Finding Gratefulness in the Grocery Store

Teacher life gets rough. 

Life gets rough. 

This last week was rough. 

This past week I found myself feeling pretty low about the world around me. Nothing in my immediate life had necessarily gone terribly wrong but I seemed to be super focused on the pain the people around me were having to endure. This seems to be easy to do when you are a teacher and a person with a "talk about it and fix-it now" personality. You see students challenges, co-workers challenges, and random families challenges. You also see your own. The challenges faced by others and myself on top of my daily job had made me physically and emotionally exhausted and by Friday afternoon I am sure you could see that exhaustion all over my face.

Once I got some sleep and was once again able to function properly I ventured to the grocery store, a normal Saturday occurrence for myself and my husband. On the way there we discussed bills, student loans, grad school, jobs, and the future. We complained of our poor choices in college that racked up our student debt and rejoiced about being able to cancel our Direct TV subscription soon. All things that can cause some stress when considered. Then we arrived at the grocery store.

By the way - I love going to the Price Cutter on North Bypass. They have nice things; a nice health foods section, a nice produce section, a great meat counter, and they even carry some Baskin Robbins flavors. 

However, on this day it was almost too much to handle. Not because of the homeless man outside or a mom snapping at her kids, or people who kept blocking the isles. It was because of what I realized about myself and how ungrateful I had been for my own life this week. No, I hadn't been like "oh, my life is terrible" but I had been failing to see how great my life is. Maybe, that trip to the grocery store is exactly what I needed.

We did as we normally do when we have time to go the the grocery store. We filled our cart with produce. I grabbed some snack popcorn and Greek yogurt from the organics/health foods section, we gathered Salmon, Tiliapia, and steaks from the meat counter, and we filled our cart with foods we know we love and some things we just wanted to try. Then, that's when it happened. 

We were towards the end of our shopping and our cart was full. I turned around to see an older couples cart with just the basics some bread, eggs, milk, and they were discussing which Banquet dinners they should get for the week. They were at the end of their shopping too, but their shopping looked a lot less fun than ours. A lot less healthy too. Everything they were getting could fit in the top basket of their cart and most if not all of it required no stove top cooking.

Finally, we got in line only for me to realize that the lady in front of us only had enough items that she was literally carrying them and they were not likely last minute ingredients she had forgotten for a pie or something. They were things she needed. Then I turned around and saw that the man behind us had only milk and bread in his cart. If someone would have talked to me at this point I probably would have not heard them I was so in shock at my realization. All the people around us, while surviving, were struggling. They weren't buying the cigarettes, beer, or lotto tickets that are often looked down upon, they were just buying what they needed to make it through the weekend or the following week. We on the other hand had an abundance.

This was a level of gratefulness that I had not recently considered. While we have bills and our own struggles we have it so good. Our faith, families, and hard-work have blessed us and for that I should be more thankful.

This Fall Give Thanks.

Psalms 107:1

Is Technology Changing Education?

OF COURSE IT IS! 

Of course technology is changing education. If I were to ask my 4th grade teacher in 1996 if the mid 80's (likely donated) Macintosh that we were allowed to play educational games on when we finished our work early was changing education, what would she have said? YES! That answer remains the same but now has so much more depth. 

In that 4th grade classroom we were rarely using the computer but when we were, we were learning how to manipulate a keyboard, save progress to a 5.25 inch floppy drive, while playing educational games to pass our time while our classmates finished up book work or tests. 

I was recently reading an Ed Tech article and it became very apparent how much education has and will continue to change with the incorporation of technology. 

Ed Tech Article - Check out the article here. 

The article discusses the following items: 

Virtual Reality (VR)  Learning - 

From the cheaper and more simple things like Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR to the more expensive Virtual Reality systems such as HTC's Vive these virtural reality systems can give students a virtual, yet real feeling look at jobs, locations, experiences, that students have not been able to experience or imagine before. How cool would it be for a student to be able to virtually escape to Egypt and walk around a Virtual pyramid while discussing that exact object in World History? 

*I recently had the chance to try out the HTC Vive and it is unimaginable how real it is. I was able to explore landscapes, draw 3'd objects and see them from all sides (how cool would that be for creating and then being able to print to a 3d printer?), as well as fight off zombies (I actually had to stop during this one because it was too real and was making me sick.)  

3D Printing

3D Printing has been making waves in education in current years. With the incorporation of makerspaces to urge students to attempt to be engineers, students along with teachers have started to dream, think, and create all kinds of objects. Some objects for fun and some to be functional to solve a problem or fix a broken piece. 

