Clean Eating Vegan Challenge

After a crazy stressful and too-busy winter I've decided that it's time for a clean eating challenge during this Lenten season.  After reading an article in Cooking Light (http://www.cookinglight.com/food/vegetarian/cooking-light-food-editor-vegan-00412000087133/) where the editor was challenged to go vegan for a month, I realized that I want to get more veggies into my diet, which means I need to learn how to cook them.  Thus, I decided that I'm going to go vegan for the next four weeks in order to force myself to explore the world of vegetables and clean eating, (limiting the processed food).  I'm already partly vegan from being dairy-free and shellfish-free, so we'll see how hard it's going to be!

There will be some exceptions...I'm not going to worry about making life complicated for the Swim Team banquet, and I'll be making corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day on Monday, but otherwise I'm going to attempt, and be blogging about it, mainly for myself to keep track and be able to see how it's going!

I've done some recipe hunting and planning of meals already: for breakfasts I have oatmeal and cereal with almond milk, and soy yogurts with fruit, basically what I already eat.  Weekend brunch will be harder, but there are a ton of ideas online and Pinterest has been a great resource too.  Lunches will mostly be left-overs (what I already do), and making sure that I have peanut butter or almond butter to go with my apple or celery.  I don't think protein will be an issue, but something to watch just in case.  Eating out might be difficult, and if I have to, vegetarian will be an acceptable substitute, but I'll try to keep to it even when eating out.

It all starts tomorrow (Monday!)

The first recipe I'm going to try is:

Curried Tomato Lentil Soup (Shorba Addis)

Serves 3

This recipe is based on an Ethiopian soup with a rich, deep curry flavor and complex textures. It’s easy to make in a big batch for the week ahead, but it’s so good, don’t expect it to last more than a couple of days.

1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder (berbere is preferable)
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup brown or green lentils
1 Yukon Gold potato, diced
1/4 cup whole wheat orzo pasta

Over medium-high heat, sauté the onion until it is brown. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the carrot, ginger, garlic, curry powder, and fenugreek, sautéing them for about 1 minute. Add the veggie broth and tomato paste, stirring until the tomato paste is thoroughly combined with the broth. Bring the soup to a simmer. Add the lentils and stir. Once the soup comes back to a simmer, cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook the soup for 20 minutes. Add the potato and orzo; cook the soup, covered, for 5 more minutes.

Making It Simple: Bring the veggie broth and tomato paste to a simmer, making sure the tomato paste is thoroughly combined with the broth. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, curry, fenugreek, and lentils and proceed with the above recipe as if you had just added the lentils.

The Gourmet Touch: This is an Ethiopian soup, so its flavor is best created using berbere—an Ethiopian curry mix.
Core Concepts: The key to this soup is timing when you add the ingredients. Lentils require time to cook, while diced potatoes and orzo pasta need only a few minutes; these are best added to a soup during the last few minutes of cooking.

from: http://www.pcrm.org/kickstartHome/mealplan/meal_plan.cfm#VVV  (Day 1)

Spring style quiz

I took a design quiz that I found in my "Houses" RSS and got...

Your unofficial motto is “put a flag on it,” and your accents imply winning: model sailboats, vintage badminton rackets, and leather head handmade footballs. Some might say you’re preppy or traditional; we prefer classic. And anyway, what’s wrong with a blue- and neutrals-heavy palette, a tufted leather sofa, or a tartan-print throw? In three words:Nothing at all. Now, be a dear and fix us our 4 pm G&T, won’t you? 

In the clique: Ralph Lauren 

Your new best friend: Seersucker striped textiles—like the pants, only in hand-towel and table-runner form.

You can take the quiz here:

http://www.lonny.com/quiz/aYRSijv6bHp/What+s+Your+Spring+Style/result/2j5yHPEaQ62 

I can't wait to have a place to decorate myself after following all these house flipping and DIY blogs! That of course, is going to be a while...

Diary-free chicken pot pie

Swim season is over and I'm trying to eat healthier and get back on track at the gym so that I start to feel better (avoiding shellfish would help...a swelling tongue while driving back from Richmond isn't so fun...ugh hidden oyster sauce!), but it's still so cold that I was craving some chicken pot pie!

