Week 1: Fall Semester 2017

Well, here it goes. I'm a future junior high/ high school science teacher working towards my masters with a licensure. In class, we always learn about all these important "education topics and buzzwords". Reflection is mega important in the learning process. We've learned it time and time again. So we talk about how we want our students to reflect. I suppose it's only fair to do the same for my own learning.

I'm going to start with my instructional techniques class, even though it wasn't my first class of the week. It sort of ties in to the reason why I decided to write this blog. We started class with an inquiry based question. The basic outline can be found here:

http://www.pimaregionalsupport.org/Resources/Documents/Theory_Cube.p

We had a cube in front of us, and had to observe the cube. All sides were visible except one. We tried to find patterns in order to predict what was on the side of the cube that we couldn't see. We have a small class of only 5 students, so we broke up into two groups. Each group made a prediction of what may be on the other side. We wrote our predictions on the board and explained why we chose what we chose.

Instead of just telling us what was on the other side of the cube, Dr. Makkii let us continue to think about it. By doing so, she generated interest in this cube. By beginning class this way, she allowed us to see what we can do with our students in the classroom. This is what we continued to discuss on both Tuesday and Thursday of this week. It really is important to get students interested in learning. Instead of just giving them the answer, we should make them find it.

So you may wonder, why teach science in the first place? Well for me, it's easy. I LOVE science. I love learning new facts, experimenting, and even just observing phenomena. But when the answer relates to my students, it isn't so cut and dry. Students should learn science for economic productivity, career prep, to help make personal decisions, to help make social decisions, and also for personal fulfillment.

Now that we've figured out why we should teach science, it's important to look at how students learn. We used the book: How Students Learn created by the National Research Council, in order to look at this topic further. Side note: this is an AWESOME source and is free to download by clicking on the link.

There were three main concepts that were discussed about the learning process. First, we need to engage prior understandings. We need to see what type of preconceived notions that students have regarding the topic we are teaching and address those in order to move forward with the learning process. Second, it is important to keep in mind that both factual knowledge and conceptual frameworks are important for understanding. Making sure to tie the two together is essential in the classroom. Lastly, we need students to self-monitor their learning. They need to be aware of how they best learn and also whether or not they are understanding material. Students should be engaged in their own learning process.

There are four different types of learning. There is learner based learning (which keeps in mind what the students think and know), knowledge based learning (which focuses on the material itself), assessment based learning (which looks at visible learning), and community based learning (which discusses the importance of a positive classroom culture that promotes discussion).

We can compare learning to chess. We can watch someone play chess and learn quite a bit about it. If someone explains why they are making the moves that they are making, we can learn even more. By practicing, we become even better. When we practice with an expert nearby to help explain our mistakes, we can become a really fantastic chess player.

Seriously, READ THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE A FUTURE EDUCATOR! There are sections for younger grades as well as the different subjects for the older grades.

I'm in two other education classes. The first was cancelled for the week, but the second class seems like it will be pretty helpful. We had a pretty short introduction, starting with the syllabus and getting to know our peers. My prof for this class has lots of different experience, so I'll be curious to see what she can add to my classroom knowledge.

I'm also in a few more science focused classes..

I'm trying to stop thinking of organic chemistry as a horrible class I NEED for my major. I really do think it will be a good refresher and I will also gain quite a bit of knowledge. I'm realizing that I actually do remember quite a bit and that my prof is fantastic when it comes to explaining what we need to know. Thank goodness.

Reviewing what I've learned for the week. Protons=positive, neutrons= neutral, electrons=negative. Protons and neutrons are massive while electrons are non-massive in an electron cloud. The atomic mass =A which is = #p+#n. Confused yet? If you have no chemistry knowledge you probably are. Basically, atoms are made up of three different types of structures, protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and neutrons hang out together and the electrons float around them.

Structures want to be balanced, and this is why chemical reactions take place. Elements like to be noble so they gain and lose electrons. If you're looking at a periodic table, the noble electrons are on the far right.

So why study organic chemistry? Well polymers are made of monomers, which the main element is Carbon!! AKA carbon is super important to our world. Silicon is similar to carbon.

Crap... we're writing chemical formulas? IT'S BEEN 6 YEARS SINCE CHEMISTRY!!!

That was my immediate thought. After about a two minute panic in my head, I realized I could do this and honestly had to do this.

