New Research Unit

I am a teacher in my sixth year of a subject whose curriculum has not changed since I've been there. Translation: same units, same lessons, same books, every year. Now don't get me wrong - I don't teach it all exactly the same way every year, but in the end, it's the same stuff. I am now in the trenches of the unit I hate the very most in my curriculum.

Ask anyone in my department and they will tell you: I HATE RESEARCH. There are lots of reasons for this most well-founded of hatreds, but I'd rather talk about the new things I'm trying with my kids this year:

1. Genuine inquiry and the "Essential Question"- Up until this year, we have given the kids a list of people for our kids to research. Oh, did I forget to say the list of people were all Kansans? That's right. It literally could not get more boring or irrelevant to their lives. But this year, we are starting with this essential question: What does it mean to change the world? After reflection and discussion, the kids had 48 hours to come up with 3 events that they believed changed the world.
2.  The use of the ISN as a graphic organizer - Students are using their Interactive Student Notebooks to keep track of both their sources and citations and their research. We used to use note cards, which was a mess and a pain in the tail to grade. Keeping everything in the ISN keeps things organized and easy to grade.
3. Our resident black-belt in research - our new librarian is phenomenal. He asked if he could teach the kids about print and non-print sources (to which I responded with a resounding yes!) and has been in the lab with my kids every step of the way answering questions and helping out. He is awesome!

I truly believe this may turn out to be one of my very favorite units! We wrap up next week, so I will post my take aways then.

The Easiest Cheesecake Ever!

It's not exactly new, but I made this delicious cheesecake last weekend for my husband's birthday dinner at his special request. I first found the recipe in an issue of Real Simple, but it can also be found on Kraft's website here. You will need the following ingredients (notice NONE of mine are name brand! They all came from Aldi!):

• 40 (ish) vanilla cookies
• 3 T butter
• 4 bricks cream cheese
• 1 tub whipped topping
• 3/4 c + 1/4 c sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 T + 1 t vanilla

Set your cream cheese and whipped topping out to soften. Make your crust by melting the butter and crushing 40 or so vanilla crackers. (As you can see, I had help! He can only count to 20 though, so he started eating them after that...)

I used a food processor to crush the cookies, but I put all of them in at one time, which resulted in both powder and big chunks of cookie. I think if I had put the cookies in in shifts instead of all at once, it would have been more even. Once the cookies are crushed, combine with the melted butter and press into the bottom of a spring-form pan.

After your cream cheese has softened, place three bricks of cream cheese, 3/4 c sugar, and the tablespoon of vanilla in the mixer and beat. Add the eggs one at a time. (I also had help for this step!)

Once the eggs are mixed in, pour the mixture over the crust and place in the oven at 325º for 50 to 55 minutes. While it's baking, wash your mixing bowl and beaters, because it will soon be time for the mousse topping!

Once the center is set, remove the cheesecake from the oven and let cool completely in the pan.

To make the mousse, beat together the remaining brick of cream cheese, 1/4 c sugar, and teaspoon of vanilla. Fold in the whipped topping once the mixture has come together. (I misread the directions and beat the whipped topping in with the cream cheese. This of course did not affect the taste, but the texture was lumpier than I would have liked.) Spread over the cheesecake once the it has cooled completely.

Chill and serve!

Take Aways:

• My husband loves this recipe. In fact, we were enjoying leftovers last night and he said he thought it might be the best he's ever had - even better than that restaurant with "cheesecake" in the name! That tells you how good this recipe is!
• The food processor is great for crushing the cookies, but smaller shifts of cookies will make for a less crumbly crust.
• Don't beat the whipped cream in with the cream cheese for the mousse! It creates lumps. :(

My Mother-In-Law's Delicious Lasagna

Recently, I had the opportunity to make lasagna with my mother-in-law. She is the queen of said dish, so I documented the event carefully, hoping to gain as much of her lasagna-making-wisdom as possible! She had used a lasagna recipe for a long time but switched over to this recipe from the Taste of Home cook book. This recipe takes time and work, but it may be the best lasagna I've ever had. Seriously.

