Starting a career as a young mom

   People always judge teen mothers and say that they are ruining their lives and can never have a good career. But why should there negativity and you having a child young affect you having a career and being able to support your beautiful new child(ren). It shouldn't affect that one bit! As a young mother you should be encouraged more to go to college and to prove statistics wrong.
    Statistics say that 80% of women who have babies when they are teens spend at least part of their life dependent on welfare, and they have serious disadvantages in achieving financial success and independence in life, largely due to their lack of education.  They also say that the children are less likely to become successful and be financially stable. They are wrong though! My child motivates me to go and start a career so i can show her that you can always overcome the difficult times.

Publishing Your Article

Today each of you should be ready to publish your article. Please refer to my previous post if you need information about retrieving your draft and ask Mrs. Allerton for assistance. Make sure you follow the Blogging Rubrics for creating an outstanding article.

Please find time to read your classmate's articles and make a meaningful comment on each article.
Go to this link for suggestions on writing comments.

The completed article and your comments are due by this Thursday, May 16th.

I will be returning to school on Monday, May 20th. I miss you all and look forward to catching up. Don't forget, I need 3 chapter packets completed by Monday.

Text me if you have any questions about today's assignment.

Take Care,
Mrs. Hickman

Writing a Draft

Sorry about not getting the post to you for your class last Thursday. I wrote the post, scheduled it to publish at 5:30 am but clicked "close" instead of "publish". Ironically, this is exactly what you will do as you write, save and rewrite your draft before publishing your article.
As stated in the previous post you will begin writing a draft today. Choose any subject that relates to this class and your new role as a parent. You can write about any aspect of having a healthy pregnancy, caring for a newborn, juggling school and parenthood, the importance of planning for college or a career etc. Just remember to follow the guidelines to protect your safety by not naming your baby, city, state or school district. 
The following images will help walk you through writing a draft and publishing a post.

Please write a comment to me before leaving class today.  I'd like to know what subject you are planning on publishing on this blog:)

Make sure you are logged in to this blog using your gmail address and password.
 Look in the upper right corner to log in and also start a "New Post".

You will see a blank page with a tool bar. Fill in the title (leave blank until you come up with something). Then begin your draft. Feel free to paste links, powerpoints, pdfs, or documents etc. from the internet. In the tool bar you can dress things up with different fonts and colors. 

To save your draft click "save" then "close" in the upper right corner.

To find your draft: log into blog, on GRADS Classroom Blog.  Pull down arrow, click "posts".

Locate your draft, click "edit" under the title

When you are ready to publish your article, don't forget to check your spelling, then "preview" so see if you like the layout. Then click "Publish".

On May 7th you will finish and publish your post in the library. You may also work on your article outside of class.
On May 14th you will be making meaningful comments on your classmate's articles. My surgery went well but I can't return to work for 3 weeks. I plan on returning Monday, May 20th.

Email me if you have any questions: 2christiehickman@gmail.com

Judging a Blog Post

Now that you are an official author of this classroom blog you can post an article. What kind of article, you ask? Any subject that relates to this class and your new role as a parent. You can write about any aspect of having a healthy pregnancy, caring for a newborn, juggling school and parenthood, the importance of planning for college or a career etc. Just remember to follow the guidelines to protect your safety by not naming your baby, city, state or school district.

There are several characteristics of a great blog post. By viewing our Blogging Rubrics you can see the criteria for an exemplary post and also how a post might need improvement. There is a permanent list for writing good posts in the right sidebar that you can refer to when you post an article in the future.

For today's assignment you are going to grade 3 posts from any three of my blogs, one being the GRADS Classroom Blog. To locate all of the articles refer to the Archive in the right sidebar. Click on any year/month and click a title that sounds interesting.

At the top of the Blogging Rubrics form fill in the Post Title along with the blog name and the date the article was posted. Don't forget your name:)

Give your completed forms to Mrs. Allerton before you leave class.

When you are in the library next Tuesday, April 30th, you will begin writing a draft of your post. So come prepared with an idea of what you want to write about.
On May 7th you will publish your post and begin making meaningful comments to your classmate's articles.
We are leaving May 14th open at this time.

Learn About Blogging

The GRADS Classroom Blog will be used for part of our classroom instruction while I am on medical leave. You will be given assignments to work on either in the library on the days I have scheduled and you can work at your own convenience.

During the next three weeks you will do some activities to become familiar with a blog format. Then you will write and post your own articles on this blog. You will learn how to write meaningful comments to other classmates and reply in order to keep a dialogue going.

1. Today you will be receiving an email inviting you to be an author on our blog. Check your email, open the invitation, click on the message to accept. Come back to this blog, refresh the page, then click "New Post" in the upper right corner of your screen to see if it was successful. Click "Close" because you will not be writing a post today. See me if you have any problems.

2. Go to this link to complete an assignment about Blogging Guidelines. Whenever you want to come back to today's assignment just click "HOME".