IoT (Internet of Things)

IoT or Internet of Things was a new term for me but not a new idea. IoT is referring to how devices feed information and data into the Internet to make everything work or sync together. It is how we want all of our devices to share information so all of our information is at our fingertips at anytime! I know how true this is just when I think of how I like to be able to read an email and check Google Classroom while checking in on my amount of steps taken per day. I like to be able to find this information from my phone, desktop, laptop, chromebook, and possibly even my smartwatch, if I want. We like all of our data to mesh together in a way that works. 

Wearables

Wearables in the article were referred to the current star of the Internet of Things concept. Wearable items that can count your steps, track your heart rate, send you calendar reminders, collect your text messages, and alert you of events all from your wrist are the big IoT trend. Sometimes I think of these items as something more for adults, but not really. I see kids younger and younger showing interest or having their own wearable devices that show that they like to linked into this trend just as much as the next person. 

Interactive Technology

The last item in the article discussed interactive technology in the way of things like robotics. The main thing that interested me on this subject was the rise in robotic toys that are used with special education students. It discussed robotic toys that served as counselors and playmates to children with various disorders or disabilities. How crazy is it to think a child could be paired with technology to help them feel as if they have a friend or someone to talk to when they may be struggling in ways that makes it difficult for them to make friends. Obviously, this route may seem a little concerning but it is also a very interesting way to think about solving such a problem. 

Feel free to take a look at the article. Above are just some of my thoughts as well as sort of a summary of the 5 Tech Trends that are thought to possibly change or reinvent education in 2016. 

As educators, I do feel that we do need to be aware of these changes and be thinking about how we can use them to keep our students engaged and learning as times change. Technology is not a fad, technology is here to stay. However, the types of technology are only going to continue to grow and change. With so many options we might as well jump on board the technology train and find out what works for us and our students! 

What technology trends are you most excited about? 

Google Forms - Oh How Glorious It Is!

Does your school use Google Apps for Education but you have yet to use Google Forms? If so, what are you waiting for? 

Google forms never seems to fail to amaze me. For something so easy and quick to prepare its uses are abundant.

To check Google Forms out just go to forms.google.com which redirects you to what I feel is harder to remember: https://docs.google.com/forms

The homepage looks something like this:

From the homepage you can start from scratch with a blank form or you can start with a pre-made template that is based on what you are wanting to do. Are you wanting to send an invite, gather data, give a test or quiz, or are you just wanting to gather a list of names of individuals interested in your classes. For any of these tasks Google Forms would be an simple choice. 

When I first started using forms I used them to gather information from groups about about their project questions and needs. Groups were able to access the link of the form through email or Google Classroom and then send their information straight to a spreadsheet that I could easily read. However, just in the last year Google Forms has made some updates and as recent as today I created a test that had previously been handwritten and turned it into an online Google Forms test. With the new quiz option this was just as simple as any other online test option. 

Google Forms are great due to their vast amount of options that you can use to create forms that meet your needs. Some options are in how people can respond, they look like; 

Google Forms also includes options for what you would like to include with your questions. 

Options are things like "Add Question," "Add Title and Description," "Add Image," "Add Video," or "Add Section." Add Section allows users to split forms into separate parts to keep people from seeing all parts of a questionnaire at once. This also allows for completion in sections so that a person does not have to complete everything at once or if there are technical difficulties they may not loose all their progress. On most screens these options can be found to the left of the Google Forms Page. 

Recently, Google Forms have added the option to be able to create quizzes where a person can allot point values to individual questions. If all questions are multiple choice or have definite answers Google Forms will also grade for you! All forms come back to you in a way that you can see them by each individual, a summary page of how everyone answered compared to each other, or all together on a Google Sheet. 

Google Sheet Example

Google Summary Page Example

Individual Results Example

Overall, I was pleased with my first try using Google Forms to give a test. The results came back in an easy to read manner that was quick and painless to be able to grade. I was also able to see very clearly what questions students struggled with and what questions they really knew. I feel that Google Forms would serve as a great option for quick formative assessment in any environment. This is especially true if you are wanting to save data to be able to review or compare at a later time. 

I found after grading using the spread sheet that you can actually adjust scores for written questions and leave feedback straight from the Individual Results page! This is incredible for grading!

Please share some of the ways you have used Google Forms to make your life easier! 

