BLACK & YELLOW

Well homecoming Friday is upon us and this means chaos!  Some of the students are excused from classes for events around town, so I wanted to do some activities that were still connected to our subject area.

We played Pictionary in Health and Child Development.  I picked words like poison ivy, band-aid, flu shot, and cast for health class.  Barney, birthing, birth control, uterus, potty training, and ABC's for child development.  For the most part the students had fun and it was a great way to end homecoming week.

Family Relations we ended the movie and with some time remaining I had them play with the child development pictionary cards.

Homecoming is over and I wish the football team the best of luck! GO PANTHERS!!!!

Hawaiian Day

Today was a tropical view here in the high school.  It was a very eventful day with an assembly during our advisory and the juniors won!!! I am a junior advisory so I am Team Juniors.  Each grade level had to compete in a dance-off.  There were some from 20 seconds and some over a minute.  It was really fun and I had a great time.

In Health we finished chapter 8 with some lecture and review.  This chapter was all about stress and management of emotions.  The kids responded better than they did with Chapter 7 so I was happy.

Child development we finished up our episode about birth and then we reviewed our crossword puzzles.   I planned for some of the assembly to cross over into third, but it didn't so I had improvise a little.

Family relations we are getting to the end of our movie, and next time I would pick a different movie to watch.

Tonight is the night of coronation and also a pep rally for the town.  I only knew one person on court and she won!  It was a great night and a great way to get connected with the community.

Song Parody

During homecoming week we are working with our advisory groups and we had to come up with a song parody and we made a video.  We were given Gingham Style and this is what we create:  Enjoy!

Wednesday-Super Hero Day

I feel very safe in the hallways as we are being watched by the super heroes!  We are half way through homecoming and today's dress day is Super Hero Day.  I see lots of Batmans, Supermans, and Power Rangers.  I could not find an outfit or shirt for super hero day so I am just dressed as a normal teacher.  Boring I know, next year I will do better.

In health today we did a favorite activity with relaxation techniques.  My cooperating teacher had a relaxation tape and we turned off the lights and listened to the tape.  Some found it funny, but a lot of them took the time to just relax in class with permission!

In Child Development we are watching a Discovery Channel tv show Curiosity and the episode is called "Life Before Birth" I bought it on Amazon for $1.99.  The description says "It's meant to be a joyous event - in reality, it's a gripping battle for survival. Using cutting edge technology, we go inside the womb and follow the story from conception to birth, showing how the struggle for life turns into the miracle of birth."  I was recommended this by my Iowa State advisor who said a past student teacher showed this in her parenting class.

Also in Family Relations we are still watching our movie.  I stopped the film with about 5 minutes left in class and tried to ask some probing questions.  I did not get the response I wanted so today I created a virtual classroom on Today's Meet.  The majority of the class had their laptops but for the ones who did not I made a sheet with some questions so they can write on them while watching the film.  Everyone wrote on the wall and had some good examples.

This is a fun new way to get conversation going in your classroom!

Tuesday-International Day

Today is international day for our homecoming week.  While I don't have an outfit I did dress in Red, White, and Blue!  I am either American or British.  Homecoming week is still going and getting exciting.

Today in health we are going over how to manage stress.  We are doing a walk through on the book and pulling out important information and also having group discussion.  My health class has been so much better, and I am starting to get the hang of teaching health!

In child development today we finished our male reproductive powerpoint (see yesterday post for attachement).  After we finished I handed out a female and male reproductive crossword puzzle.  I did this for a review and also so they could have an activity to shift their excitement for homecoming to an activity.
Female Reproduction Crossword
Male Reproduction Crossword

Family Relations we started watching "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days."  It fits perfectly into our dating unit as it's all about the "don'ts" in a relationship.

AAARGGGHHH Matey

Today is Adventures on the High Sea!  This is my take on the Pirate!

Today is my first day of homecoming week.  I am excited and even dressed up as a pirate today. Today was my second official visit from my Iowa State observer.  I started off with health and we started a new chapter, Chapter 8: Stress.  We started off with talking about stress they encountered this morning and stress they encountered this weekend.  We then wrote down their top 5 stressors in their lives.  We came up with school, relationships, sports, work, and family.  We then talked about our reactions to stress.  We brainstormed ideas and ways people react to stress.  Stress can be reacted either physically, emotionally, or health-related.  We categorized each one in one of the three groups.  The class was very vocal and made great group discussion.

