Hallsville teacher stamps hands to teach hygiene
HALLSVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)
Local teachers are trying to be creative in teaching their students good hygiene practices to prevent illness.
Shauna Woods, a Hallsville third-grade teacher, posted on Facebook how her class is trying to keep the germs away.
Woods' students receive stamps on both hands every morning. If the stamps are gone by the end of the day from washing their hands, they get a prize.
Woods' post went viral reaching thousands of people on Facebook. The post itself has around 6,000 comments and 67,000 shares.
“It was fun that this was a simple reminder or visual on your hand that I need to wash my hands more,” said Woods. “You know a sign on the building sometime just isn’t enough.”
A Hallsville fifth grade teacher and parent, Kayla Eads said she tried stamping her own child’s hands to see the outcome for herself.
“I said oh let me stand your hand because I feel you know it’s so easy to just got to the bathroom and leave and I want to know we’ll see at the end of the day that she is taking proper precautions,” said Eads.
Hallsville does have signs on many walls in the intermediate school as they try to implement good hygiene practices everywhere.
“I think we all know that handwashing is important,” said Eads. “But during times like this it’s sad to say we become heightened and I think it almost reminds people like how important it is. Not oh you go to the bathroom you wash your hands. It’s not just something you do there’s now a why behind it.”
Woods knows that she can have an impact on her students at this age. She hopes something this simple will stick with them as they go home and later in life.
“I absolutely think it’s a step in the right direction the fact of the matter is we’re in the classroom together with 20 students and we share a lot of things,” said Woods.
Woods said she’s trying to teach her students that they cant be selfish and need to think about others around them as well.
“It’s just awesome how the spread of words will spot the spread of germs hopefully,” said Eades.
ABC 17 spoke with many students about their handwashing experiences and not one told me about the piece of candy they got. Instead, they said the real prize was keeping their classmates healthy and spreading the word to others.
This is just one creative measure Hallsville is taking to continue enforcing handwashing during this flu season.
The video also comes as health authorities are stressing precautions against the novel coronavirus that has spread across the globe. Handwashing is among the primary measures to prevent COVID-19 infection.
