Experiments in Cooking: Salad Croutons

So we all know what happens when we get under some pressure. Instead of doing what we are supposed to be, we channel it into something completely unproductive to feel like we have some control. Apartments and bedrooms are cleaner than ever, naps are longer and more restful, bathroom toilets are cleaned, and closets are organized. Today, I channeled my energy into cooking because I wanted a salad for dinner, and I was out of croutons. I immediately went to Pinterest to see what the homemakers of the internet came up with. and I found this recipe from Living on a Dime. It goes like this:

Homemade Croutons Recipe

3 cups bread cubes (any thick pieces of leftover bread will work) 

1 1/2 tsp. garlic, minced 

1/4 tsp. salt and pepper (to taste) 

1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil 

2 tsp. Parmesan cheese 

1/2 tsp. onion powder (or less to taste) 

1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl mix garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Put bread cubes into a bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, onion powder and Italian seasoning, if desired. Pour oil mixture over bread crumbs and toss. Spread out on a baking sheet. Bake, tossing once, until golden brown about (15-20 minutes). Store the homemade croutons in an airtight container.

Now the number one rule of copying someone else's work is "make it your own." You have to personalize it so it doesn't look like plagiarism. In an English research paper, we may paraphrase a dissertation, but go in a different direction with the information. In music, a director may ask the orchestra to play differently from what is dictated in the music because he or she wants to send a different message. You ALWAYS have to give the original writer credit for their information, but then you get to do whatever you want after that. With that in mind, I took what I had in the pantry and I improvised:

Katie's Homemade Croutons

4 slices of fresh honey wheat sandwich bread, cubed

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Garlic and Onion Powder

Oregano

Cilantro

Rosemary

Sage

As I was not using the amount of bread the original recipe called for, I eyeballed my ingredients. Everything was to taste. I followed the rules where everything else was concerned. 

End Product

I kind of wished I had used less salt, but they taste amazing in a caesar salad.The oven was actually at 365 degrees for most of the cook time because the temperature gauge is broken, but the only thing that did was brown them some more. These croutons are crunchy on the outside, but softer on the inside, so when I went to stab them with my fork, they didn't fall apart like the store-bought kind do. That to me is the winning quality. I like being able to have my salad and croutons in one bite. My fiancé likes them, so we may never buy croutons again!

Am I Standard or Am I Differentiated?

     As I was in the shower this evening, I was contemplating my upcoming PRAXIS test and I began thinking about standardized tests. Now, I realize the usefulness of knowing where I stand in comparison to other teacher candidates in Louisiana and elsewhere, but it is ridiculous to expect that I know all the things supposedly on this test.

     For me to be able to get an "A+ 100" on this test I need to have amazing test taking skills (I do not), and I also have to have had the same standard education as thousands of other people taking this test. Except I didn't have the same education as everyone else. 

• I've never read Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, or The Scarlet Letter, but I have read “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Madame Bovary twice along with some very interesting stories about women in third-world countries. 
• Twice professors have told me that we're going to read different stories than Beowulf because they hate it so I've never read that, but I’ve read Grendel (does that count?).
• My knowledge of Shakespeare includes some tragedies and some histories and about two to twenty sonnets but nothing else.
• My grammar class was basically useless, and I passed linguistics by the skin of my teeth, so I feel like I missed the middle step where I understood language and usage as a thing.
• I took history, health and sociology for electives. 
• I've taken sequential courses out of order,
• I had teachers whose idea of a curriculum was grading students based on participation and surprise readings assigned by email two days before the discussion
• I took two different courses twice and could have counted them as four separate courses because the content was so different.

     Because of this, I am beginning to understand the goal of common core, but I am also beginning to understand how impossible it is. How am I supposed to take a standardized test about standard content when my education has been anything but standard? Am I a bad student because I had no interest in reading the novels I supposedly missed out on?

     This has me wondering how much weight these scores should actually have on my quality as a student, teacher, and English buff. How can students who are cut from completely different cloths as their peers be graded on a scale that is uniform? What right do the makers of this test have to say that if I fail, I don’t know as much as the student who took Native American Lit instead of African American like me? How am I somehow a worse teacher than the person across the room who might be better at taking tests than me? Why is this the only way to be a certified, bonafide instructor of smaller humans? In the education department, they tell us all the time to differentiate based on learning style, type of intelligence and so on so that each student has the opportunity to succeed. Why are we not given the same courtesy?