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  • Too old for Tik Tok?

    Conversations in class last week about how much you can learn from Tik Tok finally got me curious enough to create an account and officially dive into the world of Tik Tok.

    source: knowyourmeme.com

    I started with some basic searches… “canning”, “canning for beginners”, “canning and preserving”. These searches were enough to take me down the rabbit hole and I discovered a whole other world of canning I had not seen from the blogs I had been exploring.

    From diving into Tik Tok I found myself immersed in an entirely different “canning” community. There were a lot of people who do a lot of canning for a variety of reasons. Some of them including:

    -cost: when an item is on sale they will purchase in bulk and then can to preserve them. I found one video of someone canning butter, it was confusing to me but from reading the comments found that the reason for this was you can purchase butter when on sale and it has a very long shelf life when preserved properly. Another reason was people who live where there may not always be electricity.

    -growing their own food: they grow their own vegetables or other things in their garden, then can because they have an abundance

    -carbon footprint: many people talked about how making and preserving your own food is much better for the environment and reduces your carbon footprint

    -health reasons: canning your own food means you can control what goes into your food, this way you avoid unwanted additives or preservatives found in the grocery store

    This was a really interesting learning experience for me. I learned a lot about the benefits of canning and was exposed to different viewpoints. I must admit I was a skeptic about TikTok, but just this one experience allowed me to see the benefits.

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  • Educating kids on their online identity…How can they be in control of their digital footprint?

    “Cyber Safety”… is it just me or does that seem like a very outdated term? I associate this term with the first wave of our school systems trying to educate students about online safety. I can’t say I experienced much of this myself, I recall the internet being introduced in schools when I was in about Grade 7. I do recall when Facebook first came out and my parents wanted me to take my profile down because they didn’t like my information being online. (Lucky for me, after they made me delete it I found a “reactivate your account” button… sorry mom lol) There was also a big push at my high school about teaching us how to use Facebook appropriately. I think these were the days where everyone accepted every friend request, whether they knew the person or not. I recall our entire student body being in the gym and listening to our counselors lecture us on the importance of not accepting friend requests from people we didn’t know.

    I think most of my experience in learning about digital safety would have been around the idea of social media. In my years as a student teacher at the University of Regina there was a heavy focus on the idea that we would be professionals so there shouldn’t be photos of you online with a drink in your hand or being out at the bar. Reflecting on it now, I actually feel that was a very prominent conversation in many of my education classes. Near the end of my schooling there was this pressure to “clean up” our social media pages in order to put on the face of a professional. I think this was also the time where the message was very clear that whatever you put online was there FOREVER! Therefore you should be extremely cautious, if not a little bit scared about what you choose to post.

    Looking back now, our society has become even more reliant on technology than we probably ever imagined. So instead of an avoidance tactic, I think a more useful strategy would have been something about building a positive digital footprint. We are all online in some way, shape or form. How can we educate students to be in charge of their digital narrative and take ownership and responsibility for how they are represented online? I think this should be the focus moving forward. Common Sense Media has some great lessons about this for all ages.

  • How ’bout them apples?

    This week I made apple butter for my learning project. This recipe also used a water bath canning method, which is what I also used for the salsa a few weeks ago. This recipe was super easy and didn’t take long. I wasn’t sure if it would turn out so I cut the recipe in half and only made 2 small jars.

    Boil the apples, puree, and cook until thickened. Easy peasy!

    My goal for my learning project this week was to follow a different type of media online. So far I have used mostly blogs to learn about canning. Today I used a blog recipe but then followed a visual step by step slide show they had created. I had the recipe printed, then followed the visuals. I actually preferred to follow along with the visuals, however it was tricky to go between the slides and the recipes. I would have preferred if the recipe was posted on each slide. (Maybe this will be an inspiration to document my learning during another week!)

    So what was the final result? I had some on my cinnamon raison toast for breakfast and it was AH-MAZING! Looks like I should have made more than just 2 jars!

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  • What the heck is pressure canning!?

    This week I was away from home for a conference, so was not able to do any actual canning or hands-on learning for my project. But I figured this was a great time to dive into some of the more specifics about canning and learn a little bit more before I dive into making my next recipe.

    I had been seeing the term “pressure canning” quite a bit and wasn’t sure what that meant. Most of the recipes I have read or used so far just require the lids to seal themselves because the food is hot, or placing the jars in boiling water until they seal. I was curious so did some exploring about the difference between what I have been doing and pressure canning.