In child development we continued learning about human reproduction.  Today was the male reproductive system.  I continued using the same PowerPoint and printed off notes for the students to follow along.  Today attention was a little harder to get as they are doing homecoming dances.

Human Reproduction PowerPoint
Male Reproductive Student Notes
Male Reproduction Teacher Notes

In Family Relations we presented our PowerPoints.  The students did a great job!  I gave them open range of what they wanted in their presentation, but they had to answer the question, "Would you date this way? Why?"

Thursday & Friday- A Okay

Well Thursday was a good day.  I was nervous/scared for my health class but I came and they were great.  I think they understood that I was not just going to let them do whatever they wanted.  Both health classes had a Maslow quiz.  I put in a blank pyramid and asked them to label each level, explain which each level meant, and tell why it is important.  I then had an extra questions which was why is this in pyramid form.

This is what the test looked like.

On Friday we had a shorter period because we were having an assembly and so I did a MindJogger Videoquiz which was provided along with the textbook.  This worked well for second hour but 8th hour was shorter so I made the same questions but in powerpoint form so we could go at our own pace.  It was a good review!

Chapter 7 Review Game

In Child Development we started learning about human reproduction.  We started with female and ended it on Friday.  It was good and very informational.  Attached are the students notes, teacher notes, and also the PowerPoint.

Female Reproduction Student Notes
Female Reproduction Teacher Notes
Human Reproduction PowerPoint

In Family Relations we started focusing on dating customs for different areas of the world.  The groups had Europe, Asia, Middle East, Australia, South America, and Central America.  Thursday we introduced it and Friday was a work day.


Next week is homecoming and I am sure it will be very busy and overwhelming.  

Bad Day

Today was one of the hardest days I have had student teaching.  I start at second period with my health class.  We started with finishing out triangle and it took a good half of the class.  After we finished with our triangles we started with the PowerPoint.  Maslow's PowerPoint  I was going through well and then their was some side conversations and they would not stop.  I kept asking and kept getting their attention but we kept having side conversations.  Eventually I had just had enough and told them to get out a piece of paper because we were going to have a quiz.  They all were grumpy about it but I said that if they would not stop talking and they were being disrespectful and if they want to continue we are going to have quizzes over what we learned.  I asked two questions that they should of gotten write and one really hard one.  The bell rang and I really felt like I wanted to cry.  I thought I was being stern but I just couldn't get them to pay attention.  Then to make it worse some kid asked when Mrs. (cooperating teacher) is coming back.  That really made me feel bad.

In child development we talked about spouse selection.  We talked about our wants/don't wants in our spouse and also in the father of our children.  A lot of the students talked about looks and we then talked about how some of our wants were not that important.  We then flipped it and talked about what we want in mothers or a spouse as a women.  This was about the same but the don't wants were a lot longer.

In Family Relations we talked about the stages of dating and the purpose.  I did this through a PowerPoint.  Purpose and Stages of Dating I gave them notes to follow along with Purpose and Stages of Dating Student Notes  I also had teacher notes Purpose and Stages of Dating Lecture Notes-Teacher.  This went well and we got some conversation going.

Another Day Another Class

Today I have officially picked up another class... HEALTH.  I have my health endorsement but have only taught a 10 minute health lesson, never had a heath practicum, or any other experience.  I started with chapter 7: Emotional and Mental health.  We started by defining mental and emotional health and then going over the 5 characteristics of positive mental health.  I put these on the board and we gave examples, bad or good.  After this we did started talking about Maslow's hierarchy of Needs.  I used the book and it had a great example of a paper project that turned into a triangle.


 Steps to make Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Foldable:

1. Get three blank pieces of paper.

2. Separate the papers by about 3/4".  Making sure they are evenly spaced and the sides are straight.

3. Fold up the bottom half of the stack of papers 3/4" from the top half.  All tabs should be the same  size.  There should be a total of six, with the sixth tab being larger.

4. Staple at the very bottom to keep the pages in place.

5.Cut the sides of the paper to form a triangle.  

6. Make sure that you do not make a tip at the triangle but rather a flat top.  Shown below

7. The first thing I wrote on the big flap at the bottom was Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  Good Emotional/Mental Health

8. Next I labeled the other tabs according to Maslow's triangle.  I noticed some of the wording is different but this is how my book states it.