So lets look at a website to hopefully help. http://users.stlcc.edu/gkrishnan/periodictable.html

Electron configuration. Not hard. There are different shells in each electron. It starts with 1s, which can hold 2 electrons. 2s can hold 2 electrons, 2p can hold 6 electrons... so on so forth. Kind of memorization, kind of past knowledge.
Here is radium.. element 88. This is a good example of how to complete an electron configuration for an element with a lot of (88) electrons.
1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 4p6 5s2 4d10 5p6 6s2 4f14 5d10 6p6 7s2

Okay. So now we're looking at bonds. There are 2 types, covalent and ionic. Ionic occur when metals and non-metals transfer electrons. Covalent occur when two non-metals share electrons. There are two types of covalent bonds: polar (not even sharing) and non-polar (even sharing).

There are 7 diatomic molecules and they are all non-polar, meaning they equally share electrons. I Bring Clay For Our New Home aka I, Br, Cl, F, O, N, H are the diatomic molecules.

Anion=negative charge, Cation=positive charge.

H2O2 is the molecular formula
HO is empirical
H-O-H-O is the structural formula.

So is it weird I find Lewis structures fun? Probably. Basically Lewis structures show us how elements connect together to form molecules.

Welp, there is my chemistry for the week. Overwhelming? Yes. Doable? Absolutely.

Environmental geology really focused on hurricanes this week. We learned that hurricanes get their power from warm oceans. Cumulonimbus clouds are made by rings formed from the warm water. If you see lightning or hear thunder, you know you are under a cumulonimbus cloud.

So why are hurricanes particularly dangerous? Storm surges can be up to 20 feet and can move far inland. In the case of Katrina, these went inland 1/2 mile! Projectiles can be dangerous as well. Sewer water leads to disease and poison water snakes tend to find people because they want warmth.. Yuck.

Houston really wasn't ready for a hurricane like Harvey. It's already sinking into a sand/clay base which water sits on top of clay. There is an over-pumping of water, oil, and gas. The average elevation is only 6 feet above seawater.

My professor seems to think New York would be devastated as well if they were hit with a hurricane. Something to keep in mind.

We also discussed the pressure system involving hurricanes. Low pressure in the center of the hurricane leads to a dome of water forming. The direction the wind is moving and hitting the land is the most deadly. This side has the storms, the high winds, and the highest surge. Yikes! Mother nature can be nasty, unfortunately. Sending thoughts the way of the victims in Houston during this tragedy right now! They could be seeing negative effects from this for years.

Lastly, I had Earth's Atmosphere and Weather. This was a super short class (50 minutes feels short).
We learned about climate vs. weather (climate is long-term, weather is short-term), talked about the atmosphere, and reviewed the syllabus. We also talked about hurricanes for a while, mostly because of what's going on in Texas right now.

Phew! Lots going on last week. I've got to remember to order my books and to get all of my homework done for next week. Thank goodness for a 4 day weekend!

-K

Instructional Technology Infographic: Summary of Learning

I chose to use Piktochart as my instructional technology cool tool for my final summary. I chose this because it was one of the cool tools that I really liked. It's a great tool for presenting information in a way that is different than your typical powerpoint. It is also something I will have my students use in class, because it can be used for real world presentations.

I am coming out of instructional technology with a whole new view on technology. My room set-up will be different, because of this class. I will use technology often in my class, because it can help keep students interested and focused. I also hope to have one-to-one computers for my students so that I am able to have a blended classroom. I have learned about multiple tools to use in the classroom, such as those that can be used for formative assessment.

I will use formative assessment tools in my class to gauge learning during the learning process. I will also have students create infographics, and use many other tools. I will likely let them choose between a couple tools in order to allow them freedom of choice, but also still have a project based off of a topic. They will do this using tools like ebooks or comic strips. I also want students to blog about class (what they're learning and how they feel about the class) so that I can find any issues and correct them.

Technology really is the wave of the future and can be used to help increase students' interests and achievements in the classroom. I hope to make learning fun and interesting for my students, instead of the typical lecture classroom. Thanks to Dr. Savery for a great semester and thanks to my classmates for working with me during the learning process!

