Keeping it going...physically and mentally

This long drawn out winter has certainly taken its toll of me mentally and physically.  Trying to keep focused on school and family has been tough; but with enough tea and steam I am getting through it all.

One of the great issues during the winter is the lack of Vitamin D
 - not enough sunshine to keep us up to speed.

So when the sun shines - get outside and enjoy!
I sure did enjoy the past weekend, but as I write this can you believe they are saying more snow...

Give me some tea; steaming with some Lemon Balm or Lemon Grass - sure to keep my spirits up!

If you are looking for some great holistic remedies to help fight this seasonal depression that seems to affect so many of us, check out this blog.

So my FACS to STEAM research and paper are coming along.

I have added additional tabs to my GoogleSite for Skills for Life.  By consolidating my curriculum I am beginning to feel quite accomplished... Now does anybody have any hints for getting students to view and practice?

I am pulling together all the data for the two marking periods of students who have done pre and post assessments concerning STEAM education and Family & Consumer Science.  I can definitely see how students perceive the class; but it is not so clear that a 48 day class is enough time for students to make the connection as to the relationship of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics within Family & Consumer Science.  I think there may need to be some studies that take a longer range course, and maybe follow some of these students as they take more FACS courses through High School.

Another issue might be:  We silo other subjects, with the connections not very clear, that when we do connect the content there is resistance.  It may be perceived as forced connections.  Is this why so many times I hear; "But this isn't math class?  Why are we experimenting?  But this is cooking, not Science?"
So much to ponder...

I think I will get some STEAMING Tea, put my feet up and...

STEAMED and Delicious!

Since this past weekend ended the Lunar New Year, I celebrated with Chinese.

Steaming is a centuries old method of cooking, that integrates water and heat to cook food to perfection.  The use of bamboo to create a steamer is an ingenious way to utilize the plentiful natural resource of bamboo.  Ask anyone who has planted a stand of bamboo how quickly it grows and takes over.  Technology that still works perfectly today!

How does this possibly relate to my capstone project?

This week I worked diligently to pull the intervention elements of my curriculum into one easy to navigate site.  I choose using a Google site as we are becoming a very Google centric school; offering an easy way for my class to share the information.  There will be a link to this site on my teacher webpage.

The basics; like the method of cooking demonstrated above, are focused on the elements of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) within the field of Family & Consumer Science.  Using some very basic tools, I feel that I can introduce the students to the connection their core subjects have to life.  The basic site offers the opportunity to add more content; as it becomes more relevant to the curriculum and the needs of the students.

A benefit of this site; it is very much like the steamer, it can be multi-layered, offering lots of product in one very easy to handle container.  As I completed the site, I immediately thought of additional tabs and pages that could be added, increasing the amount of material available to the students.

I must say, I have managed to get out of my fog of the previous week, and am moving forward towards a delicious end product.

STEAM or is it just FOG?

As I was driving to school one morning last fall I had to stop and photograph the moon with the early morning fog.  I remembered this sight as I feel I am in a fog with the end of this capstone project.  Although the fog seemed to overwhelm me this past weekend, there is the glimmer of clearing in a light blue sky.
I will try to remember this as I gather all of the tools that I am using as intervention in the teaching of Family & Consumer Science from the perspective of STEAM.

Last week saw me try to organize the variety of projects that my students have experienced this school year. The biggest frustration came as I committed such a rookie mistake as not SAVING the document after spending hours organizing as well as attaching documents incorrectly. I guess I really took too much down time during the break!  The silver lining is that after re-writing, I can claim a better understanding of what I am really accomplishing in my classroom.  The next goal is to finish creating the Google Site for a depository of the project assignments, tutorials, videos and informational text that can easily be accessed by my students.

I must say I was slightly depressed after the end of this past marking period.  It seemed so disjointed with the holidays and snow disturbances, that I am not sure if the students truly gained as much as they could.  My goal is with my new group of students to focus on the positives, searching for the one or two students who truly find the connections of all things STEAM into the world of Family & Consumer Science.