Class Assignments, Activities, or Meeting Ideas

Encourage your students to reflect on their health and wellbeing by including wellness topics in your class assignments.

Types of Assignments

  • Canvas Reflection
    • Include throughout the semester 1-3 reflection prompts as an assignment for students to write a reflection on how they are doing? This can give you an opportunity to check in with them, highlight resources in class, and make connections to how focusing on their wellbeing can help them in the classroom.
      • How would you describe your current state of wellbeing (physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, etc.)? What is going well? What is not going so well?
  • Reflection paper
    • You can assign a short reflection for a small percentage or extra credit at the beginning of the semester to encourage students to be aware of their health
  • Question in attendance tracking
    • If you track attendance with a system such as Top Hat, you can add a question for each class period to ask about students’ well-being
  • Small group discussion to build community
    • Give your students an ice breaker to get to know one another and reflect on their own health
      • Examples of Prompts
        • List three things you are grateful for today/this week.
        • On a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high), how stressed do you feel this week? How are you managing your stress? What could you do to improve your stress management?
        • What is one goal you want to achieve to improve your health and well-being this month/semester?
        • Describe your support system. Who can you rely on to help you when you feel stressed or need to talk to someone? Who can you call, message, or visit for emotional and social support?
        • How do you plan to keep track of your assignments this semester? What are three things you can do to get help or focus on your academic success?
        • Does your class/work schedule allow for enough time to eat three meals a day? What are some portable foods you can pack to snack on throughout the day? If you need to eat during class, do you feel comfortable explaining your situation to your instructor and asking for permission to do so?