I found this recipe from For This Season and was able to make some additions and changes to suit me (in red).

Chicken Pot Pie Filling (Dairy Free Recipe)

Ingredients

• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp butter substitute (Earth Balance)
• ½ cup onion, diced (used a full onion)
• ½ cup celery, diced (probably used more)
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2 cups frozen vegetables (organic peas, carrots and corn mix)
• 2 cups cooked chicken (half a Rotisserie from the store)
• extra veggies: 
• handful of mushrooms, chopped
• 1 small potato, chopped (microwaved for 2 minutes)
• shredded kale
• 1 recipe for double pie crust (Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry - it's dairy free!!!)

*I've also been trying to use more organic produce, who knows, maybe that's affecting all the allergies I currently have???

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large pan over medium high heat melt butter substitute and oil together.
3. Add onion and celery. Cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add flour to onion mixture, stirring to combine completely.
5. Add broth a quarter cup at a time, continually stirring to prevent clumps.
6. Add pepper, chicken and vegetables. Stir to mix and remove from heat.  (had to add more chicken broth here to help smooth the sauce)
7. Place filling in pie crust and bake for 30 minutes.

The prep probably took the longest, defrosting and chopping everything, but it was done in an hour and I was able to clean all the dishes and grade some papers while it was in the oven. 

In the oven

Just out of the oven

After a meal for one, and then 3 lunches...and I still have tons left over!  Apparently I'm not so good at cooking for one plus a few leftovers, I always get food for an army, which is not something I have.  Hope the roomies and boy wants to eat lots of chicken pot pie!

Valentine's Irish Beef & Guinness Stew

For Valentine's Day I made us Beef and Guinness Stew from the Irish cookbook (Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen) that Chris got me for Christmas, and it turned out delicious!  I halved the recipe, but wouldn't suggest doing so as it ended up being less than half.

Beef & Guinness Stew

2lb lean stewing beef

3 Tbs oil

2 Tbs all-purpose flour

salt, ground pepper, cayenne

2 large onions, chopped

1 large garlic clove, crushed

2 tbs tomato paste, dissolved in 4 Tbs of water

1 1/4 c. Guinness

3/4 c. chopped carrots

sprig of thyme

parsley

• Heat oven to 300 degrees.
• Trim the meat of fat and cut into 2 inch cubes, toss them in a bowl with 1 Tbs of oil.  Season flour with salt, ground pepper and cayenne to taste, toss the meat in the flour.
• Heat the remaining oil in a wide skillet over high heat.  Brown the meat on all sides, add onion, garlic, and tomato paste, cover, lower heat and cook gently for 5 minutes.  
• Transfer contents of pan to casserole (oven safe), pour some Guinness into the pan, boil and stir to caramelize meat juices, pour into the casserole with remaining Guinness.  
• Add carrots and thyme, cover with lid of casserole and cook in oven for 2-3 hours.
• Scatter with parsley and serve with champ, colcannon or mashed potatoes.  Drink the rest of the Guinness, if not already done :-)

Delicious!  Definitely a great Sunday meal and the whole house smelled wonderful!  (And dairy-free!)

I didn't expect to get chocolates, much less chocolates that I can't eat due to the dairy allergy...

Only to discover the trickster bought chocolates that I could eat and refilled the box!  The original chocolates were laid to rest in the trash... so thoughtful!

Happy dinner together!

Paying teachers

Just came across this article about Teacher Pay, which is a great debate right now, especially among teachers on the KDP discussion board.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/04/a-better-way-to-pay-five-rules-for-reforming

I agree with #4 and 5, but #1-3 is where I believe they focus too much on economic ideas and not on understanding what goes on in the classroom.

For example:
#1: Avoid across the board pay increases
"total compensation for the average public school teacher is considerably higher than what his or her skills would merit in the private sector."  
True, public school teachers are paid more than private schools, but there's no set curriculum in private school as mandated by the state (or in charter schools for that matter), nor do you have to be certified to teach.  True, they want to have certified teachers, but there's no law stating you must be, therefore there are some private school teachers who are not certified to teach their content.  (I know there are bad/struggling teachers everywhere, that a whole 'nother discussion.)  Also, to my knoweldge, private schools have the benefit of selective admissions over public schools, and they don't have to take or report scores on state standardized tests (if they take them).  How many public schools turn away special education students?

