February 26th

Students watched a presentation from our guest speaker from La Caille today. She discussed and demonstrated proper etiquette procedures students would use on dates and when dining out. Students are also taking an optional field trip on April 30th after school to La Caille. Parents are also invited to attend. The dinner is $32.00 per person and must be paid to the office by April 15th. Students will then take their receipt and permission form to class and turn it into the basket by 3:00 p.m. on April 15th to be added to the list and the count. Reservations will be made that day at 3:00 and no additions or subtractions can be made.

February 25th

Students learned about the differences between verbal, non-verbal and written forms of communication. We then focused on non-verbal communication cues that people use to send off messages to others and watched an educational video about nonverbal communication.

February 24th

Students continued with the communication unit. Today, they learned about and compared a hammer to destructive and constructive communication. A class note page was provided to the students to write notes on.

February 23rd

We started on the Communication unit today and started with learning the differences between child like, parent like and adult like communication styles. They also watched three clips from "The Emperor's New Groove" and had to identify the three types of communication.

February 20th

We finished up this unit on Independent Living Skills and stress by doing a round robin of stress reducing activities. The students had to complete at least 2 out of the 4 activities in order to earn the participation points today.

February 19th

Today, students learned about stress reducers. I provided a number of different stress reducers and the class shared ways they prefer to reduce their stress. The class also practiced relaxation techniques during the last few minutes of class using a prerecorded relaxation tape.

February 18th

Students discussed poor ways people use to numb stress and we focused on depression and suicide. The students watched an educational video on the effects of suicide and how people can identify warning signs from friends and family.

February 17th

Students started learning about stress, stressors, and stress reducers today. We shared examples of stressors. They also learned about distress, eustress and stress reducers. They took a questionnaire to rate how much stress they have and we discussed how everyone handles stress differently. We also discussed biofeedback and handed out biodots to use to see how they are reacting to the daily stress they have in their lives.

February 12th

The students had a sub today and had a lesson on Peer pressure. Nothing was due or was assigned today. The read a story called "A Bad Case of the Stripes." They should have discussed why people give in to peer pressure and done a couple of activities related to this. I should be feeling better and back at work tomorrow and we will start where we left off in class yesterday.

February 13th

Students discussed what makes them angry and learned the differences between hot, cold and warm anger and compared these emotions to balloons. They also read the book "When Sophie gets angry" and talked about what they can do to control their anger. There was a paper that went with this, but the students didn't turn this in.

February 11th

We read the book "What are you so grumpy about" and discussed the seven basic emotions. Then we discussed and wrote about how these emotions are portrayed in the books they are reading and the TV and Movies they watch.

February 10th

We first discussed different colors and what the meanings and feelings of different colors are. Students were then given an activity called "Written all over your face" to help them distinguish between emotions and facial expressions. They had the rest of class to work on it and the answers and prizes were given at the end of class for those who had the most correct.

February 9th

Students discussed emotions, feelings and the affects these feelings have on us and others around us. We read "My many colored days" and we also studied how our surroundings, especially the music we listen to, can effect our moods. Students listened to clips from different types of music and had to explain how each made them feel.

February 6th

Students finished discussing personalities by completing another couple of activities, like the Hartman Color Code, a personalized license plate or a photo of a car comparing parts of it to parts of their own personality.

February 5th

Students discussed what different factors have made up or influenced their personality. They were then shown common personality tests people have created. Today, students learned about astrology signs, the Chinese zodiac and A/B type personalities.

February 4th

The students answered a series of questions to rank their values in order of priority from the most important to the least. We also discussed how our values and priorities effect the goals we set and if we will be able to reach those goals or not. We are more likely to achieve goals that we value or that we see as a high priority.

February 3rd

Students started discussing values and focused on the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic values. They had to know and recognize the differences between the two types and they practiced by watching a few movie clips about children and their different types of values.

February 2nd

Today, we finished up learning about self-concept by watching the video "The Great Love Experiment" about a group of friends and their experiment to raise a classmates self-concept.