You will need these ingredients (we doubled the recipe, which is why there are so many items in the picture, but you only need half of this!):

 

(We modified ingredients from the original recipe, but only slightly)

• 1 and 3/4 pound ground beef
• 3 8 oz cans tomato sauce
• 2 6 oz cans tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 t sugar
• 1 t Italian seasoning
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 3 eggs
• 3 T parsley
• 1 24 oz container small-curd cottage cheese
• 1 8 oz container ricotta cheese
• 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 9 lasagna noodles
• 6 slices provolone cheese
• 1 c + 1 c + 1 c shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Start by browning the beef. Once the meat is browned, drain and add tomato sauce, tomato paste, and all dry ingredients except the parsley. Let simmer on stove for 1 hour. (I bolded this because I, being the novice cook that I am, would have done 10 minutes and called it good. But I was amazed at how different the pot smelled after it had cooked for 1 hour!) 

While the sauce mixture is cooking, boil the noodles. I always make lasagna with those no-boil noodles, so I was pretty leery of boiling the noodles. I just knew they would break or stick together. To prevent this, my MIL said to pull them out of the water with tongs and lay them out on wax paper to dry. This also helps them cool quicker, making them easier to handle.

Mix together eggs, cottage cheese, ricotta, Parmesan, and parsley. Chill until the sauce is done.

When the sauce is finished, follow the following layering pattern:

1. 1 c sauce
2. 3 noodles
3. all slices of provolone cheese

 

   4.  2 c cottage cheese mixture

   5.  1 c mozzarella

   6.  3 noodles

   7.  2 c sauce

   8.  remaining cottage cheese mixture

   9.  1 c mozzarella

  10.  3 noodles

  11.  remaining sauce

  12.  remaining mozzarella

Bake at 375° for 50 minutes covered and an extra 20 uncovered. Let stand 15 minutes, and enjoy! A HUGE thank you to my wonderful MIL for her help with this dish!

Take Aways:

• It doesn't matter how many times I read the recipe, or which ingredients I buy -  when it comes to cooking, some things can only get better with experience.
• It's always more fun to cook with someone.
• My MIL really knows what she's doing! :)

Interactive Student Notebooks

I teach 7th grade reading full-time and have for the past six years. This year, I tried something new, and that was implementing the use of Interactive Student Notebooks, or ISNs. I did not come up with this idea, but a number of teachers in my building use it, so my science teacher and I decided to try it with our classes this year. Basically, it's a notebook in which students keep...well, everything! Notes, handouts, graphic organizers, you name it - it goes in the ISN. In the front, students keep a table of contents. Mine looks something like this:

For instance, on page 10 of the ISN, the students put into practice a note-taking strategy called Power Notes (and BTW, I heart Power Notes), which is a way to organize important information by delineating between main ideas and details.  On the left is the article they were given, which they highlighted using the number system with colors, and on the right are their notes:

 Next week we are starting research (which I hate), but I am looking forward to utilizing the ISN as an organizational tool for my kids. (For a great and more detailed explanation of the ISN, click here.) Definitely a new thing I will be using next year.

Take Aways:

• I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS TOOL! I can't even remember how I taught without it!
• It completely eliminates "Uh...I can't find my notes" or "I lost the sheet" or "Someone stole my assignment (really?)" EVERYTHING goes in the notebook. 
• Grade the kid's assignment before it gets glued in the ISN. If you don't, instead of grading a stack of 119 papers, you have to grade multiple stacks of 119 notebooks. At least I know for next time!

Holiday Creativity?

My sister-in-law introduced me to these adorable wreathes. I found a tutorial here but Molly's instructions were so easy I didn't need to use it. The Valentine wreath above took me about two hours. It was more pricy than I would have liked, but it was a chance to test the waters of craftiness. I also made two Christmas ones--one for the door of my classroom at school and one for the door leading from our entry way to our living room at home.

Next time I'll take pictures as I go, but for now I'll post a table (please bear with me...I had to use HTML code, of which I know very little, to create this primitive table) listing materials and prices. I already had a glue gun and glue, so those items are not listed:

Material	Cost	Source
Wreath	$3.99	Hobby Lobby
Yarn	$1.49	JoAnn's (w/ 1/2 off coupon)
3 Sheets Red Felt	3 @ $.31 = $.93	JoAnn's
3 Sheets Pink Felt	4 @ $.31 = $1.24	JoAnn's
TOTAL	$7.65

Take Aways:

• Wrapping a wreath with yarn takes a stinking long time! The fun part was the flowers. :)
• I really hate projects that involve fine motor skills.
• I love seeing this wreath on the door, therefore, I think it was worth both the time and the money.