A writer's Random ramblings
Are you running low on things to eat? Still need supper for your family, but you’re too busy to hang around the stove? Is it just “one of those days” where you don’t feel like cooking? What do you do on these days?
Let the slow cooker do the job of making supper. Today’s models, especially those by Crock-Pot, allow the home cook to set them and get on with the day. One can set timers as well as temperatures for cooking. Today’s Crock-Pots offer Low and High temperature settings, timers able to count down several hours for you, and even stirring attachments for soup. Six to 7 quart models, the most common size, provide the most efficient cooking area. This size can accommodate anything from a meal for 4-6 people to enough soup to freeze a batch, or even Thanksgiving stuffing for 12. Yes, these machines do require several hours to cook the food for you, but it's time you can better spend on running errands or doing other work. Chicken, beef, and pork work well as the meats in the slow cooker. Campbell’s and other companies make wonderful sauces for these applications, often suggesting on the package vegetables that pair well with the flavors and cook right along with the meats. Campbell’s Oven sauces also work well in the slow cooker, as long as the cook uses the Low setting and plenty of time. In either case, the best bet is to put the meat and any potatoes or other starchy vegetables on the bottom of the pot, then other veggies and the sauce on top. As it cooks, the sauce falls to coat everything in the Crock-Pot, making one cohesive dish with plenty of flavors. These packets of sauce give beginning cooks a wonderful, simple entry to the world of cooking. With a little more experience, cooks can adapt older family recipes like tomato sauce, chili, and other soups and stews to the machines. Since it steams the food inside, always decrease the liquid as you begin to adapt recipes to your machine and cooking settings. Generally, in a 6-quart slow cooker, one can crumble about a pound of ground beef or turkey into the bottom. Then, add 4 frozen tomatoes, one 28-ounce can of tomato sauce or diced tomatoes, and any other vegetables and spices you like. To turn the tomato base into chili, I like to put 5 15 ounce cans of whatever beans I found on sale rather than the spaghetti type veggies. In either of these cases, as well as any other soup, I use the stirring attachment to make sure everything is cooked and integrated into the dish. For these reasons, even the scrappy cook can take items around the kitchen and make dinner. All it takes is a Crock-Pot and some time. The cook can also go run other errands while allowing the device to do the heavy lifting of dinner.
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Why isn’t education relevant to each student a viable option? Some argue that it would create more need for teachers in an economy that can’t support them. However, this would create more jobs in a place that needs them. The concept of making education relevant to what students want to do after graduation and/or higher education would also keep them engaged and more likely to graduate.
Math often comes up as the bane of students’ existence. Performing arts majors who do not naturally excel in this area seem to have the most difficulty remaining interested. Why not tailor a specialized program of math and arts for them to see how the two fields combine? Those who need to design drill for a marching band or choreograph dances for troupes or actors need to learn to manipulate space constraints versus numbers of participants. For this, basic algebra and geometry could be integrated into a computer-aided design course or series of courses where the student learns to place performers for more crowd-pleasing results when the show is presented publicly. As with other capstone courses in some academy programs, students in this field should be encouraged to present their directing and design skills to an audience of interested community members and future students. For many students, a basic statistics course would provide them with a more real-world math credit than what many states require. This would help future teachers, especially in conjunction with a computer course on calculating grades. Those wishing to become coaches in various sports also would benefit from such classes for learning to keep records on their teams. Sports and political journalists could also use basic statistics. It would assist them in reporting more accurately to readers and viewers, making society better informed. Studying economics as well as financial literacy also benefits many more people than we tend to think. Both of these courses can integrate principles of statistics and even algebra. When teachers can demonstrate these integrations, students will see better how math can be useful to everyone. Economics by nature lends itself to a multidisciplinary approach. Placing students from all other academic areas in such a class could bring about many levels of conversation. Mathematically minded folks may latch onto how statistical analysis can follow into social studies. Those more interested in the human and behavioral sciences can analyze how one person or group affects the economy of a city or nation. Putting both kinds of analysis together in a group project gives them a chance to demonstrate to one another how both types of analysis can aid in creating a more informed and active society. Then, those who graduate into political careers can bring these concepts to where they can help more of society as a whole. Education, to be a creator of society, needs to be relevant to those it serves. When children are allowed to explore at younger ages and narrow down interests as they grow, schools can tailor education to how they function. This will keep more youngsters engaged in learning and likely to become lifelong learners. Lifelong learners create a more informed and integrated society through their open minds. Many people claim schools as the training ground for the community’s future leaders and participants. Yet, students face so many required classes that they often have difficulty finding the ways of so doing best suited to their personalities. How can we produce well rounded citizens with better ideas of how their talent fits society?