"School districts generally have more than enough money to pay teachers adequately, making across-the-board pay increases unnecessary and a waste of scarce resources. Such increases are also inherently blunt instruments—the least effective teachers would be rewarded as much as the most effective ones."
But what about the step increases that we haven't seen, which could be seen as the yearly bonuses that some private companies give out, or rewards for staying on the job and gaining more experience, which is said to improve the quality of teaching?  What about inflation adjustments that we haven't been getting, so our take home is decreasing while prices are increasing?

Secondly, while it looks like teachers make more than the private sector, and they do, the private sector outpaces our salaries so much faster.

#2: Performance based payment
My problem with this is not based on the idea that you should pay people even if they do a crappy job, no, I believe that people should get paid more for excellent performance, which in a teacher's world means how much students learn.  What I have a problem with is that too often test scores and principal based evaluations are used as the basis for payment.  Test scores have too many variables attached, including how well off the student's family is (more affluent has been shown to increase test scores, which I have no control over), how motivated the student is (which I can have some control over, in some situations), to how much sleep the student got the night before (which I have no control over, I'm not visiting all 155 of my students every night at home to make sure they get to bed on time, that's ridiculous and what parents are for.)  So if I teach in a less-affluent area where my students have not had lots of opportunities to learn, are not focused on succeeding in school, and didn't sleep the night before, I won't be getting a bonus or high pay all because of things that I have no to very little control over.  That is what is not fair.  Until poverty, homelessness, and mental issues are address better (or even mentioned at all) in this country, merit or performance pay in education is not realistic.

"A proper VAM uses both pre-tests and post-tests to track student progress with each teacher, attempting to measure not a student’s total achievement, but what an individual teacher added to it."
This is a great idea, and would help make performance pay more realistic, but students are already over tested and the curriculum has so much material in it (at least in VA History) that we don't have time in the school year to cover all of the material and take end of unit tests, much less take time for diagnostic tests as well.  Even a 10 question diagnostic test can take 20 minutes in class to administer, which takes 20 minutes out of the time for content.

"VAMs add important information about teacher quality, but they should always be used in conjunction with administrator evaluations and other performance-based measures."  
I haven't heard of many schools using VAMs in conjunction with many other things due to time, price, etc. plus with a reliability of 0.47 (Totally could be wrong about that.)

#3: screen after hiring
I do agree with the idea to screen after hiring because maybe a person thought they would be a good teacher but it's taking a couple years to catch on, which is where mentors and professional development (not pointless meetings, but time to sit down and develop ideas) are so important, and there are others who just never get it and should go find somewhere that a) makes them happy and b) they're successful at.  Sometimes people just don't know what successful teaching looks like, or they have to spend their entire life recreating the wheel in their first year and burn out.  More opportunities for student teaching is so important so that you can work on those skills and figure things out.

"Staiger and Rockoff argue that schools should significantly relax entry requirements, but then reserve permanent positions for only the top 20 percent or so who perform best during their tryout period, which could be as short as one year"
The problem with really relaxing entry requirements is that while it's a good idea, that's one year that affects one entire group of kids.  Having that entry year be as a student teacher would be a much better idea because if they're really failing to teach and get through to kids or manage a classroom, the experienced teacher is there to step in and offer advice and support.  I truly think that a full year of student teaching should be nationally required to become a teacher, rather than the 6 weeks to 6 mo that some candidates get.

#4: 401K plans
Completely agree... see Detroit.

#5: No magic bullets in education policy
Education policy is so wrapped in social welfare policy, healthcare policy, economic policy, and so many other things that so much would have to change all together to affect education results.  

(These are my personal thoughts and not reflective of anyone else or any business or employer.)

