Month: March 2020

Sweet Potato Treats

On March 10, 2020

Hi again Carly’s Crew!

Everyone knows that sweet potatoes are sweet 😉 But did you ever think about sweet potatoes in brownies? Me neither! Nonetheless, I tried it out…

Step 1: Gather ingredients and preheat over to 350.

Step 2: Measure all ingredients into a food processor (blender).

Step 3: Mix until it is well combined.

Step 4: Transfer into a greased baking dish and spread evenly.

Step 5: Bake for 12 minutes and enjoy!

Difficulty level: 5/10

The batter was thick and messy which made for extra clean-up but other than that they were easy peasy lemon squeaky. Before I did this inquiry I never had used a food processor for mixing but it is much more efficient and easier to clean than the Mix Master that I am used to mixing with. Pro tip: After you empty the contents from the blender, fill it up with a few inches of warm water and add a drop of soap. Turn it on to medium power and it will wash the majority of the blender for you! Now all you have to do is rinse!

Deliciousness level: 7/10

These were awesome! You couldn’t even tell that they were made with sweet potato, they just tasted like really rich dark chocolate brownies. I think it would be a delicious treat to have with vanilla ice cream! I ended up cutting them into pretty big squares but next time I would cut them into smaller bite sized pieces.

So there you have it! These definitely are not the healthiest thing in the world but everyone deserves a treat once in a while, and these brownies are a much better choice than most other baked goods.

See you next week!

The Start of Something New!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 5, 2020

In Music

Hi Carly’s Crew!

Welcome back to my piano journey. I’m currently working on learning how to play A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. I noticed that there are a lot of similarities between this song and my previous song but there are some new things that have been causing me some trouble.

For now, I am just focussing on using my right hand. I have learned about a minute of my song with the right hand so far but I am feeling super confident because the chorus is long and it repeats! The chorus is much faster than I have ever played before. It was tricky the first couple of times but I have been practicing it slowed down which has really been helping. I learned that you can use settings on the Youtube video to slow it down which also helps me practice.

Before I began learning my right hand I listened to the whole song and watched the video with the notes to see what I was getting in to. The left hand is much more active in this song so I know that is something that will be a huge challenge for me. To help me succeed I want to finish the rest of the song with my right hand pretty quickly so I have extra time to practice using both hands together.

The song has a variety of dynamics that I will need to practice as well. I have been trying to learn the dynamics as I work towards learning the notes because I think it will be easier rather than learning the whole song and then coming back to learn the dynamics after the fact.

I think I am definitely on the right track to being successful by the end of semester. Talk to you in a couple weeks so you can hear more about my musical adventure:)

Back in the classroom!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 3, 2020

In EdTech

Hey hey Carly’s Crew!

This my cat Jafar taking a nap. He inspired my provocation!

It has been a hot minute but we were finally back in the regular classroom today to learn more about educational technology. We debriefed about our experience at in Rebecca’s inquiry based classroom. Next, we learned how to screen record using Screencastify! I chose to wonder about if cats can have dreams and what they dream about. My cat, Jafar, always flinches in his sleep so I am very curious as to if he is dreaming or if it is just natural. It was super easy to create the screen recording of my wonder but I had some struggles downloading it to my computer. I was even able to voice record…just like a vlog! I think this program will be very useful in the future.

Check it out!! Does it make you wonder about what is going on in the cats head? This is something I would use a provocation in a primary classroom if we were doing an inquiry to cats and dreams.

We were asked to create an inquiry that could be used in a K-5 classroom and I think this inquiry about cats and dreaming would be great in a Kindergarten classroom! I would start by showing them this Giphy and asking them the three questions that Rebecca told us to ask:

What do you see?
What do you know?
What do you wonder?

