Home ec class help.?

Question

i will be teaching home ec. to 7th and 8th graders in an urban school. other than food, what do 7th and 8th graders want to learn? i will have 40 min. class daily, boys and girls, small budget, low income area. i can teach: jobs, money, shopping, child care, family issues, really almost any topic. last year was AWFUL! i want to do better this year!

my goals are learning to follow directions written and oral and working

cooperatively.

so, please give me suggestions. i already know what kids hate but i can't figure out what they like.

:)

Answer 1

Lauren has some great ideas.  I would start with food -- and hopefully you have some sort of budget for cooking.  Do lots of hands on stuff, and keep note writing and questions to a minimum.  Get them really interested in doing stuff in class, and then later on they will be more tolerant of more academic things.  Teach them things that are really practical.  Use role play and group work.  Kids like to make posters, so if you were discussing healthy meal planning, they could make posters of something to do with this.  You could spend some time in the first few days brainstorming what they would be interested in learning.  You could make up some sort of interest survey to see if they are interested in money issues or family or if they would rather sew or  whatever.  There are all sorts of possibilities for group work, and any time kids make anything, they will be following written and oral directions so these are great goals to work with in a home ec class.  

I have taught this age group for many years, and the best tips I can give you are to have well established routines.  Keep the kids busy doing things.  Have lots of hands on stuff.  Keep homework to a minimum, as that is just going to cause you problems.  Make posters, have them do group presentations, do lots of projects where they cook or sew or look after a baby doll or such.  I used to teach science to this age group, and we did lots of lab work.  They enjoyed this a lot.  We did lots of field trips out into the school yard to observe nature.  Our home ec classes do lots of simple cooking and sewing.  Kids love them.  However, you must have well established routines, must plan well, because no one has any fun if the class is disruptive and chaotic.  

Answer 2

My sister just took a class like this and they did lots of stuff.  They practiced balancing budgets, writing checks, planning meals and making grocery lists, basic child care, like feeding, burping, and changing diapers. They did this with dolls, just to practice form and stuff.  They also split up into groups and practiced making three meals over three weeks: one week was breakfast, one was lunch, and one was dinner.  They had to plan out a healthy, yummy meal, make out a grocery list, and then make the meal and serve it.  For serving they learned how to set a table and basic manners.  Then they did some sewing, with everyone making a pair of boxer-style shorts.  That would be something that both boys and girls would like.  Before the meal-cooking you could take a week or two to go over the food pyramid, explain basic nutrients and why they are important, like grains, vitamins, minerals, vegetables, fruits, dairy and protein.  You could also talk about having healthy relationships, like with their parents and with boyfriends/girlfriends (not sexual relationships, but like to show signs of an abusive relationship and what to do if they find themselves in a situation like that). Maybe you should go through a day and think about all of the basic things that you do, then see if any of those things could work as topics in your class.  Good luck and I hope that you have a great school year.

Answer 3

have you also thougth about sewing class too? Im not trying to sound mean when i say this, but I know alot of men   to this day (Im 34 now) that cannot sew a botton on something.

I took home mc from 7-12 grade. I loved it, I got straight A's through out them all.

Peoplethougth I took it because it was an easy A, wrong, I took it because I not only had alot of cooks in my family, but I also wanted to now that whenIm on my own, & have a family, I can cook, & sew for them.

My biggest 2 joys I love are cooking, & cross stitching.

I taugth my husband how to sew on a button, because when he was in high school, he had a father that told him hes NOT allowed to take a "girls" class! I thoguth that was a bunch of BS that mad cant even cook for himeself now unless its a tv dinner!

I homeschool my son, BUT I can promise you, my son WILL know how to cook, clean, sew, & do dishes, & wash his own clothes.

Hope I atleast helped some