An Awesome Day in Teaching

Yesterday was one of the best days in teaching that I've had in a while!  We're starting our exploration unit in World 2 so I had students find out where their families are from and then they got small post-it notes and placed them all over my huge world map so you can visually see how the majority of Americans (at least in this area) are from European ancestry, with a few other places represented as well.  If they found out any cool stories while researching, I invited to tell them as well, and shared the story of how my Irish family almost didn't stay in America, and only stayed due to Great-Great-Aunt Mary not sending a letter.  Family history is definitely a part of history that I love!

My second class of World 2 shared their family histories as well and then I passed back the Children's Book project where they wrote a story to introduce the Renaissance and one of my boys asked to read his, so he got my stool, set it in the center of the room and started to read, skipping over the content about Michelangelo and Raphael, and doing a quite dramatic reading of "Doracello saves the Renaissance."  It was hysterical and had the entire class laughing, including myself.  I wish we had videotaped it (or just podcasted it) so that it could be recorded because I think it would get hits on Youtube!

My last block of the day was APUSH and after a short writing seminar to prep them for their first real essay next week, we moved into our Constitutional Convention Simulation.  I've never done a sim before and was nervous about it, but it was incredible and now I want to flip a lesson or two so that we can do more.  Each kid was assigned a state delegation and then had to pick a delegate from their state to research their positions, and then research their general state position by the time they came to class.  We moved the desks into one big circle, they had state namecards, and we began with Presenting the Virginia Plan, debating it, voting on it (6-6, one abstention), then presenting the New Jersey Plan, debating it, voting (5-6, 2 abstentions), and then the Connecticut delegation presented his plan.  Students were supposed to vote how they think their delegation should have voted, not necessarily how they actually did (otherwise it would have been a re-enactment, boring!).  After a bit of debate and a failed vote, they had time to negotiate and the topic of slavery and representation came up, which to make it funny they weren't allowed to say slavery, but had to use "that peculiar institution" and slaves had to be "persons of property" or just "property."  I cleared my voice and glared when they slipped up, and then they caught me slipping up.  The crazy thing was that by the end of the period, they actually managed to pass the CT plan, but with the 3/5ths compromise sans importation ban.  The best part was listening to them try to convince each other during negotiation to vote one way or another and why, and delegations discussing votes as they were getting into it.  I was sitting next to the South Carolina delegation and they kept discussing between themselves how to have slaves count so they could get more representatives in Congress.  Totally awesome!

These are the days that make me love what I do!

Crazy Teacher

Some days I feel like I'm going crazy, like when kids walk into my classroom expecting a quiz that I totally forgot to make copies for.  Then I think about everything I need to do to be a good teacher, and realize that I have to have 2,586 browser tabs open in my brain at all times and know what is on each of them.

I can see where a lot of the frustration with the education system is coming from because our job is full of stressers, little things that together add up to big things and keeping track of everything that needs to get done seems impossible sometimes....like:
-grading for all five periods
-planning for 2 preps and making sure that a) I'm a week (or at least a day) ahead, b) everything is copied in time and c) enough copies are made
-wondering whether we have paper this week or do I need to go buy more with my personal money
-making sure that things from last year are up to date and the rigor has been increased from standard level (what I taught last year) to honors (what I'm teaching this year)
-looking through my binders and digital documents to see what's next, trying to stay a unit ahead
-making new tests for honors classes
-coordinating with the other honors teachers so we stay on the same pacing
-coordinating with the other APUSH teachers so we stay on the same pacing
-keeping track of absent kids and what they need to make up
-keeping track of failing kids and what they need to make up
-contacting parents of failing kids, as well as their counselors and administrator
-posting everything to Blackboard on time and keeping it updated
-podcasting my AP lectures and remembering to post them
-keeping track of the honor society dues and membership, plus meeting with officers
-creating and updating agendas for both teaching teams
-adding resources to the team notebook so that we have lots of resources to share when we get stuck
-praying that the dvd will work in my computer, and if not, that I can remember how to work the TV to play the DVD without a remote
-entering grades into the digital grade book
-taking attendance every period which can take 2-3 minutes if the server is having a rough day
-attending team meetings and department meetings and faculty meetings (finally the number is reduced)
-entering due dates on each class calendar, and posting them in the classroom
-going to observe other teachers teach (now once per quarter instead of twice)
-figuring out which copy machines are working in the building and which aren't
-using e-cart (Horizons) to give test and quizzes, remembering to open them or print special scantrons, opening the right one, working with an outdated system that is SSSLLLLOOOOWWWWW...
-evaluating the data to see which kids need help or which topics need to be retaught after every test
-tracking down the kids that need remediation after a failed test and spending time to remediate them
-keeping track of data for our smart goal for evaluation
-filling out all the evaluation forms and coming up with an individual goal for the year
-keeping track of data for the 21st century skills (being able to show I'm teaching critical thinking skills in class)
-writing out narratives for IEP and 504 renewals and then attending the meetings
-writing college recs for former students (or boy scout/governor's school/camp recs)
-reading new content to learn more so I can answer questions asked
-making sure things are announced in time, like application due dates for honors societies and tests
-merging the millions of test questions into a test bank that can create versions of tests
-creating keys for each test or quiz (and versions)
-actually teaching each class period