9. Now each tab has it's own space to write down key words or thoughts.  Folding down the big flap at the bottom is where the first one goes, physical.

10. I asked my students to tell me the definition, why it is important, examples of it, how to achieve it, and also draw a picture.  Repeat this for each step of the triangle, and your students have a great reference to Maslow's Triangle.

In Child Development we did started off by the "parents" of the weekend talking about their babies and how it went.  Most talked about how it was fine, but it cried all the time or they didn't want it again and it would be awhile before they had children.  After that we went into discussion about planning for a pregnancy.  Most said they want to have children by the time they are 25 (seems young to me but I am sure I said the same thing in high school).  After that my cooperating teacher has signs with situations on them that she let me use and I had them raise their hands if they wanted to have completed this before they had a baby.  Some examples were own a business, buy a fancy car, get married, spend your own $.  After we talked about it and showed hands we then went back and talked about if these things were possible if they did have a child.  This sparked some debate and we had some good conversations.

In Family Relations what I thought was going to be a short introduction activity turned into a 45 minute debate.  I had them fill out a sheet about dating (attached Below).  I told them they did not have to tell about themselves if they felt uncomfortable but to tell a story about someone they knew or saw in a movie.  After they had time to fill it out we discussed some of the ideas and thoughts.  I did not go around the room asking for specific examples but asked for people to volunteer.  We had a few brave souls tell their stories and then this lead to more conversation.  It was a really great way to get to know students and also see their views on dating.

Introduction to Dating

Professional Development- An all day activity

Today we did not have school with the students but we had professional development ALL day. I guess I thought professional development was going to be meet for about 3 hours and the rest of the day was work time.  Boy was I wrong!  Starting at 8 we met in the library and then stayed in there until 11:30.  We broke for lunch for about an hour and fifteen minutes and then we were back to class until 3:30.  It was an all day event.  I was not mentally prepared for it.  It was very informative though.  We learned about mindsets and how there is either fixed or growth mindsets.  We had examples of each and how we might look at some kids as lazy, but really they do not want a challenge.  They have us some techniques of how to motivate and also about cooperative learning.  Overall it was not bad at all it was just not what I was expecting.

Friday Funday

Fridays are always a struggle for me because I am exhausted by the end of the day, and I know the students are anxious for the weekend.  I really want to try to get the students engaged or up and moving so it's not a dragged out struggle.

In child development it was really an improvise day.  We were sending out seven computer babies and I think they will be the death of me.  I can only charge 5 at a time and so this meant coming in early and trying to get the other 2 charged.  Well came in and realized one baby would not worked when unplugged from the charger.  This resulted me in calling RealityWorks and talking with Nate the operator who walked me through "baby surgery."  Well I could save the babies life so his new "heart" or electronics is being sent as we speak to the school.  So during child development I did an assignment so then while they worked I could also work to get the babies out.  I had them find the components of a strong family and they had to make a poster of why is is important, what it is, and how to achieve it.  While they created I met with each student who was taking a baby home to get the baby dressed, check ids, check bottles and blanket, and also double check that I got quiet hours figured out.  We had time to present our posters and I gave everyone who created a poster points for the activity.  The computer babies is a first for me and I am learning a lot, but I think I spotted my first grey hair because of it.

In Family Relations I had this plan where we would go through magazines and cut out advertisements and talk about how the media influences us to buy or do something.  Well the kids didn't really respond to this so instead of an all class time activity it took about 20 minutes.  This left me with a lot of improvising time.  I really need to learn on my time management in the classroom.  So what I did was played a a fun clip that introduced my next topic. DATING.  After we watched the video we talked about our negotionables and our non-negtionables.

Dating Video

Test Thursday

Today in Child Development I had to do a little catch up and finish up the chapter.  It was a Thursday and that means it is advisory day so a little bit shorter classes.  We finished up the last stage of life, and then took our test.  The students did really well and I gave an opportunity for extra credit so a lot of them finished with over 100%.

Stage of Life Quiz

In family relations we had an environment day.  I partially covered this when we did self-esteem so I pulled a worksheet so they could evaluate who influences their choices and their lifestyle.

Today was a good day but I can sense some excitement for homecoming so next week will be interesting.