From there, I would be able to create a unit plan. One idea that I had would be to get students to create drawings of what they think the cat is dreaming about. The students would then get to share their various ideas with the class. From there, we would watch videos and read books about cats (or other animals) and dive into their dreams. I don’t think we will find a black and white answer about what animals dream about but this would be a great opportunity to allow students some creative freedom! Students could go home and take videos or pictures of their pets sleeping and create dream bubbles for them. I would encourage my students to share WHY they thought their pet was dreaming of that. I would also ask students what clues did your pet give you that they were dreaming?

Continuing on with the topic of vlogging, we downloaded Audacity and learned about the art of podcasting. Personally, I don’t enjoy listening to recordings of my voice so I don’t think I’ll ever be a famous podcaster! I still tried out recording my voice and making some edits. The program was a little bit hard to navigate at first but once I got the hang of it I was able to create a pretty good recording. It was hard to record high quality audio when I’m in a room with 30 other students that are talking. On top of that, I was only using my laptop microphone so it can’t compare to a high quality snowball microphone. Let’s just say I think I will stick to blogging 😉

See you next week!

Carly 🙂

My version of overnight oats

by carlyheemskerk

On March 3, 2020

In Free Inquiry

Hey Carly’s Crew!

This week I decided to see what all the buzz is around overnight oats. When you search overnight oats on Pinterest or Google it can be overwhelming at first! There are tons of recipes with all types of ingredients. I attempted a very basic recipe just to get the hang of it. Here are my ingredients:

I chose this recipe from Minimalist Baker. Here is the picture from the website:

Jar of Peanut Butter Overnight Oats for a delicious vegan breakfast

And here is the picture of my final product:

Definitely not as aesthetically pleasing to look at… but they were yummy, filling and quick to make!

Difficulty level : 4/10

This recipe took me about 10 minutes to chef up. The only downside is that you do need to be prepared and make them the night before, you can’t just wake up and make them. The ingredients were simple and there was no mess because it was all in my mason jar. I ate it at home, but it would be a great on-the-run breakfast!

Deliciousness level: 8/10

Yum! I think that this is my new favourite breakfast 🙂 As you already know, I’m a peanut butter lover so this recipe was right up my alley! I know many people complain that oats like this have a weird texture because they are cold. Personally, I love the texture! There will definitely be more adventurous overnight oats in my future; I’m excited to try out some different recipes!

Here are the next overnight oats I plan to try:

Brown Sugar Pear Steel-Cut Oats

See you next week for some healthy brownies!

Carly 🙂

Best Applications for Middle School Students!

by carlyheemskerk

On March 3, 2020

In EdTech Inquiry

Hello Cloggers and Carly’s Crew,

This week we are back and we are diving into the best technology tools that can be used in middle school. Middle school students are constantly surrounded by iPhones, laptops and televisions at home so we need to ensure that we are providing them with new knowledge that leads them to success. Students at this age are extremely creative and competitive so we chose programs that are tailored to these qualities.

#1 iMovie

iMovie allows students to make a movie from a blank canvas, or create a trailer from a structured story board. Students can use iMovie to create projects like book trailers or a short newscast. iMovie also provides students with the challenge of editing video clips together…sometimes this can be very frustrating for students. Students will have way more fun creating projects on iMovie rather than just handing in an essay and it also encourages students to think outside the box.

#2 Kahoot

This is our personal favourite educational app of ALL TIME. Kahoot is such a fun way for students to review material before a test. Although it doesn’t really tap in to students’ conceptual knowledge, it is still a super fun activity that changes the pace of the class! We still get excited about playing Kahoot so if you haven’t ever played, we highly suggest you go try it out.

Check it out!

#3 Science Journal

We had never heard about this app until we began our research but it sounds super interesting! This app is only available on smart phones but it allows students to record data for lab experiments through pictures, videos, writing and audio. Not only is that app a one stop shop for recording all the data and staying organized, it also allows students to watch videos of other science experiments and get inspired. We thought that this app would be a great resource for students that want an extension on any science projects that are completed in class. Finally, this app turns phones into light and motion sensors (these are lab tools that are extremely expensive). All around it seems like a super neat app!

Go take a look!

That’s all we’ve got for you this week!

Clogging off,

Carly and COordt 🙂