Month: March 2020 Page 1 of 2

Advice to future bakers

On March 31, 2020

Hi Carly’s Crew,

I had so much fun doing this inquiry and eating all the snacks! I wanted to wrap up my findings and share some advice for future bakers so check it out…

1: Don’t be afraid of the vegetables

I tried out some things that were totally out of my comfort zone but that was the purpose of this whole inquiry! I learned a lot about my taste buds and surprised myself a few times (some good, some bad!)

2: Watch videos and read the reviews

Get inspired! You can’t create recipes on your own so you might as well learn from the experts. I also found the comments on recipes really helpful. Sometimes the pictures from the creator aren’t so accurate so make sure you check out how it worked for real people just like you!

3: Create a baking journal

I just thought of this idea recently but it is something that I want to start! Each time you bake something new, add the recipe and your thoughts to a journal. My blog posts acted similar to a journal but I think having it on paper would be super beneficial!

All in all, I loved this inquiry and I want to continue baking healthy options! It has already become a habit, but the recipes are never ending which means I will always have more to learn!

Thanks for following along this journey with me 🙂

Bye for now!

Keep on Zoom(ing)

by carlyheemskerk

On March 24, 2020

In EdTech

Hi Carly’s Crew,

We were back in class (kind of) today, well we were back on Zoom! It is so fun to see everyone’s learning spaces and we even got to meet some pets! I even showed everyone my cat, Jafar 🙂

We started off by listening to the remainder of EdTEch presentations. Next, we began talking about coding in classrooms and how it can be used in cross-curricular lessons. I really like the idea of using coding for language arts and allowing students a chance to tell a story through coding. I chose to do the coding with Anna and Elsa because I have zero experience with coding.

Here is the link to my final drawing of Elsa skating .

Here is proof that I completed 20 levels of code:

I really enjoyed learning how to code today but the best part was that it was taught in ‘game form’. I think that students would respond really well to this because it will allow them to learn without knowing they are learning. Honestly, I struggled to get through some of these levels so I have a feeling that many students would also struggle as they work through this program. With that being said, I think coding is a really good strategy to teach students problem solving skills and provide them with critical thinking skills!

Scratch would allow for teachers to differentiate learning for students because they can work at their own pace. For example, the Elsa program I used was extremely structured at the beginning but by the end it gave me as much freedom as I wanted. This will allow students to not feel overwhelmed and will hopefully stop them from comparing themselves to their classmates. This differentiation is a great way to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into a classroom too. Finally, the coding apps will provide students with the majority of step-by-step instructions and this allows for the teacher to walk around and help students, assess students and ensure everyone is on task.

I definitely need to practice my coding skills so I feel more confident but I do hope to bring coding into my classroom one day. I loved the activities that Hour of Code provides teachers because even if you don’t feel completely confident with your coding skills, these activities provide structure and guidance for you as teacher.

Bye!!

Eat Your Greens!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 24, 2020

In Free Inquiry

Hello Carly’s Crew!!

This week I chose to chef up some chocolate zucchini loaf. Here is the recipe!

This recipe was one that my mom found on Facebook and asked me to try! It is vegan, gluten free, oil free and it contains no added sugar. Instead of sugar, the recipe uses dates! I had never cooked before using dates so it was a brand new experience. In the past I have tried chocolate zucchini loaf but it has always been filled with sugar and chocolate chips. This recipe definitely allowed the zucchini to shine through a little bit. You could definitely tell this loaf was healthy just from tasting it.

Step 1: Mix together all dry ingredients.

Step 2: Mix dates and water together.

Step 3: Mix together remainder of wet ingredients.

Step 4: Combine with dry ingredients.

Step 4: Bake for 50 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

Difficulty level: 5/10

This recipe used a food processor, but since I have used a food processor in some of my previous recipes I knew exactly what to do. The most difficult part of this recipe was dealing with the cocoa. Whenever I bake with cocoa I manage to make a huge mess! This is definitely something I need to work on because it makes for a frustrating clean-up.

Deliciousness level: 9/10

This loaf was so good! My parents and I loved it. The dates didn’t blend up super well just because there was only such a small amount in the blender, so they ended up being pretty big chunks. Luckily, they made for a pleasant surprise in every bite of the loaf. This loaf was super healthy but it definitely didn’t taste healthy and isn’t that what we all want?! 😉

We are quickly nearing the end of the semester, which also means the end of this baking inquiry! Sadly, this was my last recipe! Here is my advice for anyone starting a similar inquiry!

Protected: Wrapping it up!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 22, 2020

In Music

Zooming through to the end!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 17, 2020

In EdTech

Hi Carly’s Crew!

This week has been crazy…it seems surreal. Due to the spread of Covid-19, our classes have been moved online. This means that we did a 33 person video call today! It was so much fun and definitely cheered me up in a time where there is a lot of negative news happening. I even introduced the class to my cat, Jafar, and cooked up some eggs and avocado toast while listening to the other groups present their topics.

