New recipes!

Check out the new cashew chicken recipe on the Main Dishes page!  Mmmmm!

What is my job?!

As I look at my students, I often try to figure out what my job truly is.  Each student is so uniquely different with such different needs that our job descriptions are constantly changing.  We are editors, counselors, motivators, secretaries, advisors, advice-givers...(not only for the students, but co-workers as well)....the list goes on and on.  And people say our job is easy!

A teacher-candidate recently asked me about teachers and the amount of money they get paid, as he was looking for my opinion on the matter.  Trying to give him a realistic, yet optimistic answers, I truly discovered what makes me most upset about the teacher pay.  I am not, in any way, complaining about what I get paid.  I do, however, get upset by ignorant people who say that teachers should not get paid for what they do, after all we are only on the clock for 9 months out of the year.  Agghh.....that may be true, but I'd like to meet one teachers who really only works 9 months and only works the contract hours.  I, like most teachers, work 10 hr. a day - - at the school building.  This doesn't account for the other 2 hr every night, nor the weekend hours.  Lunch - sure we get lunch, but often  always, lunch includes sitting between two students, assisting them with homework.  Oh, and let's not forget the games, activities, and award ceremonies that we are expected (and enjoy) going to in order to support our students.  Again, I'm not complaining, in fact, I love my job.  There are too many people commenting on teacher pay, that don't truly understand the dynamics of our jobs.  Just recently I read a scholarship essay from a student that is pursuing a career in education.  That student credited me with the success he experienced in high school.  That alone, was worth more than any pay-check can offer.  So to anyone out there pursuing a career in teaching.  The rewards, however you may view them, are truly worth it.

Meal Ideas

If you enjoy Mexican food and pastas, this month is for you!

This month's meal plan:
(recipes coming soon)

Taco Pasta
Extreme Sandwiches
Pizza Burgers
Bubble Chili Dog Casserole
Chicken Enchiladas
Stroganoff
Crunch Wraps
Taco Pie
Stromboli
Bacon Cheeseburger Wrap
Corn Noodle Casserole
Banana Crunch Muffins
Marshmallow No-bake Cookies

German Pancakes!

German Pancakes: Courtesy of our foreign exchange student! :)

Makes 10 pancakes

5 egg             1 Tbsp sugar                1 pinch salt
3 1/3 cups milk                4 cups flour

Mix the eggs, sugar and salt together.  Slowly add milk and flour, alternating between the two ingredients.  Repeat until the milk and flour are go and no lumps remain in the mixture.  Let the mixture sit about 15 minutes.  Stir again adding milk if dough is thick.  

Melt a little margarine in a pan over medium  to low heat.  Then pour 1-2 soup ladles of dough into pan.  Rotate the pan until dough spreads evenly over entire bottom of pan.  Flip the pancake, just as you would do on a griddle.  Pancakes will be lighter in color than typical pancakes.

Often served with cinnamon sugar.  

Vocabulary Ideas

I'm taking a vocabulary class this semester and thought I'd share some of the ideas that we've been discussing:

Charades: kids take turns acting out the words.  This would be fun to create a game out of it!

Groupings: Create flashcards with various vocabulary words on them.  Then create category names to combine these cards into.  For example if you were teaching history, your flashcards could be concepts from WWI or WWII.  The students would then categorize the words based on the correct time frame.   This could easily be done in partners as well.  Very easy to differentiate!  To challenge the students with high ability, have them decide what the 2 categories should be.

Bingo: Give the students a list of vocab words to write on their empty vocab sheets.  Then, play BINGO either by giving the definition, giving an example or using the word in a sentence but leaving a blank in place of the word (Cloze activity).

Kitchen!

As my first cooking blog I thought I'd share a little about my process.  I try to only grocery shop twice a month.  Of course, we have some small purchases between those times, such as milk and the lettuce salad that my husband thinks he can't live without!  I shop at Walmart and Hy-Vee, but use ad-matches at Walmart from local grocery stores.  If you haven't tried ad-matches, I would recommend it...SO EASY!  I then spend a few hours in the kitchen.  It usually only takes me about 2-3 hours for the entire two weeks.  This is a huge life saver for me and saves us from eating out.

Let me back up.....my husband and I are both teachers and we commute 20 miles to work.  Because of this, we always travel together.  Sounds fine right?.....well, my husband is the Cross Country coach.  He runs with the High School students before school and the Jr. High kids after school, which means we are at school by 7:00 am (most days!) and not home until 6:00pm.  This doesn't change in the winter when I'm coaching speech or during the spring when he is back coaching track.  On top of that, we are both taking classes to achieve our Master's degree.....needless to say, cooking every night doesn't exactly top our priority list.  Cooking only once every other weekend has sure been very beneficial for us.

Many   All of the meals, I cook or buy can last the two weeks in the fridge or freezer.  I often cook 10-18 meals for the 14 days, however, anything over 10 meals, in reality, usually lasts us 3 weeks.  I've learned that leftovers are great to eat at school and a plain salad once a week is a great light and cheap meal to add to our menu.  In addition, I try to add one salad, bread or vegetable side to every week, doing more than this we learned just went into the trash.  Many of my recipes I have found on pinterest, but other personal recipes I will post as well.

September 15, 2012 through September
Ham and Cheese Bites (Similar to hot pockets, only smaller)
French Dip Sandwiches
French Bread Pizza
Calzones
Crunch Wraps
Chicken Alfredo
Pizza Burgers
Taco Pasta Bake
Chicken Tater Tot Casserole
Frito Pie
Nutella French Toast
Chicken Salad
Stroganoff
Pumpkin Fruit Dip

Classroom!

Learning objectives, targets, etc.....if you're in the field of education, chances are you've heard about these! I've posted my targets for years, but that's as far as I took it, until this year. I'm a firm believer that writing something down increases the chances of committing that to memory. This year, I decided to make my 7th grade Social Studies kids more responsible for their learning. So here's what I did.....

Each kids gets a folder.  For my two sections of students, about 40 kids, this cost me about $10.00.  This includes loose left paper, folders and name badges for the front of the folders. Had I been prepared, I'm sure my school would have allowed me to buy these folders and paper before the school year started.  As it turns out, I'm not always that organized.  

Every day the students begin the class by completing a warm-up and then writing the target in their folders/journals.  After completing the warm-up, we discuss the target.  Then we complete our lesson for the day, whatever that may be.  At the end of the day, I save the last five minutes for students to write the response to the target in their journals. 

Example: 
Learning Target: Students will identify the four MAIN causes of WWI.
Response: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism

On Monday, while the kids are completing their warm-up, I look at their journals to hold them accountable. 

I've only been doing this for a few days, but so far so good!  I'm hoping their assessments can come from these targets.  After all, isn't that the purpose of targets to begin with?!