My  Garden

For week 2 I actually got around to buying these lovely plants and potting them. What you see above is a mint, basil, zinca, celosia, and lavender plant. I'm a little unsure of the spiny looking plant because it was a gift. However, all of these plants require sun and partial shade. I've been watering them a little daily and made a garden area for them in my backyard. I'm giving them their plant food every two days or so (sometimes three if I'm forgetful.) My gardening is definitely go with the flow style but my plants seem to be flourishing so far. Also I got a put my little gnome with apples (my teacher gnome if you will) in my lavender.

My Meal

For week 2 I cooked a shrimp scampi dish with a side salad. For this dish I sauteed my shrimp with garlic and Italian seasonings and cooked it in in a skillet with a little olive oil over medium heat for six to seven minutes. I added in some cherry tomatoes a few minutes (three) before my shrimp were fully cooked. I then added this to all organic penne pasta and tossed this with a light olive oil sauce. For my salad I chopped up carrots, onions, tomatoes and cucumbers and then tossed them with romaine lettuce and Brianna's home style chipotle cheddar dressing. This dressing is HFCS free and only has 4 net grams of carbs per serving. I served this meal to my dad and he seemed to love it! (he went back for thirds. :)

Exploring Education

This week I read an article on Innovations Early College High School. This school incorporates blended learning and diverges from the traditional by allowing students to set their own pace. Blended learning is described as "a mix of online and teacher based instruction" in this article. This school differs from most K-12 schools because students set their own goals and move through self-paced online lessons.  This form of instruction is aimed towards students who want their own freedom and who the existing system doesn't work well for.  I can see the appeal of this school for students who have trouble working at a set pace. I really love the idea that each student has their own IEP and mentor teacher at this school. The only drawback I can see from this is ultimately the sheer price that it costs to operate this type of school. 
​1. _ Link to article one
Furthermore, after reading this article I explored "blended learning" a bit further by watching a video modeling blended learning.  The instruction in this video seemed very doable for future teachers. For example, creating podcasts for our students was an example in this video. This education technology class  is currently teaching me how to use the blended learning techniques that are mentioned in this video. 
​2. _Link to video two