Final thoughts/ Reflections

     I'm not going to say that I'm now an expert chef. I still have a lot of practicing to do before I would even say I can cook well. But at least I can now respond to the question, "Can you cook?", with an answer like "sort of" or "a little". Before, I would have laughed and responded with "not at all". I've learned a lot of the basics of cooking, as well as having the ability to go to the grocery store and not be completely clueless. I feel comfortable in reading a recipe and putting together a meal. I realize that everything I make isn't going to be perfect and that it takes time and practice to become better. I plan on continuing to learn more recipes and advancing the items I make to the next level. I'd like to create a recipe book and find cost-friendly, healthy recipes. Cooking is time-consuming and expensive though, which can make it hard to fit into a busy schedule. I hope to find ways to add it into my day, whether it be by meal planning ahead of time or by finding fast recipes.

     I've realized the importance of having people to help when testing out a new skill. My major sources turned out to be my mom, my sister, and my friend Sydney. I used my brothers a lot as taste testers for my food. I had a lot of good reviews on what I cooked, but I also had some bad reviews. My brothers are more picky, so things like cooked carrots and broccoli didn't go over well with them. 

     Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I would recommend to anyone learning basic cooking skills. My major problem I had with this project was remembering to document everything and post it to my blog. I immediately wrote things down in my notebook, because I'm more of a pencil/ paper type of person. I'm working on getting better at sharing my material online. My goal is to continue cooking and continue blogging. I want to have my students blog, so I want to continue to use technology to reflect in order to show them the importance of doing so.
     I've yet to get a group together to actually cook a 4-course dinner for, but am hoping to do so at some point soon. When I do get the chance to put together a dinner, I will make guacamole and corn salsa, a regular salad, shrimp tacos (probably chicken too, for those who don't like seafood), and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert. 

Desserts

Now onto the fun things to make! I love desserts, and cooking them was an enjoyable (although time consuming) process.  

Apple Crisp 4/5

I found my recipe for this on a website called Allrecipes. Click here to get the recipe that I followed. The biggest pain about this was peeling and cutting all of the apples. It doesn't look all that great, but it tasted delicious. You definitely have to add vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce to this dessert to finish it off. 

                               BEFORE COOKING                                 FINAL PRODUCT

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

I feel like homemade chocolate chip cookies are a staple to any bakers list of recipes. I wasn't a huge fan of how the cookies turned out, but it could have been because of my oven or because of my baking times. I like the website AllRecipes, and used it again. Click here to find the recipe I used and how to prepare the cookies.

Chocolate Fudge 4.5/5

Allrecipes proved to be an awesome source. You can search anything you want to make and it typically comes up with a recipe. For my fudge, you can click here to find the recipe. I didn't realize how simple fudge is to make! It was probably one of the easiest desserts that I've done.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries 5/5

All I did for these was melt chocolate and dip strawberries in it. I melted the chocolate at one minute intervals, for 4 minutes total. The major problem I came across was that I got water in the chocolate, which caused it to get lumpy. Be careful not to get any water in your melted chocolate and make sure the strawberries are completely dry before dipping them.

Soups/ Salads

Soups and salads aren't something that I make often. I feel like I should incorporate salads more often in order to get my recommended vegetable intake for the day. I chose two salads, a regular garden salad and a strawberry salad. I also picked one soup to make, which is a copycat recipe of Panera's broccoli cheddar soup. Soups are something I want to work on more in the future, because they are easy to throw together and can be cooked during the day in a crock pot.

Strawberry Almond Salad 5/5

For my first salad, I decided to do a strawberry salad. I used spinach, almonds, raspberry vinaigrette, and fresh strawberries. This turned out pretty well. I liked the mixture of the fruity taste with the salad.

Garden Salad 4/5

For my second salad, I chose a regular garden salad. I used iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese, boiled eggs, Italian dressing, and carrots. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of this, but it was a pretty easy recipe. The only major thing I had to do was boil the eggs ahead of time. I feel like it's hard to go wrong with a basic salad, so this seemed to go over well with my family. Next time though, I will leave the toppings off of the salad, for people who don't like eggs or carrots on their salad.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup 3/5

For my broccoli soup, I followed a recipe on allrecipes. Click here to get the recipe. This soup wasn't a big hit. I'm not sure where I went wrong when making it, but it didn't seem to be a crowd favorite.

