Each fall, when I go back to my classroom, I’m always faced with blank bulletin boards! Because I like to decorate my room with student work, I often use this ABC Children Index Card Bulletin Board Activity during the first week of school in my child development class. Not only does it help make my room more aesthetically pleasing, but it’s an engaging filler that’s easy to adapt for that intial period when schedules are in constant flux.
Some of you may remember the Late Show with Dave Letterman! One of his regular features included his infamous top 10 lists in descending order from 10 to 1, adding his own a touch of humor and sarcasm as he shared! I have been using written top 10 lists for years and was excited when Matt Miller of Ditch That Textbook shared his version utilizing Flipgrid. This Top 10 Lists…Video Style post shares how to present the lists via Flipgrid with some of ideas for topics. Help add to the list by sharing additional topics!
Grief and Loss can be a difficult and sensitive topic to talk about let alone teach. So a big THANK YOU goes out to Darci Friberg of Missouri for sharing her Grief & Loss lesson! This came about during the pandemic when Darci was struggling to describe what she was feeling which was grief. The lesson is not only therapeutic, but devotes time talking about a topic many avoid.
Let me introduce you to a fairly new app that is part of the Google Suite called Jamboards! This is a free interactive whiteboard that students can create projects with or your can create activities or games for students to complete individually or as a class. The possibilities are endless. The Temper Tantrum Jamboard is just one of many examples of how I used this app while teaching in both in-person and hybrid/remote settings. I hope this inspires you to get the app and give it a try!
Divorce is more common than most care to admit and sadly a crisis that many children must learn to cope with, sometimes at a very young age. The Divorce: Hyperdoc Lesson is a way for students to learn about the crisis from the child’s perspective and designed to be usable in both traditional and remote learning classrooms.
This year has me feeling a bit nostalgic as our traditional holiday get togethers are in question due to the increase in covid cases across the country. Because of this, I decided to devote “Food Traditions: Mock Blog as my second quarter writing topic for my Exploring Foods class. Let me explain….
Erik Erikson’s theory of development is one my students have always enjoyed learning about, and pre-COVID was taught in a more hands-on way. Since many of us may be teaching with both students in the actual classroom as well as those taking the class virtually, in real time, I’ve updated my lesson to Erikson’s Theory of Development to incorporate Iron Chef & Instagram activities, making it more tech friendly and usable in both teaching worlds!
The Parent Readiness Activities are a flexible set of resources that could be used in any parenting, child development or family living type of class. Last year when I taught this, I was able to set it up as stations for my students to work through in small groups. This year, due to social distancing, I had to rework it so that students could complete it individually whether in the traditional classroom or in the hybrid, virtual classroom. So, read on to see what’s included in the Parent Readiness Activities!
Anticipating the possibility of having to teach remotely or a blend of traditional and virtual, I’ve been trying to revise some of my hands-on activities to make them more compatible with 1:1 technology. The Baby in Progress Hyperdoc is a digital lesson that incorporates the prenatal development concepts learned in the Pregnancy Towers index card activity. The beauty of this Baby in Progress Hyperdoc is that the Pregnancy Tower group activity can be subbed in for the digital “What Month Am I?” activity if traditional teaching returns!
I recently watched an episode of Adobe for Education and Matt Miller author of Ditch that Textbook (affiliate link) was on as a special guest. This episode focused on being creative while teaching remotely. His advice was to think outside the box, provide a fun twist when asking students to recall or share what they’ve learned about a particular topic. He suggested students share what they’ve learned in an unboxing video! How creative is that! My wheels started turning and I thought of so many ways that this could be used in our content. So join me, if you will, as I share “Unboxing Video Topics for the FACS Content! As always, if you have other ideas or you develop a specific project or assignment, please share and I will add them to the list!