Zoom would be a super cool tool to use in a classroom, especially in circumstances like this, that prevent students from meeting in person. For example, if a student was sick at home but they still wanted to listen to the teacher, they could watch the whole class from the comfort of their bed. Of course, this process was not seamless. Many people had trouble connecting due to wifi issues and I personally had troubles with how fast my battery was dying. Zoom definitely sucks the battery so it is imperative that you have a charger ready to use.

In a classroom, Zoom could also be used when students need to complete group presentations or conduct interviews. For example, today I will be using Zoom to meet with Ari, Jahniaa and Claire to complete our music project while practicing social distancing.

We also learned how to use Twine which is an interactive story telling (choose-your-own-adventure type stories). I began writing a story about getting ice cream on a summer day but I wasn’t able to get super far into it. I have never had experience creating something like this so it was brand new for me. The hardest part was remembering the codes to create new links, italicize or bold words and anything else. Once I spend some more time working on my story, I will be much more successful. This would be super fun to implement into a Language arts unit for students to get creative!

I’m going to wash my hands now!

Carly 🙂

Clogging off forever…

by carlyheemskerk

On March 17, 2020

In EdTech Inquiry

Hey Cloggers and Carly’s Crew!

Sadly, this will be our final blog post for the semester! This post will be a conclusion of our findings and we also want to share our personal opinions with you. We have attached our presentation that we will be sharing with our class! Here are our 3 biggest take-aways from our research and exploration:

1: There is no black and white answer.

We discovered that there is not one answer when it comes to effective use of screen time in classrooms. Each classroom is filled with different needs that a teacher needs to cater to and technology speaks to that. One year a teacher might use no technology at all but the next year they might use technology every day. The truth is that it is all about moderation and as long as we support students and their families by being upfront and honest about the purpose of technology we will have success.

2: Technology is not meant to replace face to face interactions.

Well look at us today! Video-calling on Zoom due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Thankfully technology is getting us through this hard time. With that being said, we need to note that technology is not meant to replace the interactions between students in classrooms. Instead it is used to enhance their knowledge and their educational network. If a student is researching a medical topic, what better way to get their information than from someone who actually works in a hospital every day? An online interview with a doctor would be an amazing experience for the student. We do need to ensure students are balancing their time between technology and real-life interactions but this can be a topic for discussion in older classrooms. Even us adults haven’t figured out the golden answer!

3: Technology is always evolving

Last but not least, technology is ever evolving. Teachers need to stay updated and educated with new programs and apps in order to best support their students. Sometimes the students might know more about the teacher and this would be a great opportunity for the student to “teach the teacher”. We as educators need to be okay with the fact that we don’t know everything and acknowledge our mistakes when they are made. Let’s just say when technology is involved, something is bound to go wrong! Problem solving and troubleshooting is inevitable in a technology class, but this is also a great opportunity to teach the students about helpful strategies for these situations.

In terms of our experience with the whole partner inquiry process we both had a lot of fun! Although the research section is important, we both felt that we absorbed the most from our conversations that we had in person! We both agree that working with a partner was extremely beneficial in supporting our learning.

That is all we have for you!

Clogging off forever,

Carly and COordt 🙂

Cookie Monster

by carlyheemskerk

On March 17, 2020

In Free Inquiry

Hi Carly’s Crew!

This was a bit of a weird week…my house is being renovated so everything is a mess and I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping! I broke out of my healthy eating habits and chose to make cookies. We had tons of apples around the house and not much of anything else so I decided to make apple cinnamon cookies. They had sugar and butter in them so they weren’t super healthy, but an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Right?

Step 1: Preheat oven, line baking sheets with parchment paper and measure out all ingredients.

Step 2: Peel and chop one cup of apples.

Step 3: Mix together dry ingredients.

Step 4: Mix together wet ingredients and then add dry ingredients and apple.

Step 5: Create balls of cookie dough and flatten using hand.

Step 6: Cook for 15 minutes and ENJOY!

Difficulty level: 6/10

These cookies are pretty similar to any other cookie recipe so it was something that seemed very familiar to me. Right after I began mixing together my dry ingredients I realized that our Mixmaster was deep under the stairs due to our renovations. This meant I had to cream the butter and sugar, and mix along with the rest of the wet ingredients, by hand. It took a little longer than it would’ve if I had used an electric mixer and thats the only reason the difficulty level is higher.

Deliciousness level: 9/10

Cinnamon and apple together is absolutely delicious no matter what and these cookies were no different! They weren’t too sweet and they were the perfect texture. So far, this is my favourite treat I’ve baked. I tossed the apple in lemon juice before mixing it in and that give the apple pieces a little kick. I would highly recommend these to anyone!

