Teacher’s Corner

You can use this activity to encourage a discussion about asking for help.

Have your students draw two big circles on their papers.

1. One circle is their “in” circle.  This is for people they know care about them and that they feel comfortable asking for help from if they need specific types of help. They can write names of those people inside that circle.

2. The second circle is their “add-to” circle. They can put some names of new people in this list. People they have respect for and like and who they think respect and like them. 

Have the students make a plan to spend time with one of the persons in the “add-to” circle. After spending time with that person several times, have students ask themselves whether they think that person would be comfortable receiving help from them and be willing to offer help back to them, if needed. If so, have them add that person to their “in”circle and celebrate the addition. Then, have them plan to reach out to another new person in their “add-to” circle and repeat the process.

Explain to them that asking for help is a powerful thing to do and that the larger their circle of help is the better individual person, family member, friend, and student they can be. 

Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.

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.