Melissa Priester is a Family & Consumer Sciences teacher at Grayslake Central High School in Grayslake, Illinois. (You might recognize her from her appearance in our recent “Baby Means” video and webinar about addressing teen interpersonal skills in the classroom.) Normally, Melissa teaches her Family Relations and Parenting classes in person, sending Baby home with her ninth- through twelfth-grade students a few weeks into the semester. Since school started this year, however, Melissa’s classes have been entirely remote – but that isn’t stopping her from giving her students the opportunity to care for Baby in an overnight simulation.
“I’m doing several things differently this year. For instance, all demonstrations and Baby trainings are done over Zoom. The first time students will handle the Baby will be when they pick them up from school,” Melissa told us.