    I tried a few different platforms to learn about this, including TikTok! This is where I first heard the term “pressure canner”. (Also learned how to insert a TikTok video onto wordpress! Simply use the website version of TikTok and copy and paste the URL)

    @thesophisticatedcaveman

    Reply to @davianp01 What you need to start. #diy #canning #cooking #recipe #cook #hunting #fishing #garden #foodpreservation #lifehack

    ♬ original sound – The Sophisticated Caveman

    What I learned about pressure canning:

    -Only low acid foods require pressure canning. This includes meat and vegetables.

    -High acid foods only require water bath canning. This includes fruits, jams, pickles, and salsa. This is why I had not yet come across the need for a pressure canner! All my recipes are with high acid foods.

    For now I think I will be sticking to the water bath canning method and high acid foods, mostly because I don’t plan to invest in a pressure canner. But who knows where this learning project will take me in the future!? Maybe I will turn into a regular canning connoisseur!

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  • Building My Twitter Network

    I would consider myself to be a reluctant Twitter user. I have taken EdTc courses in the pass and have used Twitter for that, but always stopped using it as soon as the class was done. I recently started a new position as a Learning Facilitator, which had me wanting to get back into the Twitter world so this class came at the perfect time.

    My role as Learning Facilitator is a bit of a mix between Learning Consultant and Instructional Coach. So I am focusing on building my network around the community of Instructional Coaching in education because that it something that is so new to me. After attending an Instructional Coaching conference this past week, I have been able to find quite a few people to follow and start building that network.

    But I also enjoy sharing resources and ideas with other teachers. My biggest passion in teaching is in the area of Mathematics, so that is what I tend to gravitate towards. I have connected with a few accounts these past weeks that I have been learning a lot from. Some of my favourites are: @SteveWyborney @BerkeleyEverett @MathforLove. They all have great ideas and resources that can be easily adapted for every classroom.

    As someone who has been teaching for 10 years, I also try to share things that would be helpful to my peers in EdTc 300. One tweet that seemed to be quite helpful was the following:

    Since I am also working in classrooms every day, I like to share tweets about some of the things I am doing or seeing on a day to day basis. This is one tweet I shared last week about students engaging in a #ThinkingClassrooms task and using the window as a vertical whiteboard.

    I look forward to continuing to build my network, and to keep this going even after the class is done.

    If you have made it this far, thanks for reading! Be sure to follow me on Twitter: @AmyDavisHT

  • Make Salsa With Me and CapCut!

    For my learning project this week I made my first batch of canned goods- salsa! Turns out making and canning salsa is fairly easy- but documenting the process with CapCut proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. The app itself was straightforward once I figured it out, but the hassle of documenting every step of the salsa making was not my favorite. I kept thinking of all the different tiktok videos out there that are less than a minute long but they probably take people hours to make! It was definitely a bit of a “instagram vs reality” moment for me to take in. But once the video was completed and I added the music- I was actually really proud of the little piece of art I created! Check out my final product here:

    My Review of CapCut

    I chose CapCut because I had heard it was great for making videos where you needed pieces to overlap. I wanted this video to be super short, so I knew I needed to smoothly transition from one video to the next. I did all the editing on my phone, and it took me less than an hour to make this video from start to finish. Uploading all the videos was fairly quick, I had about 48 minutes worth of video to upload and it look only a few minutes. To upload new videos, simply click the + button.

    Click the + button to upload your video clips.

    After uploading all the videos, I sped them up to 6x the speed. This was easy to do, but I wish there was a way to select all videos and apply this to all (maybe there is- I just couldn’t find it).

    To speed up your video, simply click “edit” then “speed”

    Trimming the length of each video was really slick, the videos kind of overlapped and you could drag one over to where you wanted it to start at the end of the previous clip. Then I added the finishing touches of a bit of text and some music. I did struggle a bit with the music. I tried to upload a song from my Apple music but I couldn’t get it to work. I ended up just adding a song from the CapCut library which was easy enough.

    CapCut had a good selection of music to pick from in their library.

    A quick upload and save and the video was in my camera roll. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! Next time I would play around with some of the transitions and maybe try to make the text more creative. Overall I would say CapCut is very user friendly as I am not the most techy person and I didn’t have trouble creating this video.

