Anti-Smoking Videos
Student feeling peer pressure to smoke
BC Health and Career Education 7 Learning Outcome: assess the potential physical, emotional, and social consequences for themselves and others if they misuse substances
Reflection: I've taught anti-smoking lessons in the past. Most students get it. There are health issues, peer pressures and social issues associated with smoking. For a period of a month, students who don't smoke vow not to, only to fall to peer pressure a couple of months later. Those who did smoke and promised to stop, never did quit.
After reflecting on this, I realized that peers have more influence and teach other more than I did. What good is a heartfelt discussion led by a teacher, when students look to each other for social norms. That's how the videos came about. I needed students to teach students the social, emotional and physical impacts on smoking.
As I sincerely believed students had a good knowledge base, I asked them to create an anti-smoking commercial, due three weeks later. There were no other restrictions than that.
The end results were some amazingly funny and poignant videos. Much had some mis-information and outright untruths. The great thing was that after each video, we reviewed the information and our feelings. Some asked:
"Why would anyone start smoking?" or "How do I get my father to stop?"
or made statements like:
"Smokers are gross!" and "We should have laws about second-hand smoking in China!"
The most important thing about the discussions were that we created a mentality that non-smoking is the norm in this peer group.
No grade 7, to my knowledge, had started smoking that year.
Reflection: I've taught anti-smoking lessons in the past. Most students get it. There are health issues, peer pressures and social issues associated with smoking. For a period of a month, students who don't smoke vow not to, only to fall to peer pressure a couple of months later. Those who did smoke and promised to stop, never did quit.
After reflecting on this, I realized that peers have more influence and teach other more than I did. What good is a heartfelt discussion led by a teacher, when students look to each other for social norms. That's how the videos came about. I needed students to teach students the social, emotional and physical impacts on smoking.
As I sincerely believed students had a good knowledge base, I asked them to create an anti-smoking commercial, due three weeks later. There were no other restrictions than that.
The end results were some amazingly funny and poignant videos. Much had some mis-information and outright untruths. The great thing was that after each video, we reviewed the information and our feelings. Some asked:
"Why would anyone start smoking?" or "How do I get my father to stop?"
or made statements like:
"Smokers are gross!" and "We should have laws about second-hand smoking in China!"
The most important thing about the discussions were that we created a mentality that non-smoking is the norm in this peer group.
No grade 7, to my knowledge, had started smoking that year.