For one thing, make the Service Learning component easier to fulfill. Often, schools leave the defining of this term to counselors, which leaves some students searching too long for ways to gain the hours. In many cases, churches or synagogues serve as the child’s introduction to a community outside of the family or neighborhood. Why shouldn’t activities the young take on in such places count toward the service hours? For example, if a high school student who has demonstrated an interest in music volunteers to assist a music minister in teaching younger children, the hours spent there ought to count across the board, as they do when a soccer star helps coach a team. At the same time, one could theoretically use that same form to work toward hours spent on arts, gym, or other such credits for graduation. When a supervising adult can certify physical activity, count the helping toward physical education credits. If the student teaches dance or musical theatre to younger kids in such settings, those credits could apply toward gym or arts, depending upon what the earner of hours needs more. Helping out with music or other performing and literary arts could also give a high school student some art-related credit and service hours if those do not fit within the school day schedule, as could belonging to an after-school music or arts related club such as jazz band or the school play. In trying to gain academic credit, teachers supervising these activities could discuss and have students write essays on how the activity follows into one’s general health and could lead to a career in the financial component of the Health class. For those who struggle finding core classes to fit into their interests and schedules, integrate some of the ideas into the other areas. This idea builds on the time-honored tradition of plugging applied math and science into vocational classes. In this case, have students of the building trades volunteer on Habitat for Humanity houses, working alongside the professionals to calculate the amount of materials needed for math credit while earning service hours for the build itself. Math and science can also play into the requirements of Health class when studying social disease risks and statistics and the financial literacy unit. A truly technological education would also allow a computer science class or series thereof to cover the technical education requirement at the entry level followed by math, science, and social studies as computer programs are generated by the class to solve such problems. Cooking and management classes also use many science, math and social studies skills to create recipes to cook or schedules for workers under the manager. Even music majors can add mathematical and scientific components to their interest by teaching how intervals of notes and their frequencies play into the creation of harmony, especially at Honors or above levels. For all but those wishing to study comparative languages and literatures later, these courses need to become more conversational in nature. Plunging in and teaching them the European way, as one would a young child, will make the new language stick more for all involved. This would help those planning to go into medicine or human services, such as teaching or journalism, so they can pronounce and understand what others say when a new student from another nation joins the class or needs treatment or information. When someone states a desire to teach in the future, those classes on curriculum, instruction, psychology, and sociology could stand in for some of the history requirements when they want to teach other subjects later. Then, take the skills out into the community in an internship setting in the student’s areas of interest, preferably during a break, and allow service learning hours for this as well. Doing this will help the student not only earn the required hours, but again show how his or her skills and interests benefit the community and how they can form a career. In these ways, one can bring the school and community together. This will teach our students how every citizen counts, and provide more worldly skills. Whether the student then chooses to stay or find a new community, he or she can integrate better and improve the world in his or her own way. School can then teach students to be citizens with better support from those in other occupations to create whole society. How can people relate better to one another? Begin by reading and implementing last week’s post. Take a few smaller steps toward helping those around you feel like they belong. What kinds of smaller steps help us learn to be better people?
First, disconnect from technology and tune into people. Observing our surroundings can teach us new things or allow us to notice and possibly reconnect with people we haven’t seen. One can learn to appreciate a sunrise or sunset, or maybe find a new interest in local architecture. These could lead to fascinations in either appreciating or producing art in various ways. Waving hello or stopping to see someone could lead to getting contact information and beginning or rekindling a friendship. Tuning into the people makes them feel important. Who wouldn’t want to feel important to another? “But my friends are on the Internet or texts!” Not always! Would you want the other person in the room ignoring you all day to “talk” to a virtual person? I sure wouldn’t! Silence or turn off the notifications of technology if you can’t otherwise ignore them. When the notifications persist, ask the live person whether you may check the importance of what tech brings in. You may be surprised that it is OK. It’s always kinder and gentler to ask first rather than make the other person wonder what’s important to you. Be more childlike in seeking information. When you’re with another person, ask him or her first. Answer his or her query in an informative tone, not a condescending one, when you can. If nobody in the group knows, have someone look up the answer. Finding out together or asking a third party and getting back to others can become a game of sorts. Taking turns being the information finder also helps more people feel like important members of a group. Inclusion promotes cooperation and eventual peace more than anything in shared learning. These lessons of how to collaborate effectively can then spill over into other areas of life. Share your passions with those who seem interested. Ask others around if they would like to come join a group you belong to or if you may show them how you do something. Never turn away someone who is genuinely curious. If you’d like to know about something that person finds interesting, ask to trade information. Who knows? Both parties may gain a new hobby, if not friend, in the process of sharing ideas. Society and technology can fuse into an integrated whole. Those involved must make it happen by becoming aware of both components of the modern world. Everyone must then act logically and responsibly toward all parts of the world for true integration and peace. |
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