Venturing Into the World of Digital Portfolios

Portfolios are not a new innovative idea, portfolios have been around for a while and have been used at all levels of education. However, assigning a DIGITAL portfolio to students can seem like a really cool idea!

https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/classuse.html  

Check out the link above for example. The link will take you to an archived article from the United States Department of Education. The article discusses what portfolios are, how and why they are used, and what some of the problems with portfolios might be. Now, this article is from November 1993. Yes, that's right 1993, well before our current high school students were even born. While the article is nearly 23 years old the idea of how and why to use portfolios has not changed. However, the way in which we have students complete portfolios is completely different.

This year I have been playing with the idea of having students complete a digital portfolio of their class project that is incorporated throughout the semester. 
This idea has come from trying to keep up with multiple classes, groups, people for the last 2 years. I knew one of the downfalls of the project was making sure every individual was getting something accomplished as well as their group being knowledgeable about what each member was doing. This is especially true when the work days start to be spread out and classmates might be absent. I thought that a visible portfolio might be a way to keep groups as well as individuals moving forward and on task with what needs to be accomplished each week.

Here are a few questions I asked myself & wish I would have asked myself before jumping into the digital portfolio world.

1. What are the abilities of my students? How tech savvy are they?
2. How do I want to be able to view the portfolios? Do I want just myself and my class viewing them or do I want them open to the world?
3. Do I want to be able to view/edit posts before they go live?
4. Do I want the group to share a blog or do I want each individual student to have one?
5. How many options do I want students to have? Keep it simple or give them lots of room to play with settings to make it their own?
6. How often do I want students to post?
7. What should student posts look like? How long should their posts be? Should they include pictures and videos?

The one thing I was really concerned with was making the portfolio as EASY as possible. The class I am trying this with first is mostly Freshmen. They are fairly new to using technology other than their phones. Within the 2 classes, 2 students said that they had some sort of blog of their own. So my focus this year was finding something simple to try out this portfolio idea. The main options I was looking into were blogger.com, edublogs.org, and web.seesaw.me. While these are the three options I looked into the most there are many other options to consider such as Weebly, Wix, Wordpress, Google Sites, Wikispaces, etc... depending on what route you want to try from simple to complex, from classroom blogs to entire personal websites.

Blogger 
Obviously, I like blogger. However, I felt that for younger teens it may seem like a bit much to set up. It has a ton of options and would allow for everything I could possibly need but I did not know if I was ready to take on teaching how to use Blogger in the midst of a project that already has 1.2 million questions. Also, I would have to have a Padlet page, web page, blog, something to put the links to each group or students blog. It would also be somewhat difficult for me to keep up with in the way of making sure students were only posting things that they should.

Edublogs
Honestly, Edublogs is the route I wanted to take. It has options to stay local or open to the world. I can view/edit before sending student posts live. Students could have group or individual access. Edublogs looks like a real blog and has plenty of options. However, Edublogs cost money. Since I was not sure how this was going to go I really did not want to invest my own money into a system until I had a better idea of how I wanted the portfolios to look.  For student and class management it costs $39.95 per year. It has a free option but is limited while not including the management features. I may jump in and try it or Blogger next year.

Seesaw
The one I chose to try this time around was Seesaw. I saw several people this past summer present on its ease of use and how they had used this site for various portfolio concepts. The website presents itself as being elementary friendly. Along with appearing to be child friendly and the multiple people I had talked to that praised its ease I decided to go this route. It has been okay, and has fairly served its purpose but I do think I could have used something a bit more technical. Seesaw is easy to set up and students can make their account and join their class in about 5-10 minutes. Seesaw post to the individual students page and to a classroom stream. You can make Seesaw visible to everyone or just the people in the class. As a teacher you can let students post freely or you can review their posts before they go live.

A part of me wishes my students had more creative control when using Seesaw but really for posting thoughts, activities, pictures, videos, documents, etc... it really does work pretty simply. I found that it wants you to make Google Docs into pdf. files but that is the main downfall I have ran into so far. I feel that for younger grades, including my freshman or anyone who is just getting introduced to the idea of a blog in a safe place Seesaw is a good place to start.

Below is an example of what the class feed can look like. I have also had students upload documents, pictures, and videos to share what they have done or what they need to do on their next work day.

Class Feed Example

In the end, I am glad I am trying out digital portfolios. Just since starting with the first class trial I have more ideas for others. I am sure to change things the next time around as this was definitely a trial run. I am happy with the way the use of the digital portfolio has worked for some groups who have taken initiative to post thoughtful in depth responses to keep themselves on task and moving forward throughout their project. I would suggest looking into a couple options to see which meets your needs and then giving it a try. You can always scratch it and go another route!

