Author name: MARTINRAYVAUGHAN

Don’t forget the Breakfast Burrito!

Culinary / By

Sausage, Salsa & Cotija Breakfast Burrito Kitchen Improvisation Sausage, Salsa & Cotija Breakfast Burrito A scrappy, what’s-in-the-fridge breakfast that turned out better than planned, breakfast sausage and salsa simmered down, folded through soft scrambled eggs, and finished with crumbled Cotija and cilantro, all rolled up and ready to go. The Story This one started as a fridge inventory check. A pound of breakfast sausage, a disc of Cotija, a jar of salsa, nothing more ambitious than that. But breakfast sausage and salsa practically beg to be simmered together, and once you fold in soft scrambled eggs and a crumble of

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Zuppa Toscana: Reimagined

Culinary / By

Zuppa Toscana: Reimagined A weeknight soup, rebuilt Zuppa Toscana: Reimagined I started with the Instant Pot version everyone makes, then kept pulling threads — duck fat instead of butter, bacon before the Italian sausage, less cream, allowing the rendered fat to do it’s work. The result was a complexity of layers that isn’t always present in this soup. 25 minactive + pressure 6servings Duck fatand rendered bacon Why I changed it The recipe that got me here is a familiar one — the Instant Pot Olive Garden copycat everybody’s made at some point: sausage, potatoes, kale, cream, done in under

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Why an English Teacher? Here’s Why.

Education / By

I wrote this a while back and it has become somewhat of a mission statement for my classroom. This may not sound all that surprising coming from an English teacher, but your English courses are critically important to your success as a student and as an individual. I would argue that if you pour your energy and focus into this course, it will set you up for success not only in high school, but in college and in life. English is not just the skill of reading and writing. It is the skill of critical thinking. English is concerned with

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Authenticity Crisis

Education / By

The following was originally meant to be a much shorter parent update. STEAM Families, Today is a big writing moment for your learner! We have all but finished the novel Fahrenheit 451, and alongside this experience we have been grappling with the question of the state of the world. Is it a dystopia? Is it not? I’ve seen students build convincing arguments in both directions. It has been fascinating to see their perspectives on life, but even more compelling is watching them learn to take their viewpoint and craft it into a solid argument – backed with sound reasoning and

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Taking Community to the Classroom

Education / By

This past August I was sitting at a table after a pretty intensive PD at STEAM Academy, and a thought was stirring somewhere under the surface. Jordan Manley, our P.E. and Health teacher, sat down next to me and asked what was on my mind. Jordan and I have collaborated in the educational design space for years, so it doesn’t take much at all to move our conversation into iterations of units, PBLs, or even one-off classroom experiences that have the potential for huge returns. I know exactly what I can get from these conversations. I usually throw out an

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