Bread All Around Us: Leavened Bread

Yesterday, my students made leavened bread. We were lucky enough to be able to use a bread machine that our Family & Consumer Science department has available. The teacher for that class has been very supportive of the efforts we make to teach the students cooking skills; she has had several of my students in class, and always works to make sure they understand everything.
As with our unleavened bread, we took pictures, and so have a movie of the process. I thought it was much easier to make the bread this time, but I have no doubt that is because of the bread machine. There was so much less mess to clean up!
I am hoping that the students remember the differences between the two types of bread on Monday, because we'll play "Best Guess" as our drill, and finish our sentences for the first bread podcast. With luck, we'll get it recorded too!

Google My Maps

One of the last of my projects for my graduate class is a group work on a Google Tool. Each group had to choose any Google Tool, explore how to use it, and then come up with ways to use it in the classroom. My group is rather diverse: myself, a special education teacher, a librarian at an inner city school, and a guitar/history teacher in Southern Maryland. Given our unique make-up, it was a little tough to find a tool we would all benefit from... And then, somebody posted a website that was created to explore the assigned challenge of telling the same story 50 different ways. The website included a story that used Google's My Maps. I was convinced this was it, and fortunately, the others in the group agreed! I've spent the last few days learning how to create my own maps. The first one is rather dull, being just a list of places that I've visited over the years; the only interesting bits there are the few sites I included articles on, or photographs. But, my second map is far more exciting (at least to me!), and shows pictures of my trip to Seattle. I used the hybrid settings on My Maps to create a tour of Seattle using the pictures I took, and some wikipedia articles. I was even able to find a YouTube video about the Pigs On Parade. I can just imagine how this could help my students see and learn about places in the United States, or other countries. It gives the hook to get their interest, but also teaches to their strengths by providing visual and kinesthetic opportunities. My only issues are that, as near as I can tell, the Map program doesn't work with assistive technology such as screen readers, and text-to-speech, and I didn't really see a way to add a caption to photos I embedded. It is also rather time consuming to pull all the media files and articles onto the map. I think that for some large units, its worth the effort. It would certainly be a good project for students to complete to show off what they've learned. Here is a quick video about how to make a Google My Map of your own:

Unleavened Bread

Yesterday, we played Best Guess and then made unleavened bread in class. The bread was supposed to come out as "crisps", but even though we flattened the bread out pretty well, it wound up more like pita bread, soft and kind of chewy. I thought it was okay with butter, but not all of the students enjoyed tasting it. I was again reminded that cooking requires that the students use all of their skills to make a finished product: we read the recipe, we did math when we measured, and set the timer on the oven, and we have already been talking about how different cultures make different kinds of bread. Last year, we had done some hands-on work with equivalent fractions, and 3 of the students were able to tell me what we could use if I lost the 1 cup measuring cup: we could use 3 of the 1/3, 2 of the 1/2, and 4 of the 1/4. They didn't necessarily SAY it that way, but they picked up the correct cup when given a choice, so I think that means they know it! One of the students was the official photographer, and followed instructions beautifully when told to just take pictures of hands, not faces or bodies. Since she did such a nice job, I was able to put together a very quick slide show. Enjoy!

Best Guess!

I am always looking for ways to encourage my students to guess. Guessing is a very hard thing for them to do, because they do not ever want to appear wrong. And yet, guessing is something that we always have to do, because there is no way to always be correct. To encourage this, and sneak a bit of science into our classroom, I made a "game" called "Best Guess!". It was really simple.
I used 2 sheets of inkjet magnets from Avery (see a this post for where to buy the sheets). On one sheet, I made 2x4 sized name tags for each student, along with the two choices for today's round. On another sheet, I made a question prompt (today's is: The bread we made is ___________________), and a cut-out star shape with "BEST GUESS!" written on it. The directions were printed on a sheet of card stock. The directions were pretty simple: choose one of the words and put it next to your name. If you're right at the end of the block, you get 2 extra tickets in our weekly drawing (which is how they earn money to buy rewards at our classroom store).
Today's drill tells the students to look on the back of the door to find the game.
We'll see how it goes...

Bake Sale!

