College Readiness Standards

This is a totally selfish post because I don't want to loose this url! If you download the document it has the standards. If you scroll down the standards you will find the standards with "performance indicators" that give a better idea of how the standards can be implemented.

http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/index.cfm?objectid=EADF962E-0E3E-DA80-BAAD2496062F3CD8

I am printing the appendix with the performance indicators to keep as a reference. No matter your curriculum choice, nor your type of schooling (home, private, public), I think this is good info. I've only taught 2 courses to juniors and seniors in college so I didn't see entering freshmen. However, dh has taught the gammut in college and it really is sad to see students unprepared for college - not only in subject matter but also in areas of critical thinking, analysis, writing skills, *responsibility* and just plain umph.

Here are some more resources:

http://www.act.org/standard/infoserv.html
(use left tool bar to see standards that they test for in the ACT)

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/standards
(I need to update my adobe so I couldn't view it but it looks good!)

http://www.hecb.wa.gov/collegeprep/CollegeReadinessProject.asp

http://tinyurl.com/yzsmx9x

If you google college readiness standards you will get tons of standards. If you add your state to the search you should find more specific standards to your state. I would think that they would generally be comparable since college bound kiddos could go anywhere.

Homeschool Connections

There is a really exciting resource for highschool courses called Homeschool Connections. Dual credit at your local college would also make a smooth transition and something we will be looking into as time gets closer.

http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/

[UPDATE: Here's another link worth exploring. I haven't spent time on it yet but it looks promising.
http://academicearth.org/ ]

What's Cookin'?

I've had several fiascos in the last few days.

-My attempt to "nixtamalize" corn meal at home and make corn tortillas to THEN make corn chips where a flop. I miss corn tortillas and corn chips!! I followed Ann Marie's directions at Cheeseslave adjusted to corn meal. However, the masa was too wet so I drained it a bit longer. But it was very sticky so really didn't work well. Finally I went the opposite direction and added water to make it pancake batter consistency. Those were the only 2 that came out like tortillas! I'm trying to remember if the tortillas back in El Salvador had lard mixed in with the masa. I should look into that and maybe add something? We make flour tortillas all the time and they have lard. Hmmm. Well, since my plan was to use them to make chips anyway I guess it won't matter. As I'm typing I'm frying some smoked bacon tips I got Sunday (uncured). I had great plans for them but the days are slipping by and I don't want them to go to waste so I just dumped them in a pan to cook them. I'll fry the corn chips in that so maybe I'll have feedback before this post is posted :). [Dc liked them and I thought they were good after all! Now to see if I react...]

- My yogurt flopped also. I ended up making cheese!! Very sour cheese, lol, so I added a bunch of sea salt and left it draining in the fridge. Still not palatable. I'll try again tonight with fresher milk.

- My bread even flopped! I guess I just wasn't paying attention and didn't cook it enough. It was raw in the middle - that's NEVER happened before. Sure, I've overcooked lots of bread but never undercooked it! Since it's wheat it *looked* done and was starting to pull from the edges but was a bigger loaf and not ready.

- On the other hand I made some baby back ribs with homemade BBQ sauce with some rolls that were good. :)