Entrees

I now see why people don't cook... Not only is cooking expensive, it is also time consuming! I'm learning to appreciate good food more though, as I'm cooking it. Besides the hefty price tag (the more ingredients you use, the more expensive it becomes), I actually enjoy cooking. You know exactly what's in your food, and you can adjust the taste of the food to your liking. 

I laugh now looking at my mom's struggle cooking for 5 kids with 5 completely different tastes. I hate green beans, Derek (my oldest brother) hates eggs, Kerrie doesn't like chocolate anything, AJ basically only eats PBJ, pop tarts, and chicken nuggets (keep in mind he's almost 20 years old), and Ryan won't eat anything that AJ won't eat. Yikes! How she ever made dinner that we all ate blows my mind. 

ANYWAYS...

I cooked different entrees and sides for this part of my project. I tried to use multiple different types of meats, but realized that I had no idea what to buy in the grocery store. I used this website for helping picking the best cuts. Before this project, I literally only had cooked chicken and eggs. Now, I can say I've cooked with shrimp, pork, and multiple different types of beef (steaks, roast, ground beef). I've made pizzas, homemade mashed potatoes, used a slow cooker, and have cut up my own veggies. 

Shrimp Tacos 5/5

This was another project done at my friend Sydney's house. She was definitely a big help in this project. She walked me through a lot of the cutting that we did. 

Ingredients

-1 pound bag of shrimp, peeled and no tail

-Soft shell tortillas

-Hot sauce (whatever kind you like)

-Corn and Black bean salsa (recipe can be found on my appetizers page)

-4-cheese blend

-Lettuce

We thawed the shrimp the night before we cooked it. If you don't thaw it ahead of time, you can rinse the shrimp under cold water to thaw it. We cooked the shrimp on the stove, making sure the shrimp were fully cooked. We then heated the tortillas in the microwave for about 20 seconds per tortilla. Add in whatever ingredients you like and you have a delicious shrimp taco!

Pot Roast: 5/5

I think this was my favorite dish to make. The slow cooker allowed for easy clean-up, because I used a slow cooker liner. 

Ingredients:

-2 chuck roast pieces (a little over a pound each)

-Bag of baby carrots

-5 potatoes

-Pot roast Mix Packet

-1 and 1/3 cup of water

The first thing I had to do was brown the pot roast. I did this on medium heat, and did each side for 4 minutes. 

While I was doing this, I washed and cut the potatoes into slices. 

After everything was washed and cut, and the meat was completely "browned" on each side, I put it all in the slow cooker. I mixed the packet and the water together before adding it to the slow cooker. I then added it in with all the ingredients and set the slow cooker to 8 hours. 

This was my final product. The beef was really tender, and it was my favorite meal to eat and to cook. 

Pork, Rice, and Mac N' Cheese 4/5

Okay, I'll admit it. This one wasn't really from scratch. I used the boxed mac n' cheese, and boxed rice. It definitely made my life easier and is a more realistic option. For these, I pretty much just followed the directions on the box. 

The pork was a learning process. I first cooked it on the stove. I seasoned it with a steak and chop seasoning, which I really like. I added olive oil and then cooked the pork chops on each side for 3 minutes. I then put them in the oven on 350 degrees. The timing on this is a little foggy for me. Our oven at my house is a little old, so I had to keep checking the chops to make sure there was no pink. In order to do this, I took them out and cut one of the pork chops in the middle. 

Here is my final product! My mom was a big resource for this one. I kept asking her simple questions like: How do I know this is done? How many people does one box of mac n' cheese feed? How much rice should I make? 

Steak, homemade mashed potatoes, and broccoli 3.5/5

This was a hard one for me to make. I wasn't sure about broccoli timing, I had no idea how to make homemade mashed potatoes, and I've never made steak before. Cooking the steak was difficult, because I had no idea how long to cook it for. 

The first step was buying the steak at the grocery store. I went with a Spencer steak, which turns out to be another name for a ribeye. The cut was great. There was a good amount of marbling (fat) which gave it a really awesome flavor. I first seasoned the steak with steak n' chop seasoning. 

I then browned the steak on each side for 3 minutes per side. I put the pan in the oven on 350 degrees. This was the tricky part. My boyfriend prefers his medium well. So I had to continue to check both steaks to see what their internal temperature was. 

I cooked the broccoli in the oven at 350 degrees. I left it in around 8 minutes to give it a little crispness, making sure to not overcook it. 

