Encouraging Gamer Students to Get Up and Get Active

Hey guys and gals!

I hope you all are having a terrific September and start of Fall! Gaming season has begun and I am sure most of your students are well aware of this. Last week saw the launch of Gears of War 3 and this week, DICE is letting loose an open beta for their game Battlefield 3. I personally can't wait as Battlefield is one of my favorite series for its innovation and design. But, one thing I would like to talk about is the reputation that people who play games often get of being overweight, junk food gobbling, sun fearing nerds. While that isn't (for the most part) true, there is definitely a correlation between being a hardcore gamer and being unhealthy. Several studies have been published and contradict one another as to whether gaming is directly linked to obesity. Some push towards an overall state of inactivity, while others claim that gaming has little to nothing to do with childhood obesity and obesity is instead caused by socioeconomic status and genealogical factors.

While I can neither claim nor disclaim any of these studies and theories, I bring to you today a great website that I recently found that urges gamers to get up, get out and get active. The name of the website is GamerFitNation. GFN touts itself as the place where gaming and health come together and they do a fantastic job at it. Started on April 6th, 2010, this website aims to help gamers become more aware of their physical and mental health and well-being. They have multiple updates daily on the latest gaming and health news and also have guest articles by Gamer MDs. Gamers can come here and look up new gamer friendly workout routines and recipes.

Now the reason why I feel we as educators should be looking at physical and mental health of our students is because when students are happy and healthy, they tend to perform better. And, as I firmly believe as a Social Studies teacher, we shouldn't only be encouraging academic growth, but also a growth in the entirety of our students character. One of my main themes here at Gamer:Teacher is character development and it is a theme I will constantly revisit because of how important I feel it is. So please take a minute and look at all that GamerFitNation has to offer our students. I know you won't be disappointed in what you find there.

Until next time-

Gamer:Teacher