Reflective Bins

   Last school year I found myself getting overwhelmed by grading my students work. If you are a teacher you understand the hassle of trying to balance lesson planning, assessments, and grading papers. Well, I admit I have not mastered the art of not having a stack of papers as tall as I am to grade. So this year I was looking for a solution to at least making it to the papers of the students who need my help. I saw on Pinterest different ideas about how to turn in work. So naturally I created one myself after seeing many examples. 

The purpose of the bin is to encourage the students to reflect on the activity. Many times there is a student who does not wish to raise his/her hand or finds themselves wanting to ask but nervous to ask. I am hoping by dividing the bins into 3 categories this may help ease some stress around peers. 

 I will use them for the students to turn in everyday activities. I have thought about having them underline there name in a marker in the coordinating color. Attached to the document from TPT is an example letter that I will send home to the parents explaining the coloring in the corner or the underlined name. I believe this will help the student to communicate with myself and the parents about the confidence level of academics. 

Please use the link below to view my TPT store. 

Reflective Bin on Teacher Pay Teacher

I look forward to trying this in my classroom. Please leave any comments below if you have used this style of turning in work and how it worked in your classroom. 

Thanks for reading. 

Miss Stetson

Homemade Chicken Soup Canned

Today I spent two hours making my Chicken Stock from the Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving. I have listed the recipe on a previous blog. After I strained the stock I placed it directly into a new stock pot.

For the soup you will need 

16 cups of chicken stock ( homemade or bought)

2 cups carrots

1 1/2 cups chopped onion 

1 1/2 cups celery

3 cups chicken 

Salt ( optional)

Pepper ( optional)

Directions:

Bring stock and chicken to a boil. 

While you are waiting for everything to heat up to a boil cut up the produce.

Once it comes to a boil bring it back down to a shimmer and place the produce , salt, and pepper into the stock. Let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes.

Process the jars by boiling them in hot water to sanitize. This will make 4 quarts or 8 pints. I made 4 quarts today. 

Place the mixture into the jars leaving 1 inch head space. ( That's the space where the water stops to the top of the jar) 

I tried to even out the mixture of carrots, onions, chicken, and celery but it is hard. 

Wipe the rim of all the jars off with water and vinegar ( following the directions from book ) I boiled the lids before placing them on. Twist the lid on just tight enough you can get it off. You will want to store it without that lid so don't twist to hard.

You must process this in the pressure canner. You cannot do this with the water bath method. That is how you can get sick and you will not kill any bacteria that may be present if you water bath.  Pressure canners run around $70.00 at Walmart for a basic one and it works just fine. Read the directions for your area for the pressure setting. Read the directions carefully that came with the pressure canner. They still scare me a little so I am very careful. I had mine set 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes.

Do not take the lid off of the pressure canner. Just wait it takes time. Do not rush or you can have a disaster. 

They will get a little darker after the process. Let them sit on the counter for 24 hours before moving. They are super hot. When you hear a pop you know they are sealed. 

I am now waiting for winter and someone to get a cold so we can just heat this up and enjoy. I hope you enjoy as well. Let me know if you have any questions or need any help. 

Thanks for reading,

Miss Stetson 

Homemade Chicken Stock

This summer while I was not teaching I planned on canning a lot of food. I planned on finding meals or shortcuts to meals that I could make healthy. I admit that during the school year I often find myself scrambling to find something to put together. This week I wanted to make Homemade Chicken Soup.

I while back I bought the Balls Complete Book of Home Preserving at Barnes and Noble. It's was $22.00 and is packed full of recipes that are simple enough for a beginner like myself to handle. 

I found two recipes that I used to make my chicken soup. The first one will be the chicken stock to fill the jars. 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken 

2 medium onions

2 celery stocks

10 peppercorn 

2 Bay leaves 

1 tablespoon of salt ( I used seasalt)

16 cups of water

Directions 

First, fill a large stock pot with the water ( I had to change pots once I realized chicken and ingredients may not fit). Place the whole chicken in with the bones and everything. You can cut it up but I didn't and it was fine. 

Bring the chicken to a boil. While you are waiting chop up all the veggies. I did not make these look pretty since it is just for flavor. 

Once the chicken is boiling turn the stove top down. Place all the ingredients into the pot and bring to a simmer. Stir occasionally and let it simmer for 2 hours. 

Your house will smell amazing.

See the new pot. I was nervous of it overflowing.

After 2 hours of simmering remove from heat. This part does take a long time if you are like myself and does not completely read all the directions first. I used a coffee filter to strain the juice. I strained them directly into the quart mason jars. The recipe in the book says to use a cheese cloth ( that would have taken so much less time!) 

Once you strain about 16 cups of stock you should let it cool and scrap the fat off the top. 

I did not process the stock today because I directly put it in another stock pot to make chicken soup to can.