Little Projects that make a whole impact

The Teaching of Clothing and Textiles (Making a Drawstring Bag)

Drawstring Bag:

What is it?

Before I start off blogging about what the first hands-on project of sewing lesson, lets start with the picture shown above, live and learn, the stories i could tell.

During sewing lesson on thursday, this quote pop up in my head whilst I was sewing my drawstring bag.

Flashback all the way to Thursday 23rd September 2010:

We were taught how to make a drawstring bag today.

Not just a simple drawstring bag which just involve straight stitches and a simple cord for the drawstring, like these pictures of drawstring bags below:

But a drawstring bag that allows a wider input of creativity, such as sewing techniques, colour contrast and co-ordination as well as the selection of different embriodery stitches.

This drawstring bag project allows the application of creativity as well as the sewing skills and techniques which all of us had acquired from Temasek Polytechnic.

During the planning and sewing of my drwatring back, the different sewing techniques begin to refresh in my head and creativity started to kick inside me again.

And so, I went to look on how I can make a drawstring bag which I can make during my free time

 here are some pretty drawstring bag designs which inspired me:

Instead of an ordinary drawstring bag that is commonly seen, Dr Mok taught us how to incorporate quilting technique into the drawstring bag.

Quilting is commonly used in the making of cushion covers, quilts, mats and in bags.

Little which I expect that quilting can be incorporated into a drawstring bag.

This technique brings the overall look of the drawstring bag to a higher level.

Lets look at the quilting design using a cross-embriodery machine stitch which i had accomplished :)

How is the look :D

This quilting desgin may look simple and easy. However, it comes with precision and focus. 

One difficulty which i encountered during the making of this quilting design is the embriodery stitch. During the sewing of the                and cloth, i wasnt alert of the stitch length and width. Instead of 2.0 to 3.0 cm, my stitch was accidentally altered to 1.5 to 3.0 cm. Resulting in a short and compact cross-stitch.

And so, the result of this was: Unpicking. Unpicking such a small and compact cross-stitch is definitely not an easy task, thankfully justine came to my rescue as she saw me struggling to unpick the whole stitch line.

During this making process, it made me reflect.

My focus during sewing of the quilting design was fast in completion, not on alertness.

Unpicking was a good learning process for me, and so, live and to learn.

This is one story which I could tell from just this sewing lesson,

"life process is like sewing a product, it requires one to make mistakes, but moulding and improving the product during difficulty, like unpicking, it gives a extraordinary satisfaction and learning point at the end of it."

Nonetheless, I am halfway through completion of my drawstring project.
Look at the 3/4 Completed drawstring bag.

Do leave comments and all queries are warmly welcomed :).

Stay tuned to this blog for more updates on the completion of drawstring bag.
Thanks.

♥ Angela insights of Home Economics

Fifth Educational Resource

Web Review V:

5.      http://www.homebaking.org/

What is it?

Looking through the resources made available through this website, I was attracted to 3 things: The Recipes, Baking resources and Tips for teachers.

This website provides all the 3 attractive resources for free.

These resources serve as a great use in explanatory terms of the lower and upper secondary topics such as:

Lower Secondary	Upper Secondary
·         Different methods of Cooking ·         Effects of different Cooking methods	·         The science of food preparation and cooking ·         Reactions in food during preparation and cooking

 What I love about homebaking.org is its ease of use as well as a wide array of information on baking made available .

Informative websites on baking are difficult to search for and this website is simply perfect for preparing worksheets/practical lessons on the topics identified above.

In addition, the educator resources found on the first page of the website serve as a great guide in handling practical lessons.

It also supplements the content found in the Home Economics/Food and Nutrition textbook, enriching the students learning to a higher level.

 

Out of the 6 educator resources found on the first page of the website, the Safe Kitchen Check List, Cooking Skills Checklist and Ten Tips for Baking Sucess are especially useful for the lower secondary students in conveying the message of these 3 aspects.

Lower Secondary Students

Safe Kitchen Check List

This checklist serves as a great guide for students who are having practical lessons in the kitchen for the first time. It emphasizes the preccaution points to take note during pratical lessons to avoid unforseen injuries.

Cooking Skills Check List

This checklist could serve as a great teaching guide for practical lessons.

With every knowledge prior to various cooking techniques/measuring basics/euipment knowledge acquired, the teacher will acknowledge against it.

This will be a great reference guide to how well each student learnt from the particular practical lesson and it will be a great overview on the whole year lesson, benefiting both in students understanding as well as lesson planning.

 Ten Tips for Baking Success

Similar to the above two resourcces, these tips listed serve as a great  guide for students to understand the secret to Baking Success.

