Tag: High School

Escape the Pay Check Conundrum

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Back again with another breakout style review activity!  This time the escape or breakout centers around pay check deductions and math calculations.  Created because, honestly, even though teaching about pay checks is important, it can be boring!  This review jazzes things up because student teams are competing against each other as well as the clock to get to the prize box!  In the process, they are honing their math skills.  Win-win for those of us who need to incorporate core concepts into our curriculum!  The beauty of this breakout is that it can be done both with locks and boxes if you have them or digitally if your don’t!

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Children & Self-Esteem

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Teaching students about self-esteem is important at any age, but it’s super important to emphasize how critical it is to a child’s development. In this lesson I share some ideas and activities that help students understand what self-esteem is, the difference between positive and negative self-esteem, how it’s developed, why it’s important and who/what helps to influence it. So, read on to learn more about this lesson!

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SKETCHNOTES: The “Magnificent 7” Baking Ingredients

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After reading Tisha Richmond’s blog & book titled, “Make Learning Magical”, I wanted to give sketchnotes a try. The problem was, finding a good topic. In addition, I wanted to amp up the excitement to get my students to buy into the concept.  Since there are 7 baking ingredients, I decided to call them the “Magnificent 7” because of how well they work together, similar to the characters in the movie of the same name. The first day of sketchnotes was met with mixed reviews….some students grumbled, while others really got into it.  Later, some of the students who were a bit skeptical said they actually liked it and found it relaxing! I loved that my students bought into this concept and I have to admit they were fun to grade!

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A Twisted Love Poem Activities & Updated “No One Would Tell” Resources

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Ever feel like you need to breathe new life into some of your units?  That’s just how I felt with some of my dating violence activities! Not that they still weren’t great activities, I was just getting tired of using them and needed something fresher. In this post you will find a few of the new activities and resources that I created that involve a poem, a teen girl visual and an updated movie for use in this unit. So, choose one, two or all three to try out the next time you teach about dating violence!

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Plant Based Proteins Part II: Seeds

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If you visited the site last week, you saw that the plant based protein lesson was focused on beans and legumes. This week is a continuation of plant based proteins, concentrating on seeds!

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Plant Based Proteins Part I: Beans & Legumes

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I am a big fan of Michael Pollan’s work!  I especially like what he has to say about food in his documentary “In Defense of Food”.  Even if I don’t have time to show my students the documentary in its entirety, I do like to focus on certain parts of it.  One in particular are his 7 words that he uses to sum up healthy eating: “Eat foods–Not Too Much–Mostly Plants”.  It’s a great way to introduce students to different plant based foods!  Read on to learn more about how those 7 words equate to a lesson about beans and legumes.

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Mindful Eating: A Talking Point Lesson & Activity

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Talking point lessons may just become a reoccurring series!  I love when I stumble upon a topic that is both interesting and engaging, but doesn’t require a lot of time and effort. These types of lessons are great for sub plans, unexpected assemblies, early dismissals or weather delays that can wreak havoc on keeping classes on the same timeline. Many districts are requiring teachers to present their students with e-lessons on snow days.  What better way to do this than with a talking points lesson that you can cater and adapt to your needs!  This lesson and activity revolve around “mindful eating” because most of us often do the opposite!  So, learn more about how you and your students can become more mindful of your eating! On a side note, if you have a topic that might lend itself well to a talking points lesson and/or activity, please let me know in the comment section below and I’ll see what I can do!

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A Child Called It : Teaching Activities

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I have been incorporating the novel A Child Called It into my curriculum for at least 15 years. During that time, I have developed and/or accumulated many resources that reinforce the events and themes of the novel.  This unit takes me 2-3 weeks to teach, depending on the projects I choose to assign from the below list.

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Food Preparation Video Project

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There’s a big push in education to incorporate more technology into the classroom!  Because of this, Kara Emig of Oxford, PA  wanted to develop a project that would be interesting to her students.  She also wanted them to  be able to add their own element of creativity.  The fun and engaging food preparation video project she designed has students creating their own recipe videos just like the ones you see all over social media!  Kara’s students created their videos during the cookie unit, but the beauty of this project is that it is versatile enough to use with any food unit!

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: An Interactive Lesson

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is one of those theories that is so versatile that it can be taught in a variety of ways and in a variety of classes. I know personally I’ve taught it in my child development course revolving around an infants needs and in housing lessons regarding how homes meet our needs. I also teach this concept in my Individual & Family Studies course when talking about what drives our behaviors, goals and even our decisions.  The interactive lesson that ensues is the one I use in that class. It was set up to also include some reading and writing strategies and techniques because, in our school, we all have to help reinforce these concepts so that our school scores improve. However, I did also include some “hands-on” activity with play-doh as well as some technology because…it’s always fun to mix those two mediums together!  Have fun and see if your students enjoy learning about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs!

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