My name is Jessica Harper. I grew up in the small town of Preston Idaho just north of Logan. As a small girl I grew up learning the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. My mother is a registered nurse and she integrated her knowledge and ideals from that profession into raising her children. There was always an emphasis of eating breakfast in the morning, healthy lunch and dinner choices, and maintaining an active lifestyle that included lots of outside play. My father ended up going back to school when I was a teenager to further his interests in emergency medicine to become a paramedic. As I went through jr. high and high school I found my science and health classes to be my favorite. I developed a love for learning how the human body worked and what an amazing masterpiece it is. In my mind, there isn’t much more amazing than how the human body functions as its own organism. Not only can it heal itself from illnesses and injuries but it also performs the amazing tasks of sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, and reproduction. There is a beautiful line of harmony that exists inside the human body allowing it to perform amazing things.

            Because of this intrigue I believe it is important to learn how to take care of our bodies, to keep them strong and healthy. After high school I went through emergency medical training and became an Emergency Medical Technician. I then attended a nursing program in El Paso Tx. After completing these programs I spent a few years working in various hospitals and clinics. I obtained experience on a medical/surgical floor, an emergency room, and in a clinic performing basic sick call and patient education. As I worked in these areas I discovered that I loved the teaching aspect of it all. I liked educating my patients about their bodies and teaching them how to care for their bodies so that they can feel good and complete their daily tasks with a strength, health, and competence. Other factors such as money, time, and family desires also played a strong role in helping me decide that I wanted to ultimately become a teacher. Naturally I chose health education and physical education (P.E.) as my areas of emphasis.

            My hopes as a teacher in health and P.E. are to be able to teach children about their bodies and the amazing things their bodies can accomplish if properly cared for. I am a firm believer that we only get one body in this life and it is our individual responsibility to care for it. How one cares for their body when they are young and capable will greatly impact how it will last through time and the stressors of life. If one expects it to still function when they retire then they need to take care for it as adolescents and young adults. I hope to be able to pass along the love of learning and caring for our bodies to my students, to show them the amazing thing that their bodies are and what it is capable of. I believe that this knowledge and the application of it will be a contributing factor to a person’s overall happiness.

            My current definition of literacy involves being able to read and write but also being able to effectively communicate what one reads and writes with others, being literate means being able to manipulate aspects in one’s life, family, and community to accomplish one’s desires and needs.  In the areas of health and physical education, being literate means being able to read information about subjects and not only understand it but then be able to evolve it to fit one’s own needs. I want my students to be able to draw from a basic understanding of their bodies to be able to answer their own personal health questions. I also want them to have the tools and abilities to research out valid and competent resources to answer their questions when more than a basic understanding is needed. In order to do this, skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, using resources such as pamphlets, books, the internet, and using community resources such as doctors, nurses, medical clinics, gyms, and recreational activities are important. Literacy to me is taking information from reading, writing, and basic communication and then using it.