When I created QR Code Stations in my child development class to learn about newborn care, I had no idea that they would be such a hit! My students really like getting out of their seats, moving from station to station in order to learn about various topics. So, I decided to give it a try with the essential six nutrients and the results proved to be successful once again. So, below you will find a new lesson about the essential six nutrients, utilizing the infamous QR Codes!
I spent time this past summer browsing on the internet and reading teacher comments on Twitter. One of my favorite things is to watch TedTalk videos. I kept coming across ideas that what we teach students will be obsolete in 40 years, many future careers have not been invented, how fast knowledge doubles, advances in artificial intelligence, brain research, etc. So, what’s a teacher to teach? Or more importantly, what is it that students must be able to know and do to thrive in a future world full of unknowns? You may have additional thoughts but some of mine are students must be literate, be adaptive, be problem solvers, be able to think-outside-of-the-box, use technology, communicate effectively with others, work with others, and re-invent themselves in the workplace. Then, for the first time in my long career, my school adopted a partial block schedule with the first 2 days of the school year being block days. Students need to have positive experiences so they want to come back the next day plus I didn’t want to bore them. So, I wrote the Gidgee Gadget lesson. Take a look below to see what it’s all about!
Shopping for a dorm is a necessary task if you are heading to college, and can be quite a daunting experience if you’ve never done it before! It seems like college students today need a lot more as incoming freshman than what I ever needed in four years of college (many moons ago)! I discovered this when preparing to send my first born off to college a few years ago and as we look forward to repeating it with child number two next summer. Having that experience prompted me to create this project to help students see what colleges suggest they bring and the cost involved. It also allows them to discern between what they will truly use and need versus what they don’t, eliminating a lot of excess spending! This is a real eye-opener for students as they prepare for moving into dormitory living!
UPDATE: The links in challenge #4 are now fixed and all of the Breakaway challenges are again functioning! I’m sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. Please download new documents as the previous ones for challenge #4 are no longer active.
In my school, human reproduction and anatomy is taught in the Health class to all students in the ninth grade. So ideally, students should know this by the time they take my Child Development class as sophomores, juniors and seniors. Unfortunately, students don’t always remember this pertinent information as we begin discussing conception and pregnancy, so a review is in order! This breakaway or breakout is used as a review for my classes, but could be used as an introduction to these topics as well. Either way, the activities should help to reinforce the terms and concepts to the male and female anatomies, their functions, diagrams and basic conception knowledge.
I think I love breakout activities almost as much as my students do! So, I thought I’d try my hand at another one, using it as a way for students to acquire their notes regarding food safety actions. In this breakout, students must put the puzzles together that form their notes, complete the notes form and scan for a number to help them eventually open their box. In this breakout, only one box per group is used and within it contains a scenarios activity that utilizes the notes students just spent time obtaining. The boxes also contain a small treat that students may eat while completing their scenario assignment. How do you use breakouts in the classroom? I’d love to hear your ideas, so please share in the comments section below!
One of my classes was on the small side this year so I asked them if there was anything in particular they wanted to learn about regarding food. They very promptly provided me with a list! I wish I could get some of their assignments that quickly! LOL! Anyway, one of the items on their list was salads…in a jar! Having been to a salad in a jar party where each person brought an ingredient to share, I thought this would be a fun lesson and lab to put together. I also thought I’d try my hand at putting the lesson together as a HyperDoc where students could work their way through the background information in an independent, self-directed way. Even if you don’t feel comfortable giving students the HyperDoc, I find it’s a great way to keep myself and my resources organized!
