Tag: writing

Gidgee Gadget Lesson

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!

MyPlate Fairy Tale Flip Books for Children using Flip Snack

The goal of this assignment was for students to write a story or fairy tale that encouraged young children to eat all of the food groups on MyPlate. I really wanted this to be student driven so I introduced the project, shared an example and let the creativity flow. My role was to walk around, monitor progress, address any technology issues and answer questions as they came up. It was kind of like a flipped classroom, although I’ve never technically done this. Anyway, the results were very impressive and students were highly engaged for the entire project!

GMO’s

Genetically Modified Foods, known as GMO’s, are foods that have had their genes altered through science or genetic engineering, which is monitored through the EPA, the FDA and the USDA. Did you know that many of the foods found in our grocery stores contain at least one ingredient that has been genetically modified? Should we be informed as consumers when this process is affecting the foods we eat? Should genetically modified foods be labeled? There is a huge debate surrounding this dispute. How do your students weigh in on this topic?

Interactive Notebooks

Serina wrote in asking if I had any resources for family consumer science interactive notebooks. Unfortunately a typical google search doesn’t produce anything but interactive notebook materials for science, English, and history classes. However, Interactive Notebooks are a great fit for Family and Consumer Science classes!

You be the Nutritionist: Food Aliments

Become a nutritionist for a day! This lesson has students to becoming a dietician for a day. They write an analysis of a particular client’s dietary related aliment as well as plan a week long menu for that client. Client’s aliments include diverticulitis, celiac disease, Prader-Willi syndrome, dairy allergy, lactose in tolerance, emotional eating, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol. This is a case study based assignment.

Fad Diet Project

It seems like every few months a new diet is proposed that is supposed to “really work,” unlike those other diets. This lesson is intended to provoke class discussion, emphasize critical thinking, and allow students to practice their ability to make and defend an opinion.

Penzu- Have your Students Journal Online

Cross “journal” off your list of school supplies -the world’s going paperless and so should you and your classroom! The newest way to journal is online. Online journaling has been around for a while but Penzu is a little different…

Life Long Learning Book Report

This project is a part of a high school senior life skills class. I explain to the students that after high school it is really up to them to engage in learning on their own. No one is going to spoon feed them. One of the ways adults learn is by reading books on subjects that they need to work on or learn more about.