I cut up potatoes and put them in a pan with plenty of water. I cooked them over medium heat, making sure that the water didn't boil over. I let these cook for about an hour. These ended up taking a lot longer than the steak, so if I did this again, I will definitely cook the potatoes ahead of time. 

This was my final product. Not too shabby for a first attempt! I overcooked the medium well steak a little, so I need to keep a better eye on the steaks as they are cooking. 

Appetizers

Okay, so the first thing you learn about cooking when you start to cook is that nothing goes as planned. At least, that was the case for me. My original plans took a nose dive after discovering a few things. One, I don't have a double boiler. I hate to buy one if I don't know that I will use it. So I had to swap the idea of making queso for quacamole. Two, peeling eggs isn't as easy as you would think. My deviled eggs turned into egg salad. And three, no matter how much you follow a recipe, you may have to improvise. Let me know what you think! Side note: I also made egg salad, but didn't take any pictures or write down the recipe. I'm pretty new to this whole blogging thing, so writing every thing down and remembering to document is not easy for me. 

MY CREATIONS:

The first thing that I made was guacamole. My friend Sydney helped me with the ingredients and set up for this. When grocery shopping, Sydney helped me to pick out a ripe avocado. I had no idea what to look for, but she explained it to me. The avocado should be a little squishy, but not super squishy. If it's too hard, it will be too hard to mash.

Guacamole 4/5

Ingredients: 

4 avacados

4 tsp of lime juice

4 tblsp cilantro

a handful of red onion

1 jalepeno

salt to taste

First, we took the pit out of the avacados by cutting them in half and scooped the avocado out. We then mashed them with a fork. We squeezed the juice out of two limes, cut up some red onion, cut a jalepeno (making sure to take the seeds out), added cilantro, and mixed it all in with the mashed avocados. We then added salt, a little bit at a time, and mixed it in. We continually added salt until we liked the way the guacamole tasted.

TACO PIZZA 3.5/5

Next, I made taco pizza. I followed a recipe from LivingWellMom for this. On her website, she does a really great job walking you through the cooking process.

Ingredients

2 tubes refrigerated crescent rolls

1 package cream cheese, softened

1 cup sour cream

1 pound ground beef or ground turkey

1 envelope taco seasoning mix

1 medium tomato, chopped

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded lettuce

I'll let you go to LivingWellMom's website to get the rest of the recipe. I don't want to take credit for something I didn't create! I really thought it was an easy recipe to follow and was easy to make. I liked the flavor, but my brother-in-law said it would have been much better with taco sauce. My timing on taking it out wasn't great, so the crust was cold when I served it. 

Homemade Pizza 2.5/5

I originally was planning on doing more of flatbread pizza, and following the recipe from Carrie's Experimental Kitchen. However, things didn't go as planned, so I improvised. I used too small of a pan, so my "flatbread" turned into a thick crust pizza. I also didn't have a lot of the ingredients for the first recipe (mayonaise and garlic were main ingredients that I thought we had in the kitchen, only to find out we didn't have them). I found pizza sauce in the cupboard, so decided to make a more traditional pizza. 

       

I set the oven to 350 degrees and let it preheat. I spread the dough out into the pan. I added some olive oil to the dough. I then cooked it for 10 minutes. It didn't seem to be fully cooked at that point, so I put it back in for 5 more minutes. I then added the pizza sauce, cut up tomatoes, plenty of mozzarella cheese, and basil. I baked it for another 15 minutes. 

I didn't like how this one turned out. I don't think the dough cooked all the way in some spots. The flavor also wasn't all that great. I think adding pepperoni or black olives (some other type of flavor) could have helped. My brothers and mom also didn't really like this recipe. The term "bland" came up a lot when describing it. 

Black Bean and Corn Salsa 4/5

This was an improvised recipe. My friend Sydney (who also helped with the guacamole) helped with this one. I liked the flavor of it! I'm excited to share this with you all. 

Ingredients:

3 cans of black beans

2 cans of corn

Diced red onion (we used about a handful)

Cilantro (again, about a handful) 

1/2 a jalepeno

Lemon and Lime Juice (juice from a small lemon and a small lime)

Salt and Pepper to taste

We basically just cut everything up and mixed it together! Make sure to drain the juice from the black beans and corn.