GRADS is like a classroom without walls. We help our students make connections in their community, find reliable information online and show them how to be lifelong learners throughout their parenting journey. There are also other methods of teaching our students without the traditional textbook. Follow my classroom blog as we stretch the boundaries of teaching and learning.
Last night my husband was filling out some permission forms so our daughter could fly to Chicago with her BPA team from her high school this week. (I'm as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs!) He asked me if I knew when Katie had her last tetanus shot? She's 15 now and I thought those days of keep track of all of her baby shots were over but apparently we are not done. We do have a file with medical information but couldn't find anything about Tetanus. (will have to call her pediatrician today). There is a lot of information parents need to keep track of, especially with babies - their growth, sleeping pattern, what they eat, how often you change a wet diaper when they are ill and then all of that medical information.
You are going to keep some of these forms them on your blog for easy reference. These are the steps:
You can go to the document I have linked below, copy the url,
Open your blog, click "new post", type the name of the document, click "link", paste the url, then publish.
Try it out by viewing your blog post with the document, click on the document and begin making changes.
Always save your work. You can print when finished then cut the cards and give to family or childcare giver.
There is probably a lot you already know about pregnancy. Look at this list of pregnancy terms and pick out 5 words you've never heard of and 5 terms you know and understand. You can Google search the terms you're not sure about and be prepared to mention some of the terms in your next blog post. There are so many things you must be aware of to keep yourself and your baby healthy during pregnancy. Here is an excellent article for you to read, How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life, that investigates how a person is affected by many factors out of their control while in the womb. Print a copy of this Fetal Origins Study Guide and answer the questions as you read the article. It's kind of long but filled with amazing information that will explain how we turned out the way we did. To complete this lesson write a blog post describing the new information you learned about pregnancy terms and how a fetus is affected by things outside it's control.
How big is your baby now? What can your baby do at this stage of development? Your assignment: Search the Internet and find at least 3 reliable websites about fetal development. Gather 10 facts to answer the opening questions.
This week we learned about the development of the brain before and after birth. The first amazing concept was that a baby is born with 100 billion brain cells. To illustrate the enormity of this number I displayed a table-sized poster containing 1 million stars, which went along with the children's book, How Big is a Million?
The class calculated how many posters it would take to equal 100 billion brain cells. Answer=100,000! Then the class calculated the number of posters each student in their school would need to equal 100 billion. (1,800 students would each carry about 55 posters). Wow! Can you imagine?
The brain has been ready to learn even before birth and the cells are reacting to each and every experience by connecting to each other called Synapses. The more connections made in the first three years of life the more intelligent your child will be. Check out this video for a demonstration of how brain cells connect.
Visit this site to play with the Interactive Baby Brain to learn how a baby's brain develops during each period of growth.
How will your baby learn to talk? Listening to you? Watching TV?
Check out The Gift of Gab.
Here are 3 great videos that will demonstrate how children learn language.
Last night my son started asking questions about what we were doing this Thanksgiving. Texting (of course), "We are hosting this year on Thursday." He asked, "Aren't we going to Aunt Becky's?" I replied, "No, she didn't plan a family dinner this year probably because of grandpa's hip surgery. Why, do you need to see her?". Tommy said, "It's just been that way for years." I said, "people grow up, grow old..." .
Most single, young parents are aware of the terms "child support" and "visitation", however there are many misconceptions about how these laws are carried out.
I hope you like the classroom blog project this year. I am happy that you have created your own blogs and I can't wait to see how much you will add by the end of the school year.
This activity is about making comments on a blogger's post. The comments you share with each other is the main purpose of blogging; to communicate about the topic and help everyone who reads the blog develop a better understanding.
I incorporate many teaching strategies into my lessons. One of my favorite is Writing Alphabet Books, a strategy I found by Janet Allen in More Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. The method is simple to use and students enjoy the creative aspect of producing a book. Writing an alphabet book can help students organize and synthesize the information at the end of any unit. The students can compose the book as a class, in groups, or individually.
Assignment: Here you will find a few examples of links about guidelines.Review at least 3 links. In the comment box below write about the three most important rules you will follow when posting an article on the GRADS Classroom Blog.