not to mention what I love to do and why I'm in this job right now...
-working individually with students who are struggling
-celebrating the accomplishments of students who are succeeding
-getting to know all 155 students that I have this year

It's a wonder that a) anyone teaches and not surprising that b) many teachers leave after 3-5 years.
(And I'm at an affluent school with amazing kids and amazing co-workers!)

*A little background for those not familiar... I have the kind of kids who have helicopter parents, who can afford tutors and review books, but that also leads to larger cases of anxiety and depression.  The majority want to succeed and it's awesome to see that attitude and see them succeed.  There's a lot of pressure here to take as many AP classes as you can, and our AP kids do well, we had an 89% pass rate last year, and our kids do well on the SOL (state test) with a school average of 96%.  We don't have many ESOL (ESL/LEP etc) students, but that population is growing and we're in the process of learning how to support them better because we're great at supporting the high achievers, not always to the benefit of the middle ground.  No school is perfect, but I think we're a pretty good school.

Maine Trip

Just some pictures from our family trip to Maine this summer!

Gorges Trail up Cadillac Mtn

Almost to the top of Cadillac Mtn, highest point on the East Coast

Bar Harbor from the top of Cadillac

Famous island author with her books at Sherman's and an interested reader

Waiting for the fireworks from the top of Cadillac

Classic Vbergh Penobscot Mtn hike

Jordan Pond and Pemetic Mtn

the few ripe blueberries

Jordan Pond and Seal Harbor

Jordan Cliffs Trail

Rewarded with lemonade and popovers after a long hike

Bubbles Pond (our biking day)

Bar Harbor

1920s Picnic Boat we took out to spread Poppa's ashes

Seal Harbor

Lunch on the rocks

Thurston's Lobster Pound

Wonderland Rocks

Yankee's game in NYC!

Rain delay :-(

Reflections on 2012-13 School Year

Some things that I'm going to be sure to do next year...

-Student info sheets at the beginning of the year...did this my first year and it helped get to know interests and outside of school stuff, didn't do it this past year which was a mistake
-I want to try Remind101...if only Blackboard would send messages to phones!

WHII
-moving up to honors so notes need to be more student centered, no more fill in the blanks!  Need to figure out how to be half-way between Standard style notes and APUSH...
-Start the year with Geog again, vocab and battleship definitely, and add back in the map project, but get rid of those worksheets
-World in 1500...changes notes to a SPEARS cooperative learning activity
-tests with different versions and more writing, even just short answers

APUSH
-want to do more writing workshops (organizational categories before essay #1) and have students record in their folders after each essay is handed back what they need to work on to improve...did this for the last essay and it helped
-integrate more articles into class, start with the 3-2-1s again

Settling In

We're in the process, in between world traveling, of settling into our new place!

Original bedroom set up..some things have changed since

Living room complete with a rug and Flounder (the fish)!

Dining room table helped provide a space to eat

Hung some art

A bench and a rug for the entry, plus a mirror to brighten the space

I'm sure more changes will come soon when we're all back in September!