3. Look around this site to get familiar with it's content:

• Sign up to receive an email whenever a new assignment is published.
• Browse the other tabs (usually at the top) to locate more information.
• Check out all the cool stuff I found on my Pinterest Boards
• Scroll down to check out some previous articles 
• After reading an article, feel free to write a comment at the bottom of the page
• Check out my other blogs listed in the right sidebar.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments: 2christiehickman@gmail.com

Healthy Food vs Junk Food

We have been learning about the importance of Prenatal Nutrition. As a class, you brainstormed an alphabetical list of healthy foods, learned how to read food package labels, discovered how much a serving size really is and most importantly, how your food choices will affect your baby for the rest of his or her life.
I'd like for you to consider the differences and similarities between healthy vs junk food by completing the interactive venn diagram from ClassTools.net below. Not only should you think about what's inside the food but what about the outside? What is the difference in the appearance, serving size, texture, and smell of healthy food vs junk food. Is there a difference in how most healthy food is prepared vs how to prepare junk food?
Work on this as a class. When you are finished filling in your answers on the image below, please save a copy of this diagram before leaving this sight.See the bottom right corner for choices and click the circle icon to embed into a blog. Just copy the URL for your diagram and email the link to me.
If you want to post this on your own blog just copy the html then insert the code into a new post.
I will add your completed Venn Diagram at the bottom of this page for visitors to view.

Click here for larger version

Creating a Sugar Addict

Can you rank the following 8 ounce servings of beverages, with "1" having the least amount of sugar and "6" having the most?

• Kool-aid
• soda
• chocolate milk
• apple juice
• white milk

I will give you the answers later. Which of these items will you allow your baby to consume within the first 12 months of life? 

click photo to see other child tooth decay

Sugary beverages, including formula,  will not only cause Baby Bottle Tooth Decay but can set your child up for obesity. How does tooth decay start? The germs in our mouths live in the white, sticky material called plaque. When the germs feed on the sugar in our food, they give off an acid. The acid will eventually cause cavities in the teeth. The more sugar your child eats, the more likely he or she is to have tooth decay. It's important that you limit the amount of sugar that you give your child.

You should never put anything in your baby's bottle besides formula, breast milk or water. And you should never, ever put your baby to bed with a bottle. Even formula, when left in the mouth as baby falls asleep, will cause tooth decay. 

Babies are not born with a desire for sugar. Children may begin to crave sugary foods after being exposed to them. 

Here is a math problem for you: 4 grams of carbohydrate = 1 teaspoon of sugar. You can use measuring spoons and sugar to visualize the amount of sugar consumed.

• If white milk has 22 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If Kool-Aid has 24 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If chocolate milk has 25 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If apple juice has 29.3 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?
• If soda (only 8 ounces) has 30 grams of carbs, how many teaspoons of sugar?

By the way, the above beverages are listed in ranking order of least sugar to most sugar. 
Check out The 20 Worst Drinks in America 

View this video from The Real Bears.org to better understand the implications of giving sugar to your child. 

Why Do Babies Cry?

Just seeing this crying baby puts me in distress!

What do you think when you hear a baby crying in public?
What do you want to do?
Would you let your baby cry for long periods of time?
There was an interesting research article in the Wall Street Journal three weeks ago about Letting Babies Cry It Out. Please read this article.

We have heard many relatives assure us that "crying is okay, it is good for their lungs, makes them stronger". But it's really hard for parents and caretakers to let babies cry because of the physical impact it has on each one of us. When a baby cries the hairs on our arms or back of necks will actually rise. This causes us to instinctively want to sooth the baby to make ourselves feel better. But is crying normal? Should you stop a baby from crying? Is your baby in pain?  Check out the Purple Crying website to get a better understanding about crying babies.

I have taught our new GRADS parents about the Happiest Baby approach to calming a fussy baby.
Please skim over these frequently asked questions on Dr. Karp's website about using the Happiest Baby approach. Compare Karp's strategy with the suggestions in this slide show about calming fussy babies.


Please comment in the box below:

1. How do you feel when you hear your baby or any other cry?
2. What is your opinion about letting babies cry it out?
3. What new piece of information did you learn about Purple Crying?
4. Compare the Happiest Baby approach with the slide show for calming fussy babies.

Food For Your Family

Which one of the following is caused by the chemical BPA found in plastic and aluminum cans containing food?

a. obesity in children
b. reproductive development
c. cardiovascular disease

To find the answer please read the following articles, Consuming Canned Soup and BPA In Food Packaging.

After comparing the two articles write a response in the comment box below that answers the following:

1. What is the answer to the question at the beginning of this post.
2. Where does BPA come from?
3. Name something you ate or drank today that was packaged in plastic or a can.
4. Does this research affect your own family?
5. Do you plan on doing anything to protect your child from consuming BPA?

Stressed Out!

Have you ever stopped to think about how your reaction to stress is viewed through your child's eyes? If you are pregnant, how does your baby know when you are stress out?

Life is stressful and there is no way to avoid it! We have covered a great lesson about stress management this week. Here is the Stress Management Lesson Plan for teachers to view.

These are some of the things you learned:

• stress vocabulary
• levels of stress
• stages of coping with stressful situations
• your own stress score
• physical changes you notice from stress
• learning how to cope with daily stress

At the end of this unit your class will write the ABC's of Managing Stress. (Create your own title). We will upload your list onto The ABC's of Life website so other teen parents will be able to learn about stress.

Comment Assignment: Describe how this unit helped you and what are some coping skills you will use in your own life.