Commons Duty- Saved by the Bell

Today was commons duty and my very first time and DRAMA!  I was standing by the door and there was a group of students and I was kind of hearing their conversation and it sounded like there was going to be a fight.  I saw the male student walk over and there was a conversation so I went to the male dean to say there might be a fight over there.  He went over and talked to the boys and split them up.  They separated and the group came back and stood by me again.  I kept hearing "Tell him to stop staring" "Look away"  I told the group to lets just separate and have a good morning.  The boy again walked back over and they were exchanging words and I stood between them and told them to walk away!  (I was thinking Oh my goodness my first day and there is going to be a fight.  How am I going to break this up? I need help!)  Thankfully the bell rang and the kids went there own way.  I walked back to class and was shaking with adrenaline.  My almost first high school fight as a teacher and I survived!   

Words of Encouragement

Words of Encouragement from My Cooperating Teacher!

Conquering Two Classes Now

Today I took on two classes.  I now have child development and family relations.  Along with taking on a new class I also had a visit from my college supervisor.  While I was very nervous for an extra pair of eyes to be watching me, but then the principal walked in!  Two for one special!  All was well and I made it through alive.

In family relations we went over genetic disorders.  We were supposed to have a disorder quiz, but I thought that I went over the information WAY to fast so we were going to have a little review.  I found a PowerPoint online and then just modified it to the way I liked it.

Genetic Disorder PowerPoint

For my first day of child development I took over a lesson my cooperating teacher was doing.  We are learning the stages of life (7).  I was having the class popcorn read the stages and then on the board we put up the most important key concepts from the paragraph.  I then created a "family" and we took them through the stages of life.  This was a good lesson and the responded well.  They are 25 students so every chair is taken up, and they are all girls so the means chatter chatter chatter.  They were able to have group discussion though, which I like.  Attached is my lesson with the family story below it.

Stages of Life Notes

School picture

My first official school picture as a teacher!!!

Proud to Be An American

Today is 9/11 and we will always remember the sacrifice that our fire fighters, police officers, and all of those who lost their lives on this day.

Today in Family Relations we had our self-concept and self-esteem test.  I already checked the test and they did amazing!  I don't know if my test is too easy or my students really did learn the information.  Self-Esteem & Self-Concept Quiz

We also covered heredity really quickly.  I had planned to talk about chromosomes, but little did I find out that they had already learn this so I had to quickly think on my feet and we read over diseases.  They had a lot of input from the students, and some of the information I was still learning myself so I had to fake it a little.

Baby Drama

Well we had our first weekend with the students taking home 4 of the Reality Works Real Care babies. I had programmed them for quiet hours and also to stop on Sunday night at 11 pm.  Turns out some of the babies quiet hours worked while some didn't.  The worst of it all was they didn't stop at 11!! Some of the students were up all last night with their babies and had to come to school today.  While it is realistic that teen moms have to stay up late during school days, I also felt bad they weren't their best for school.  Overall it was a success except we had one girl whose baby stopped Sunday morning at 6 am later to find out it was because of ABUSE SHUTDOWN!  A lot of the occurrences were in the hours of 12 am until 7 am.  Those nights can be rough.

In Family Relations today we reviewed for our test tomorrow over self-concept and self-esteem.  I will post the test tomorrow for all to see!

In health today we did a brain storm with the kids over the chapters they want to learn.  The main theme was first aid, STI's STD's, Drugs and Alcohol, and human diseases.  A pretty good list for my cooperating teacher and I to get started on!

In foods we surprisingly had a TON of stir-fry left overs.  We weren't planning on this but decided to turn it into a demonstration lab where we made frittatas.
To make the frittata we:

• We took the left over stir-fry warmed it in the microwave.l
• Laid in the bottom of a glass cooking bowl
• Mixed 6 eggs and a cup of milk
• Poured the eggs over the stir-fry 
• Cooked in oven at 350 for about 12 minutes
• Added cheddar cheese as a topping and let cook for about 2 more minutes

The kids liked this better than the stir fry from the day before and we were happy to hear that and get rid of the leftovers!

Teacher Problems

#teacherproblems

Today I had my first uh-oh teacher moment.  I had to switch cars with my mom and with her car not having automatic lights and mine does I was used to getting right out and closing the door..... Well coming out at 6 I realize my car has a DEAD battery!  Luckily the janitor had jumper cables and came to my rescue.  Luckily no students saw me to give me a hard time!