Maybe next week my treat will score a 10/10 for deliciousness…you better check back in to see! Bye for now 🙂

Getting closer!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 16, 2020

In Music

Hi Carly’s Crew!

These last few days have been crazy with the Coronavirus on the rise in Canada, classes have been cancelled so I have been stuck at home! The good news is, this has given me extra time to practice the piano. My family must be getting tired of hearing me play every day 😉

Like I said last week, this song has been a bit of a challenge for me. The more I practice in small sessions each week, the more I see myself improving. So far, I have learned the entire song with my right hand. The song repeats the chorus multiple times which makes it super easy to memorize the notes. Now that I have learned all of the notes I have been able to practice the whole song up to full speed.

At first, I felt that the song was too fast and tricky for me as a beginner. But now I’m having the opposite problem! I am beginning to rush through the song and having trouble keeping a steady beat. This was interesting to me because I didn’t even realize I was doing this until I watched a video of myself playing the song. The video recordings have been so helpful for me to see what parts of the song need extra work. But also it allows me to see the parts where I am having success…this acts as a huge confidence booster!

I have just over a week to learn my left hand and to perfect the song. I can’t wait for you to see the video of me playing!

Carly 🙂

Minecraft Master

by carlyheemskerk

On March 10, 2020

In EdTech

Hi Carly’s Crew!

I am happy to tell you I am now a Minecraft master…well almost. We had a middle school teacher and her students come in to teach us about Minecraft. I have never played Minecraft before and I had no idea that it could be used as an educational tool. The teacher shared how it can be used to enhance social studies, math or even language arts. One idea that stuck with me was getting students to create a Minecraft scene and then doing a free write about it. Another idea that stuck with me was creating ancient civilizations based on the 8 key characteristics that all civilizations have. Rich showed us a resource that contains pre-made lesson plans for Minecraft in classrooms. I think this lesson plan would be a super interesting approach to teaching grade 4/5 students about area and volume in a practical setting.

I loved learning about Minecraft but I also had a few concerns about how it could be implemented into the classroom. For one, I am not very good at maneuvering around the world and I definitely would not feel confident about teaching students how to use Minecraft. It can be a really cool experience to let students take on the role of the teacher and help teach Minecraft but this is definitely something requires the teacher to be vulnerable and be honest about what they don’t know. Also, I think Minecraft would only be appropriate to use to in a late elementary school classroom or middle school classroom. It would be too overwhelming for young students…it was even overwhelming for me! I still had lots of fun though and totally understand how it could be beneficial for the older students.

We also learned about Google Science Journal. Claire and I learned about Google Science Journal last week because we highlighted it in our EdTech blog! One drawback we talked about in class is that all students require a portable device like an iPad or phone and not all students have one. Similarly to Minecraft, this program would be best used in older grades and even into high school. My phone wouldn’t let me download it because my storage is full but I can’t wait to try it out in a classroom one day.

See you later Carly’s Crew!

Best Applications for High School Students!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 10, 2020

In EdTech Inquiry

Hey Cloggers and Carly’s Crew,

We’re back with another EdTech Inquiry blog post and if you look at the past two posts, I’m sure you can guess what we’re discussing this week. That’s right, high school applications.

This is a bit more difficult of a topic because they aren’t a lot of online applications that teach high schoolers what they need to learn. At this point in their life, CoolMathGames.com isn’t all that cool anymore… (or maybe it is, who knows honestly?) But we’ve taken to the internet to research some good ones that will help high school students in one way or another.

So let’s get into it!

#1: Google

No, we’re not just talking about a Google search menu… Google has a variety of applications included in an account that can be extremely useful for students. Some of these include Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Sites, and Classroom. Each of these apps gives students the ability to use a different platform but all on one account (easy organization!) Google also gives students the ability to share their work with other Google users; this means that if students are working on a group assignment, they will be able to work collaboratively whether they are together or not. Finally, within the Classroom app, teachers can set it up so that students can even submit their work online. Online homework means that there’s no ability for their “dog to eat their homework” #Score for teachers!

#2: Remind

This application does exactly what its name says: reminds. It allows teachers to give reminders for certain assignments and homework all through technology – this means no paper notices being sent home that get lost… It also offers group chats which can be really helpful for group projects/student questions. This aspect also takes mandatory social media out of the picture (for those who wish to stay offline).

#3: Seesaw

This application is an online portfolio. It allows parents to see student work and check in to see what students are working on. Students can also choose what they wish to post which ensures that student privacy remains intact. This is a great app for giving parents a chance to see what their child is working on which still remains respectful of students’ wishes.

Although these applications aren’t necessarily going to teach much of the curriculum, they will make a student’s learning experience easier and more accessible.

Check in next week to see our concluding thoughts on this entire inquiry. It’s gonna be a longer one, but you won’t want to miss it.

Clogging off for now,

Carly and COordt 🙂