tell them what the word means and then they would have to write a sentence with the word in it used in the right way.  I felt that this was a great way to empower students about vocabulary, and you could use this exercise in every discipline. In the Harmon, Wood, and Hedrick reading it says that we need to prepare students with certain approaches that enable them to become independent word learners. By doing this, this will allow the students to gain knowledge of vocabulary and then build upon words that they learn.

My mother really fostered my love for reading.  She was always a great example to me when I was growing up by reading a lot of books.  When I think of my mother she always had a book that she was reading and I would catch her frequently reading on the couch.  She would always encourage me to read when I was young, I would read aloud to her and then we would always discuss what I read to make sure that I understood the book.  She would always recommend books to me to read that I would be interested in, so reading would not seem like a chore, but rather an interesting hobby.  We would go to the library every other Friday to check out new books to read and she was very involved in what I was reading.  She would read a lot of the books I was reading so we could discuss the books and our opinions about what was happening.  I can establish similar activities in my own instruction by having my students read books together and having discussion about what we have read.  Also, I can have them go to the school library to check out books that I recommend, or what they want to check out that they would be interested in.

There was a teacher that I had in junior high that potentially could have damaged my love for reading.  She would force us to read books that she wanted us to read, then would have us read them on our own time, and have quizzes and tests to evaluate if we understood what we read.  We hardly discussed what we were reading and she just expected us to understand the books.  This caused me to lose interest in books for a little while, but then I remembered my love for reading.  I can avoid similar activities, by discussing with my students and get their opinions of the reading assignments.  I can also limit quizzes and tests regarding what they read and use different methods, like playing a game, to evaluate the reading assignments.

Hi my name is Laura Roberts and I am originally from Idaho Falls, but I now live in Herriman Utah which is in about 25 minutes away from Salt Lake City.  My major is Health Education and Promotion with emphasis on school health.  I am excited to teach high school because I think that the youth are amazing!!

Twenty years ago I started my college education at Ricks and then stepped away from school to raise my five beautiful children, and now that they are older I feel that now is the time to finish what I started 20 years ago.  My two oldest sons are serving LDS missions right now.  My oldest son left a year ago to the Adriatic South Mission.  My next son left on his mission to Lyon, France in October. Then comes my two beautiful daughters who both dance on the drill team at their high school, finally comes my 13 year old son who loves to play football and wrestle.  I love being a mother.

I love watching and supporting my children with their sports and their hobbies.  I also enjoy playing volleyball and basketball.  I enjoy camping and riding four wheelers and spending time with family.  I also enjoy scrapbooking and crafts like crocheting, painting, and decorating my house.

I have my major in health education and promotion and a minor in physical education/coaching.  I will be certified to teach health and physical education.  I hope to teach health and use the physical education to coach either volleyball or basketball at a high school. 

I am very interested in health and nutrition and this drew me to choose health as my discipline.  I would define my discipline as learning what the health risks are and what you can do now to have a great quality of life.  It is important to learn about nutrition and also about why exercise is important. 

Literacy is the ability to read and write and also knowledge in a specified area. 

Yes, literacy relates to my content area because there are articles that are health related and I feel that literacy relates to any subject at school.  In any subject you need to be able to read a write and understand what you are reading.  I also feel that students need to have health knowledge about nutrition and the importance of exercise.