IT's Friday Friday!!!

Well today was a great day again here at the high school.  It was a Friday and a home football game so the kids were a little antsy.  Today was the first day the kids got to cook in their lab.  Everything went really smoothly and I think the kids really enjoyed it.  A big feat for us today was getting the computer babies out and running.  Every student in child development wanted to take a baby home but I had a little trouble downloading the computer program.  Thankfully our tech team came down and fixed it and all I had to do was figure out how to run it.  Well two periods and lunch later I got all the babies configured and ready to go out the door.

Today in family relations we were still doing self-esteem and I knew the students were going to be excited for Friday so I thought of an activity to do.  I had them stand up at the board one at a time and we wrote nice positive things around their body.  I took a picture and will be putting them up around the room.  The kids were a little hesitant at first but really got into it.

A sample!  Worked really well with self-esteem!

About two weeks ago I got asked to do an interview for the school paper and today my article came out!

Panther Print

Stir Fry!

We are in the kitchens!!! If you ever want to make your students excite talk about lab.  Before we let the chefs go off on their own we had demonstration day which was today.  Their first lab is going to be stir fry made with ground beef, zucchini, carrots, onions, and potatoes.  I attached the recipe!  Lab went pretty good.  There is one thing I need to work on though, the extra knowledge.  My cooperating teacher is so knowledgable about random kitchen things that she can talk on about them, where I need to write stuff down.  She said this will come in time!!

Skillet Stir Fry

Today in Family Relations we started our lesson about self-esteem.  It was a knowledge day so I presented a PowerPoint and a mini activity.  The activity was about positive self-talk which they did really good at (took me awhile!).  I ended about 6 minutes short again so we had some extra time.  I also need to work on those last five minutes of class to fill things up.  Attached are the PowerPoint and the positive self-talk worksheet.

Self-Esteem PowerPoint
Positive Self Talk Worksheet

Just another day in Paradise

Full day in FCS classes today.  We have finally broken through and have gotten the students over into the lab.  While we are not cooking we had them do some clean up and inventory.  Tomorrow we are going to demonstrate how to make stir-fry and then on Friday they are going to cook for themselves.  

Today in Family Relations we finished up our self-concept circles.  It took them about a third of the class, and then they presented.  No one volunteered to go first but I did have a couple of groups volunteer to go!  This is a big step because usually they are mortified to get up in front of everybody.  Below is a picture of a sample poster that a group made about the case study of the teenage girl (posted yesterday).  We had about fifteen minutes remaining and instead of starting the next unit on self-esteem we did a review game of self-concept.  Tomorrow is a new part of the unit about self-esteem so it will be a PowerPoint so they can understand and I have an idea for a fun activity but I need to find a camera!!

Sample Poster

Back from a 3 day weekend

Today was another hot one.  It is supposed to reach 91 degrees and because of this we had all the normal questions, "Are we getting out early?" "(The neighboring school) is getting out why aren't we?" "Today's hotter why aren't we getting out early?"  This lead to a little rowdy class, but it was still successful.  We are wrapping up with self-concept and we ended it with case studies.

1. I first started by handing out the Self-Concept worksheet to everyone in the class Self-Concept Cycle.  
2. I also copied this up on the board.  
3. We then went through one test study as a group (we went over the Mother). Self-Concept Case Studies
4. After we filled up the self-concept cycle worksheet we determined that the mother had a negative self- concept and we went back around and gave examples of how she could change this to be positive.
5.   After we all went over the self-concept cycle, I explained how we were going to split up in groups and as a group they were going to go through their own case study.
6. I then was hit with the most common question in group work, "Can we pick out own groups?"  I allowed them to pick their own groups with the understanding that this is the tester and if they can work well together they would be allowed to continue picking their own group.
7. I gave them their poster board and case study and told them I what I expected.
• My Expectations:
• Self Concept Circle drawn Large in center
• Sub categories that result from their case study
• Determine whether the cycle is positive or negative.
• Give examples of how they can turn their self concept into a positive one.
8. They had twenty minutes left and used this time very wisely.  I was very impressed.  
9. Tomorrow they will have some time in the beginning of class to finish it, and then present their case study to the class.

I was really nervous that this lesson was going to bomb and be a disaster, but I was pleasantly surprised that they responded really well and was right there with me.  Today was a good day.