Quizizz vs. Kahoot

During the last few years the use of technology in classrooms has blown up! Even schools that are not 1:1 do have laptop carts or classroom iPads to give teachers and students options. One thing teachers are always requesting and administrators are always wanting to see are different ways to assess student knowledge. Just a few short years ago teachers were assessing student knowledge with exit tickets on paper written with pencil, or if they were creative they might be answering with whiteboards and dry erase markers. Now, teachers and students have more options with the incorporation of technology.

Beyond a classroom's daily use of a LMS or Learning Management System such as Google Classroom, Canvas, My Big Campus, or Blackboard there are tons of websites and apps to use to help assess student learning. The one that I am going to focus on today is Quizizz.

If you have been using Kahoot and enjoy it then Quizizz might just be your new best friend.

First, lets talk Kahoot basics, if you are not already familiar. If you are just go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. Kahoot is a easy to set up, easy to use assessment tool that for the last few years teachers and students have really enjoyed using. Even the least "techy" teachers have jumped aboard. Kahoot is helpful and easy but it does have some downfalls. The downfalls for me were that you always had to complete it as an entire class. Sometimes I really would like students to be able to play on their own when they are finished with an assignment. The questions and answers do not show up on the student devices only the projected screen and sometimes it proved tricky to get students to click what they actually meant to click, then causing frustration and less than perfect feedback. However, kids were exited. It is great for review. It is easy and quick to set up and it doesn't limit me on how many questions I can put on a quiz. To try it out, if you have not, you should! Go to https://getkahoot.com to sign up for a free account. There is a whole library of free options to see what it can look like for you.

Quizizz is another option for assessment. It is also easy and quick to set up and gives you plenty of options. The benefits of Quizizz over Kahoot fall in the options. With Quizizz you can schedule quizzes, you can assign them as homework for individual students to complete or you can let the whole class take it together. Like Kahoot students can race each other and get more points based on how fast they answer. As a teacher you can project the quiz and move through the questions together or you can request students to complete it on their own. For students, they can actually read the questions and possible answers on their device without having to look back and fourth with the confusion that Kahoot sometimes can cause. 

The feedback on Quizizz is also nice. It is very colorful and easy to see what questions student's know or are possibly struggling with. As a teacher you can also access student reports later on, so you do not have to worry about logging out and losing information. 

To try using Quizizz for yourself you can visit http://quizizz.com/ to set up your free account. Quizizz also has a library of pre-made quizzes to try. In my experience so far my students did say that they prefer Quizizz over not only Kahoot but also Quizlet Live. They said they like the format and being able to see the questions and possible answers on their individual device was really something that won them over. They also shared they they felt it was equally competitive so it kept them involved and trying. Another winning component of Quizizz for the students were the correct/incorrect memes that were shown in a humorous way between questions on their individual screen. The memes seemed to keep the learning fun and interesting as students moved through questions, the memes were like pleasant, funny surprises. 

If you have a specific question or thought please share in the comments!

How do you give your class a voice? Digital ways to give each student a vote.

Can we all agree students put forth more effort when they get to feel like they in some way have chosen their assignment? 

One day I can walk into class and everyone wants to share what they think, other days are pure silence. Of course this often depends on the class as well as who is in attendance but we have all have had those days on both ends of the spectrum. Can hear crickets versus total uproar. 

*Sometimes just giving a class a way to share their voice in a positive manner is not a bad idea.

While we know we can not necessarily just let our students make up their own assignments we also know that giving them some basic guidelines and letting them go sometimes can have the best results.

Today, I was working on coming up with a way for my Child Development 2 students to learn not just about Multiple Intelligences but what they actually mean AND what it means for a teacher to plan for a lesson where they know they have different types of learners in the classroom. 

What I came up with was a lesson where students work in groups to create a lesson to teach a child with a specific (assigned) type of intelligence. Now where do I give the students their choice in this? They could choose their group members, they could choose the type of intelligence, or they could choose what lesson they would teach using the type of intelligence. There are pretty obvious negatives as well as positive to each choice. What  I plan to do is let them choose their group. I will assign each group a type of intelligence to research and then to plan for. Then I will allow the class to vote on what they want to focus on teaching. In this way each group will plan for a different intelligence but will be teaching the same basic information. 