I'm afraid this is another post that doesn't have a whole lot to do with technology, although I will post some picture recipes that I've made to use with my students. There is an explanation of the recipe format with the recipes as well as links to two very good cooking in the special education classroom resources. I have loads of cook books, including Emeril and Rachel Ray cooking with children books, Better Homes & Gardens, but the ones I've listed were specifically designed for special education.

I've always run a community service club of some type at the school where I teach. I have already shared my belief that volunteering in the community you live and work in is incredibly important, but I actually think it might be just a little more important for students who receive special education support. Often, students have low self-esteem, or problems with social skills. Volunteering is a good way to improve all of these skills, plus get some good experience for job applications, college essays, etc. But, beyond that, it gives the volunteer a sense of ownership and pride. The something to point to that makes the other things we do that aren't so fun possible. A sense of pride for these accomplishments can go a long way with students.

Anyway... I am one of 3 sponsors for the Key Club/Community Service club at my high school. We are having our first fund-raiser this year for the club on Wednesday. The club officers decided that Halloween was the perfect day to have a bake sale. I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, but I can't eat most baked good anymore, and so I don't bother. This gave me a chance to go a little wild...
3 pans of brownies: plain, white chocolate & mint, and white chocolate
12 pumpkin raisin/cherry/white chocolate muffins
12 plain date muffins
1.5 loaves of banana oatmeal cinnamon bread (I was a little shy on the batter for some reason, hence the "half a loaf".)
20 mini-star shaped Funfetti (the Pillsbury mix stuff) cakes

I hope it all sells so the Key Club students can attend the division conference in April, and the Red Cross Convention/Roll Call in March. I've never been to a Key Club conference, or the Red Cross Conventions, but I know the latter has a lot of networking opportunities for youth volunteers. For those that can't make it to the bake sale, here's a picture...

Expectations

I had to go over to the public library this afternoon to pick up our books for the Bread All Around Us project. I had worked with my school librarian to find the books, then to make my life easier, just did a reserve request at the library near where I live. I made it to the check-out desk with one minute to spare. The librarian found the books, and as she brought them over, she commented on the quantity. I explained that my class was studying different kinds of bread as part of our History/Geography unit this year, and that they were going to produce a podcast. Then, I shared I taught high school students with significant special needs, and so that was why the books were of a much lower reading level. In fact, many of the books were picture books. The librarian wondered if, maybe, I was expecting too much from my students. I told her that I didn't think so, and explained about the digital camera project (This Is My Life) from last year, and that the project was incredibly successful. More so than any of the staff that helped with the grant and project would have thought. I also told her about going to Microsoft.
So, are my expectations for my students too high? Maybe. But, they are living up to my expectations with the material they are producing. I see so much growth, and more independence in some of the students, particularly in using technology. I don't think my expectations are too high; what do others think?

Connecting Outside the Classroom

In a previous post, I shared that I was an active volunteer for Red Cross Disaster Services. I have always, in some way, involved my school & my students in that part of my life which takes place outside of school hours and the building. Last year, my students worked at the local chapter one day a week, mostly doing office tasks, but also getting involved with disaster services. All of my students formed a good working relationship with the staff at the chapter, especially with our disaster services staff member. The students that I have this year ask about the people at the chapter frequently. This has also led to more awareness of what is going on and how those events can change lives. So, it was really no surprise today when they asked me whether or not anybody from our chapter was in San Diego. One student asked me if I were going to go (even though he knows I won't go during the school year, he always asks!). After we talked about people we knew who were going out there with the Red Cross (only one from our local chapter, but there were several from other area chapters), we looked at the KPBS Google Map. We counted the number of shelters, and talked about how wildfires spread. We figured out about how far our classroom was from San Diego, and we talked about things that we can do to make a difference (that was our classroom theme last year; this year's theme seems to be "Sharing Who We Are", which also lends itself nicely to community involvement!).
We definitely did not get any work done on Bread All Around Us, even though my students made sure tell me that they knew the Red Cross was giving out bread... But, for today, my students were connected with the millions of other people who are looking at the fire coverage and they were able to get, understand and share information at a level that allowed them to comprehend what was happening. Amazing, truly...