Today was pretty darn exciting! Middle school was great. We "discovered the Pythagorean theorem" and we used netbooks! That's right, I conquered technology and brought it into the classroom! It was great. The students used the netbooks to go online to a
Geogebra activity where they formed right triangles and found the areas of the squares that were formed off of the sides of the triangle. This lead to the students forming a conjecture about the areas of the squares and discovering that the area of the squares on the legs added up to the area of the square on the hypotenuse. They were engaged for the entire class period and everyone was able to complete the worksheet. We also extended the lesson to relate back to finding the side length of a square if you know the area. This way they also found the length of the hypotenuse for each triangle!
I thought it was great to do this activity on the netbook. The other option was to draw the triangles and squares by hand. While this would have been just as effective, it would have been time consuming. Also, it could have been frustrating for students who are not proficient artists. Plus, we had spent a lot of time in a previous section drawing squares and I thought this would be a refreshing change. It seemed to work and it was fun to see how all the students were working well and engaged. The netbooks were also a great choice because all they have is the internet and after the students were on the right website, they were all able to work at their own pace on their own computer. I felt good about the days activity.
After school, it was off to work for another 5 hour shift and then a quick trip to the workout center to run for 30 minutes.
Today has been exhausting, but rewarding. I think I am going to go for some froyo tonight to celebrate my work with a light treat.
What? Did someone say light treat? Well that reminds me, I just made some great light options for the new year. Everyone is looking for "skinny" recipes nowadays and I have a great one! I made this Baked Cheesy Crab Dip as a lovely football appetizer and it was a huge hit. The dip is light, the bread bowls are adorable, and it's cheesy so it's great for Wisconsin!
Cheesy Baked Crab Dip (adapted from
Taste of Home)
Ingredients:
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
1 cup light sour cream
1 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 cups flaked imitation crab meat
5 green onions, thinly chopped
2 cups light cheddar cheese
2 round loaves of rye bread
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut circles in the tops of the bread loaves and scoop out the insides. You can use these pieces to dip later!
2. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, and yogurt. Mix in the crab meat, green onions, and cheese. Divide the dip among both bread bowls. If you have extra dip, you can simply place this in an oven safe dish.
3. Place the loaves in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Cheesy will be melted and the dip will be hot. Enjoy with the bread, other crackers, and veggies!
Enjoy :)