Now, how do I get the majority to vote? Not only vote, but vote with what they are actually interested in and not just what their friend is voting for? 

For me, I chose polleverywhere.com. Its easy, free and gives some options. It looks a lot like the picture below when given to students. They can answer from text or on the web link from their computer. 

Before feedback - This is what I show on my smartboard. 

After having used this several times in several different classes I do feel that polleverywhere.com is a good choice to take a poll but there are tons of other choices.

What the poll looks like with responses. The class loves to watch for results! 

As you can see this class voted to teach about the seasons. (The other class chose Animals, but then narrowed that down to Farm Animals - if you were wondering.)

It seems like such a small thing to give a class a choice about, but something about them having some say about their assignment made the overall feel of the classroom burst with excitement. Excitement from high schoolers is something amazing considering it only took about 3 minutes of class time to make the majority of the class feel like they suddenly had some kind of control over what they wanted to do with their assignment. 

If you have not used any type of polling technology to get feedback from students I strongly encourage you to find some websites you like to use and that you feel meet your needs. If you have any questions or would like to discuss some ideas please let me know! 

Other Options? 

Below are 2 links that will tell you about various other types of poll/survey type websites. They are from a blog called Educatorstechnology which has a ton of great resources for any teacher. 

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/05/15-great-free-and-easy-survey-polls.html

13 Free and Easy Survey Tools

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/great-polling-tools-for-teachers-no.html

Great Tools for Teachers

Also, if you are wanting to ask more than one question you may want to do something more like survey monkey or google forms. These are great for more quiz like questions or just when you have more than one or 2 basic questions to ask. 

Wanting to be a "Homemaker" is Not Mandatory. 10 Reasons Why FCCLA and FACS are for Anyone!

Do you know what FCCLA is all about? As a Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher and FCCLA Adviser I do - but I often find my students and their parents are not quite sure.

A common misconception is that FCCLA and/or Family and Consumer Sciences are interchangeable terms with Home Economics. This is far from true about today's FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America) and FACS (Family and Consumer Sciences). When people say "Home Economics" it does not make me angry or irritated (it does make some FACS teachers irritated, so tread lightly) it usually just causes me to smile and nod because most people generally relate Home Economics to a fun part of their life where they probably learned a lot. The downside is often times if asked to describe Home Economics people would describe something that looks much like the picture below.

The problem with this idea about FACS is that most people also relate Home Economics to something that is ideally strictly for women that want to be "homemakers" and for FACS and FCCLA that is simply just not the case.

I hope this blog can help you understand what FCCLA and FACS have to offer to students (Male and Female), families, communities,  future employers, etc...For myself, I hope this blog can clear up some questions for current and future students and their parents!

Here are 10 reasons why FCCLA and FACS are for ANYONE.

1. FACS is not just cooking and sewing. Sure many of us cook and sometimes we might sew but we do so much more! Classes often offered within FACS Departments could be any of the following; Child Development, World Foods, Culinary Arts, Hospitality and Restaurant Management, Housing and Interior Design, Intro To Teaching, Human Development, Parenting, Relationships, Resource Management, Personal Finance, Health, Career Exploration, Career and Family Leadership, Leadership, Nutrition and Wellness.

All FACS classes are designed in a way to hopefully help students put their knowledge from their core subjects into real life situations. FACS classes should promote students thought about the future, their goals, abilities, dreams, wishes, etc... I believe FACS classes are great to help students realize their potential, set goals for their future, and get training or experience in fields that they may want to pursue as a career one day.

2. FCCLA is a organization with lots of opportunities. Want something interesting to write on that on a college application? Being an active member of FCCLA and you can do just that! FCCLA offers chances to travel across the United States and even possibly to Japan through the Japanese Exchange National Program. You can be a leader with a Chapter, State, or National Officer position or you can be a Competitor in STAR Events. Through participation in community service and other state programs students also have many chances to work along side community, state, and national leaders to make changes and express their views.

Carissa with Representative Entlicher at FCCLA Legislative Shadowing Project. Feb 2016

3. FCCLA and FACS can be competitive. Who doesn't like a little competition? Through Skill Demonstration Events offered at the National Cluster Meeting each year and STAR Events (Students Taking Action with Recognition) students have various chances to get active on a competitive level. Students get to take their school projects, community service activities, or sometimes their career skills and compete with other students from across their state and country! Some FACS Departments are even lucky enough to have culinary classes and ProStart to even further jump start students career learning.