    CapCut in the Classroom

    I think this would be a useful tool if students were making videos in the classroom. I asked my 10 and 12 year old niece about the app and they were familiar with it and use it often to make their own videos at home. In regards to the SAMR model, I think it would fall under modification because it offers a new platform for students to showcase their learning. Rather than creating a paper and pencil product, students could showcase their learning through video and speaking. It would also offer some useful skills on video editing.

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  • My Canning Menu!

    This week my focus was to narrow down my plan for the learning project and come up with the recipes I plan to make as well as gather the supplies I will be needing. This is great timing because my bucket of green tomatoes have almost all turned red- so I will need to get started on my salsa and tomato sauce fairly quickly! My parents also gave me a huge bag of apples from their apple tree, so I was on the hunt for some delicious apple recipes too.

    I am going to start with this collection of recipes, and depending how these go I will likely come across some other recipes I want to try (or I may end up having to try again if I mess up!) I did try to include a variety of platforms such as blogs, you tube videos, instagram, and tik tok.

    This tik tok video helped me determine what I needed to get started. I know nothing about tik tok but am trying to expand my knowledge on different social networking platforms so here we are! https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFePKAyf/

    Materials:

    Jars and lids- got these from my mom. I will have to go to the grocery store to get more, and probably some larger ones

    Stock pot- purchased from the grocery store

    Water bath canner and tongs- borrowed from my mom. I have learned that this is what you use to sanitize the jars and also to seal them.

    Apple Recipes:

    Apple butter: https://heartscontentfarmhouse.com/apple-butter-for-canning/

    I plan to make this one with my slow cooker! I hope this one turns out well because I know my kids would love this!

    Apple pie filling: https://practicalselfreliance.com/canning-apple-pie-filling/

    Tomato Recipes:

    Salsa: https://www.delishknowledge.com/the-best-homemade-salsa-for-canning/#h-the-salsa-canning-process

    Tomato Sauce: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUD9ViRP_jM/?igshid=NDRkN2NkYzU=

    Jam Recipes:

    Strawberry Jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU3OJIfB1Lw

    Other Recipes:

    Candied Jalepenos: https://youtu.be/SFoxWvrYTcQ

    Stay tuned for my next post to see how my first recipe goes! Thanks for reading.

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  • Too Many Tomatoes

    For my learning project this term I have decided how to can. (Can that be a verb!?) To explain how I came up with this idea I will show you the 5 gallon pail currently sitting in my kitchen:

    I have always had a garden and every year I end up with an abundance of tomatoes thinking, “I should really learn how to make salsa!” Yet every year we eat tomato sandwiches for a month straight and there is still no homemade salsa in my pantry. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to finally learn something I have been wanting to do for years. But I don’t want to stop at just salsa- I am still trying to decide what options to explore. I know I for sure want to do salsa, tomato sauce, and jam. But I would like to get creative and try a few more things, I’m just not sure what.

    Since I have no experience in canning I think my first step is to gather the supplies I will need. I know my mom has a few things I can probably borrow from her. My other plan for this week is to do some more research to find a few more things I would like to learn to can. Once I have these things done then I think it will be time to get started. I plan to come up with a rough guideline or schedule as to which things I will be making throughout the weeks. I think this will help keep me on track! Salsa and tomato sauce will come first so I can use up these tomatoes before they go bad.

    Do you have any experience with canning? If so please comment below with any helpful tips!

    If you have an idea for something I should can, please also comment below! I am open to any ideas.

    Thanks for reading.

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  • Hello!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog! My name is Amy and I am a student in EDTC300 at the University of Regina. I am also a Learning Facilitator with Holy Trinity Catholic School Division, a wife, and mom of 2 little ones.

    My knowledge in educational technology is fairly basic. I am familiar and competent in all the platforms I need to know for my job, but other than that I am not overly involved in the online education community. I always say I want to get more active on twitter and really build a professional community, but I never seem to stick with it.

    I am still a reluctant blogger, even though I have blogged in past EDTC courses I have taken. To be honest putting my thoughts online makes me feel very vulnerable- but I have always been open to new learning experiences so bring it on! In past courses where I have blogged, I had always deleted my blog as soon as the course was over. However, in my new role as a Learning Facilitator I think a blog would be a very helpful and relevant tool. After this class is over I hope to transition this blog into one that fits in with my role as a Learning Facilitator and hopefully I can continue to share thoughts, ideas, and resources with others.

    Find me on twitter and follow along this learning journey of mine: @AmyDavisHT

    Thanks for reading, stay tuned for my next post!

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