Wishing each and every one a wonderful and joyous holiday season!
May the New Year be full of hope and peace!
 May you enjoy your time off by relaxing and catching up with family and friends, making memories!
Thank you for all of your support and participation in this website during the past year!
See you in 2018!
Sometime throughout the year, I have my Child Development students write a children’s book that they must read to the class as part of my literacy and reading to children unit. In the past, I’ve used Storybird as my platform. However, with this particular group of artistically talented students, I wanted to have them write and illustrate their own stories. Not just any type of story, but a “circle story”! In addition, I wanted them to apply the characteristics of reading aloud as well as incorporate technology. Continue to read to find out how all of this was accomplished…
Cheese balls are often associated with parties, holidays and potlucks! But why limit them to just those events? I get to a point in the year when I have “a little of this and a little of that” leftover from other labs and taste tests. So I decided to have a pantry raid lab and have students make “cheese balls”. All I had to do was buy a block of cream cheese for each group and provide some parameters for the challenge. See below for more details.
Over the past year I have viewed many articles about how to tell the difference between real news and fake news which got me thinking about the legitimacy of charitable organizations and donations. The consumer rights explain how we need to be informed so we can make wise choices. This is true of making charitable donations as well! After all, people want to make sure their hard earned money is truly going to the cause when they make their contributions! This mini-lesson shows students how to investigate their charities of interest so they can make an informed decision when making charitable donations!
There is a huge emphasis on student directed learning and that meant that I would need to change the way I taught digestion. Sure, I could teach the process, all the organs and their functions to my students in a PPT and then give them a test, but that would not be very engaging, creative or student directed in any way. So, below is the new way I will be having my students learn about digestion.
So many houses, so many styles! How do you choose which styles to teach? You randomly assign the more common styles to your students and let them share their information with the class in a cooperative, interactive manner, of course! That way, all students receive the information, but are only responsible for researching one style. Accordingly, if you are giving students a quiz or test on the materials, you can tailor it to the styles selected by your students by having them create the questions as part of their assignment!
This is a topic I’ve wanted to teach for a long time, not only because I practice it, but think it’s an important lesson for everyone to know and implement in their lives! However, that said, I was also a bit nervous introducing this lesson because I didn’t know how my students would receive it. Would they think it interesting and practical? Would they think it old-fashioned and a thing of the past? Would they even engage? Well, I can honestly say that my students were totally with me throughout this entire lesson! They shared personal stories and examples! They embraced the topic and were quite interested in the articles and stories I had them use, as well as the projects they were assigned! In the future and for the record, I will definitely be teaching this unit again, but this time with complete confidence!
Over the years, I’ve written a lot of letters of recommendation for my students as I’m sure many of you have. Most of the time I had to either probe them for more information about their involvement in both in school and community activities or ask the guidance office for more information. When I started teaching my Career and Consumer Science class (similar to Adulting 101), I decided to include this assignment. Once students completed their digital activities resume, they could easily share it with perspective teachers, coaches, bosses, etc who would write them letters and it could be updated quickly as their activities changed. It’s also beneficial when filling out college applications as it’s a snapshot of their high school career. So, if you’re tired of tracking down background information on students who ask for recommendations, give this assignment a try!
Looking for a warm and fuzzy community service project to do with your classes this Halloween? Check out the project Staci Wallech of Hagerstown, Maryland challenged her child development classes to create. Students made itty-bitty felt costumes which were donated to the tiny patients of her local hospital! Needless to say, the possibilities for cuteness were endless!
Interestingly, students requested that I teach about coupons and techniques to help save money when food shopping. I happily obliged by putting together some engaging activities and resources to help students get started, but then flipped and put them in the driver’s seat to investigate and come up with solutions to their own request. See below for more details and if you have any interesting ways to teach this topic please share in the comment section below.
