Category: Professional Development

Gifts from the Hands

Some of the most cherished gifts our family has received over the years have been made by the hands of the people we love. In fact we look forward to those gifts every year as they’ve kind of become a tradition. Sometimes those gifts made with love were born out of necessity due to limited resources available to go out and purchase store bought gifts, but many times they were made and given out of love for the recipient(s) of the gift. For example, many years ago, very close friends of ours began making us a delicious candy-like treat that can only be described as “Christmas Crack” because once you start eating it, you can’t stop! We love the candy and our friends and look forward to that gift every year! After all, how can you look at, use or consume that wonderful gift without thinking fond thoughts of the talented person/people who took the time to make it for YOU! Why not teach your students how they can use their talents, time and resources to make gifts of love to give to those in their lives that they cherish most during this Christmas and Holiday season?

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Fashion: Barbie Draping Project

How many of you remember playing with Barbie when you were little? Furthermore, how many of you remember designing clothes for said Barbie? I remember both, so I can’t wait to share this creative project designed by veteran teacher Deb Crockett from Canon City High School in Colorado. Deb has been assigning this project for the last 10 years. This lesson was prompted because she wanted to give her students a hands on experience to the different areas of the fashion industry. This project gives them a chance to be creative in so many ways. Students get to be a fashion designer, a fashion photographer, a fashion writer and they can then expand on their graphic design knowledge by creating the poster. This poster could also be produced using their computer applications skills learned in their business classes. You never know when you might spark and interest in the students, and bring back some fun memories at the same time!

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Dry & Moist Heat Cooking Methods Lesson & Lab

I find that most students don’t know the difference between dry and moist cooking methods. This lesson and lab help them to understand the difference and explore the various ways that the same food can be prepared using different methods. Students enjoy the interactive activities within the lesson as well as preparing and tasting vegetables as they practice and apply some of the techniques. This lesson also incorporates the vocabulary tool Quizlet which helps students learn their terms in an interactive way. Students actually ask me to use Quizlet on a regular basis to learn and assess terms.

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Apples: Web-Activity & Labs

It’s fall, apples are in season and they are relatively inexpensive! Varieties of apples are sold everywhere from roadside stands to grocery stores so why not incorporate them into your foods class? That’s exactly what Jessica Uplinger of Field High School, Ohio did. Jessica created this lesson and lab because she has very large classes and needed a thematic unit where she could divide up her class and have half of them in the kitchen preparing a lab while the other half is engaged with an assignment. The end results? Her students ended up enjoying every aspect of this lesson, especially the labs! Why not give it a try in your foods class?

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Kitchen Measuring Skills: Adjusting Recipes Activities

My junior high students have always struggled with multiplying fractions when I teach how to adjust recipes. I didn’t realize how much until I implemented a pre/post-test as my student learning outcome (SLO) project for my teacher evaluation. Students weren’t grasping this concept and it was consistently showing up as a weak area. I realized I needed to add more practice to what I was teaching my students in class so I decided to make it a little more interactive. This lesson is very adaptable to the ISN if you are using them in your classroom.

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Time to BAKE the Doughnuts!

Whether you are celebrating Fat Tuesday, National Doughnut Day or just need a fun, tasty dessert or snack, this lesson brings you donutsome healthy ideas for incorporating this usually unhealthy treat into your class. Continue reading for some historical background on these mini-pastries, along with how they are commercially made and then bake up some sweetness by preparing a healthy version of the baked vanilla doughnut. And don’t forget the healthy topping too!

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Child Development Curriculum

Ever want to see what other teachers around the country are using for their curriculum? Here is a very short list of Child Development curriculum. Please feel free to leave a message below or send your school or state’s curriculum guides to
feedback@familyconsumersciences.com to be sponsored on this page. I know it is helpful to reference what others are doing to benchmark top programs.

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The Power of Purple: Shaken Baby Syndrome & The Period of Purple Crying

While Shaken Baby Syndrome might be a familiar term associated with child abuse, the Period of Purple Crying may not be. The two terms are closely related as the constant crying associated with purple crying may lead one to violently shake their child. This lesson educates students about both to hopefully decrease the risks of both occurring in the future. This lesson also includes a fairly quick and easy community service project for students of all ages and abilities to complete to help spread information about the important cause.

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Cooking up International Cuisine: Summer Professional Development

This June, I had the opportunity to take a Foreign Foods class taught by 2008 Chef of the Year, Chef Tom Siegel, CEC. It was a 5 day intensive, beginning at 8 a.m. and ending between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. Each day focused on a different country or region. Monday was Greece, Tuesday was Italy, Wednesday was “The Magreb”: Morocco and Tunisia, Thursday was Southeast Asia: Thailand and Vietnam, and Friday was BBQ through the American South.

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Become a ServSafe Instructor & Proctor

Help your students get a jump start in the restaurant industry by having them become ServSafe certified! To do this you can either have a ServSafe instructor come and teach your class or you can become a certified instructor.

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