Teacher’s Corner

• You can help your students believe that it’s OK to ask for help.
• Play “Asking for Help.” Take turns thinking of different ways you can ask for help in school situations.
• Announce that in order to protect all students, you will accept only suggestions that are respectful and involve no verbal or physical violence.
• See how many different ways your students can think of to ask for help. You can create the situations for them to respond to if needed or let them come up with situations where help might be needed.
• If the students offer inappropriate suggestions or can’t think of a suggestion, add some additional information to help them. Could you do this …? Once when I had that problem, I …. That suggestion is unacceptable because …; what other way can you think of?
• Write the ideas down and post them in an obvious place in the classroom.  Ask the students which suggestions they like best.

1. For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:
   • Use the blog for discussion topics
   • Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.
2. For all courses, especially English Language Arts:

• Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:
• Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?
• Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?
• What would be your advice on this topic?
• What was left out of this article?
• If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?

Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?

• Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.
• Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.
• The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.