Chapter Service Project Display Jr. Category - Gold 2016 Regional Competition

Betty Glasgow's - 3rd Place Prostart Restaurant Management Team - 2016

4. FACS lets you express yourself. Many FACS classes are about YOU! They are about making yourself a better YOU! Who can honestly say that they could not improve something about themselves? Not me! I KNOW that I am a daily work in progress. I love seeing my students work on their abilities, attitudes, dreams, and goals to better themselves so that someday they can become that better business owner, employee, or parent someone would value and be proud to know.

Community Service Project - Rare Breed Springfield MO Fall 2015

ProStart Teams at Competition - 2016

5. FCCLA Students Travel. I have yet to meet a student that HATES traveling. In the 3 short years that I have been teaching I have traveled with students to various places across the state of Missouri and the rest of the US. It is not so much just the traveling that is amazing it is how much students grow through these trips. The planning, fundraising, and collaboration that leads up to these travels are always a lesson for themselves. Lessons often for me, but for the students too. It take responsibility, planning, and willingness to work together to pull off these trips especially when multiple people and organizations are often are involved. Through trips both near and far I see students learn so much about themselves and who they wish to become. Students always come back from trips more confident and hopeful for their future.

Promoting FCCLA at our Nations Capitol - July 2015

FACS Students and FCCLA Members visit the White House while in Washingtion DC for NOYS Safe Driving Summit - October 2015

6. FACS Classes and FCCLA Members usually end up feeling like family. We sit together, eat together, discuss life together, travel together, WE DO A LOT TOGETHER! Most FACS classes and FCCLA chapters generally end up feeling like family. They are who you are close to. They know you. They know your struggles and they even know when we need to send out a search party to find you and lead you back to the bus at Silver Dollar City because your phone is dead and you can NOT find your way around.

Region 10 Meeting - Silver Dollar City - Branson MO Fall 2015

National Cluster Meeting - Dallas TX - November 2015

7. FCCLA Competitive Events are called STAR Events. STAR stands for Students Taking Action with Recognition. STAR Events are a way that students can get recognition for their hard work and actions that they take during the year to make a change in their self, family, school, or community. STAR Events are awesome because there are tons of choices. With just about anything that you believe to be important in life, you can focus in on the change you would like to see, set goals, and find a way to make it happen. After success or even failures students can create presentations to compete in STAR Events to share what they did and learned. Some students choose to complete STAR Events after school especially if their schedule does not allow for a FACS Class at some point but other students are able to start and carry out STAR Event projects in class. In this way students are taking control of their learning and learning by doing!

A complete list of STAR Events, descriptions, and rubrics can be found at FCCLA STAR Events.

National Leadership Conference and National STAR Event Competitors - San Antonio - July 2014

8. FCCLA and FACS can and does involve a bit of everyone. FCCLA and FACS are inclusive in the way that anyone from Middle School through High School can be involved if their school has the program available. The program FACS and the organization FCCLA are easy for anyone to find their place if they have interest in bettering themselves, their families, their school, or even their community. Students can find something they are interested in as long as they are willing put forth work to make it worthwhile. 

9. FACS Teaches Life-skills. From everything from being able to plan and prepare healthy meals to being able to communicate more clearly in difficult situations at work and home - FACS helps students work on those skills. I personally cringe every time I see the post being shared about the things people wish they would have learned in High School. Something like: 

Why does this make me cringe? FACS can and does teach all of these. I would actually teach even more of them if at my school I needed to teach personal finance (but in my district this is taught by the business teachers). When people like and share this all I can think is "How in the world did all these people make it out of school without taking any CTE (Career Technical Education) Classes??" because nearly all of them touch on these subjects in some way!

10. FCCLA Members and FACS Students make great leaders! Through tons of project based learning and presentations of subjects that interest the students because they usually can directly relate the projects to their life, FACS students become great leaders. Not just great leaders but great thinkers, great people. FCCLA Members tend to be compassionate, loyal, loving, and willing to step out of their comfort zone to help people around them. I for one am proud to be a past FACS Student and FCCLA Member and a Current FACS Teacher and FCCLA Adviser!

Bolivar and Logan Rogersville FCCLA Students discussing the importance of FACS and FCCLA with past FACS teacher and current Missouri Representative Vicky Hartzler while in Washington D.C. 

Please share if you too are proud to have FACS and/or FCCLA be a part of your life!

*Written by Ashley DeVore, FACS Teacher & FCCLA Adviser at Bolivar High School in Bolivar Missouri.  B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences Education from Missouri State University.