What Americans waste!!!

Sitting in my living room flipping through channels and I find the Food Network. Four chefs are doing a special on how much produce Americans waste, after pausing to find out what the episode is about I learn that Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, Anne Burrell, and Alex Guarnaschelli are paired off and sent on a mission to rescue food that would have otherwise been sent to the trash. While watching the show I watched the chefs take food from farms and restaurants that nobody wanted. Why were these places not going to use 30 tomatoes, or 60 pounds of various types of fish?
Because we as Americans have become Spoiled babies, the only reason that these items were going to the trash bin was because they had the slightest imperfection on them. I watched Bobby visit a corn field where a farmer told him that people would not buy the corn from a stalk that had fallen over. How ridiculous does that sound? Because a stalk of corn was on the ground people would not buy it, wasting probably 5-6 perfectly usable ears of corn.
Here are the facts:
•A 2004 study showed that forty to fifty per cent of all food ready for harvest in the United States never gets eaten.
•The United States spends about 1 billion dollars a year just to dispose of food waste.
•Every day, Americans waste enough food to fill the 90,000-seat Rose Bowl.

What can we do to help? Well there is plenty we can do to help reduce our food waste.
“We would just need to redistribute edible but unsellable foods. In other words, harvest all of our crops, encourage donations from food manufacturers and wholesalers, and, where necessary, collect unsold food from supermarkets, restaurants, and industrial kitchens. This would go a long way to feeding the low-income Americans who face food insecurity” (http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/users/spotlight_on_poverty/documents/Bloom_Spotlight_05092011.pdf).
Another idea and something even easier to do, don’t waste your own food. Eat everything on your plate or if you’re cooking use everything instead of using just parts of food that you think can only be used. You can also go on food network yourself and watch the episode and learn more about what you can do.
Sources:
http://www.endhunger.org/food_waste.htm

Nook!!!

For Christmas this year I received a nook color, I had done some research on the nook tablets and had also asked friends which they preferred (nook or kindle)? It was pretty evenly split across the board. The deciding factors in my choice were the facts that I can high light text and buy some of my school books on the nook tablet. When you first turn on your nook there is a helpful video explaining how to get started. The video explains everything from how to charge your nook to how to make a purchase from the Barns and Noble store. The store offers many books, magazines, music, and apps for free which I have taken full advantage of. The only small down fall was that you have to register your credit card even for the free apps. The nook also comes with plenty of directions so you don’t get lost and the website is also available for help. I’m still exploring my nook, but I have not been disappointed thus far.

Lets Celebrate!!!!

It is getting close to that time of year again; here at Edinboro the halls are already decorated. The student center has its Christmas tree up; the railings have big red bows tied on. Soon we will be covered in feet of snow. This time of year is always my favorite and I start to think of all the fun things we use to do in grade school during the holidays. All that is changing now, schools are starting to break away from the old ways. They no longer celebrate just Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween and other holidays like that. Why is this happening? Because educators are now starting to notice the negative affects some of these parties can have on children in their classroom. The child who comes from another country may celebrate something other than Christmas or may not celebrate anything at all. What happens to this child? They get sent somewhere else in the school away from the party and away from their friends, almost like they have been punished for using one of their basic freedoms. Think about what happens to the child whose family can’t afford to buy a Halloween costume or buy cards for Valentine’s Day. Again the child has to be excluded from the group and this will negatively affect the child’s self esteem. So what is being done to fix this issue in schools? Now schools are getting rid of celebrating typical holidays and making the switch to doing things like fall fests and winter fest so everyone can partake in activates. I completely agree with the changes that are being made and in one of my classes here at school we were given the chance to recreate two holidays of our own choice. I am happy to say that as a class we had come up with some very creative ideas. But if any of you reading my blog need help thinking of a twist for the holidays here is a web site you should look at. http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/index.htm

Talk To Me!

Boxes and Toons

In my last class we were again introduced to two new resources to use in classroom. Museum Box and Go Animate 4 School are two new tools demonstrated for us in class. Museum Box is a great tool, it’s a twist on the regular power point presented in 2D it can be used in all subject areas like English, math and history. You can create your own box with embed your videos, audios, and pictures onto the box. The account is also free, which is a major plus for teachers. Go Animate 4 School was also an interesting tool. Creating a story board to present to a class during a lesson is a cute idea especially for younger students. The only down fall to this program is that costs 99 dollars per class per year.

New Tools

In our last SEDU class on Tuesday three students shared with use technology that they found to use in the class room. The three tools shown to us included the wordle, popplet, and story jumper. All three presenters explained the ups and downs of using these tools and showed examples they created. My favorite tool was the popplet. It is a free and creative program that I could see being used in all subject areas. It is also simple, which is very important when working with young child. Some of my favorite qualities about this product are that it’s private. This is important when working in a school because you want the kids to be safe and you want parents to know that their kids are safe. I also like the fact that students can continuously post, and students can upload pictures and videos to the discussion. The downs sides to a popplet are you can only create six popplets on one account and we could not figure out how to share it with other people.

Kidspiration

Kidspiration is a tool for teachers to use in the classroom. It is a computer program that helps develop strong thinking skills, strengthen reading and writing skills, and build conceptual understanding in math. Using auditory, visual, and hands on activities helping all types of learners. The program is for students in grades k-5The below clip is a tutorial of the program (it is a little long).



The second video shows a teacher using the tool in her class during a lesson on sorting objects.



This program also has a download version you can use, I also learned that this program has tools for special needs children.