Upper Secondary Students

The broad list of baking recipes available is useful in helping students decide what food commodities they would like to bake for.

The baking recipes for each food commodities is unique and special.

A definate plus point in choice of dish and presentation layout.

+ PLUS 

The recipe instructions are easy to undertstand, making execution of the dish less hassle.
The measurements of ingredients stated in the recipes are indicated in both household measures and in common kitchen tools and equipments. 
Hence, conversion of units is  not necessary when students refer to this website for recipes.  

Examples of some intersting Baking Food Recipes

The limiting factors of this website:

The recipes are limited to american choices and the resources for lower secondary is not in-depth for use in secondary level reseacrh.

Requires additional cross-referencing to other sources for greater explanatory terms. 

How to intergrate the advantages of this website for the students/teachers?
These recipes are also useful in setting exam paper/quizzes to examine students on their proficency in recipe modification/baking techniques.

How to go about doing it?

Get students who extract the recipe from this website to do a short presentation on the review of the dish they made.

Example:
In terms of whether it is a healthy/unhealthy choice, whether the recipe steps are clear and whether the recipe works.  

So Check out this site, you will be wowed!

Do you feel that this site will be a useful tool as we embark on our teaching career?

Do leave your comments/questions.

Many many thanks. 

♥ Angela insights of Home Economics

Fourth Educational Resource

Web Review IV:

4.      http://www.kwiksew.com/

The other 3 web reviews which I had done is mainly on Food and N.utrition.
This particular web review which I will be reviewing on is on a different topic/aspect of Home Economics, the clothing and textiles section.


What is it?

This website greets you with a warm approach (make sewing a success).
And indeed, it is an interactive website with interesting downloadable projects for students to learn how to sew/make simple handicraft.

Referencing to the content of clothing and textiles covered in lower secondary textbooks, the content is not in-depth.
The content covered on clothing and textiles in the textbooks are mainly on Clothes care, with only less than 3 pages of coverage on basic skills in clothes maintenance.
In addition, there are no investigative hands-on work.
Hence, if students were to just rely on the textbook to gain a greater insight on the basic sewing skills, it would be difficult and not engaging.

Thus, kwiksew.com serves as a more engaging and interesting teaching tool for the lower secondary students in helping them understand the need and importance of basic sewing skills in their daily life.

To enable a more engaging and interesting delievery of the lesson on clothing and textiles, hands-on activities is recommended and teachers are able to make use of the free resources available on this website to engage the students in this topic.
There are a number of free downloadable projects which can be applied as a teaching tool.

Such as: making: Cup cozy and can cozy, clutch purse, and a no sew-fleece blanket

Thus, if you are wondering how to carry out your lesson on clothing and textiles,  kwiksew.com will definitely come in handy as the instruction manual is clear and precise, allowing easy understanding for the students.

+ PLUS 

There are pictures which serve as a guide in helping students understand better.
(Look at the picture below)

For Example:
If you use the resource material on making a clutch purse, you can modify the instructions provided in order to suit your lesson plan.
Instead of using magnetic buttons, you can incorporate basic sewing skills of attaching a button (threading a needle, sewing the button) into the making of the clutch purse.
Personally, I find the activity of clutch purse is attention-grabbing for the students.

How to intergrate the advantages of this website into the classroom ?

Teachers can use this website for their activity handout in the topic on clothing and textiles.
Teachers could refer students this link as a source for gaining ideas and matching combinations of different fabrics.
Hence, this website serves as a great teaching tool  since it provides greater detail on some sewing tecniques and the website is equipped with a variety of pictures to facilitate better understanding through visual. 

The only Disadvantage is the limiting availabity of some interesting sewing patterns. 

 

How to go about doing it?

Introduce this website to the students before the start of the lesson as a read-up assignment to help students generate more ideas and creativity.

Do you feel that this site will be a useful tool as we embark on our teaching career?

Do leave your comments/questions.

Many many thanks. 

♥ Angela insights of Home Economics

Third Educational Resource

Web Review III:

3.      http://www.cyberbee.com/intclass.html

After looking through and comparing this website with  web reviews I and II, this website will have a greater appeal to students due to its web design and the graphics incoporated inside.

What is it?

This website is a free, online tool that provides a brief overview on the importance of Food and Nutrition. What I love about cyberbee.com is its simplicity in language command as well as its interesting activities (games/nutrition cafe/quizzes) to engage with the server of the website.

The content of cyberbee.com serves a greater level of teaching tool towards the lower secondary students. It will help them understand what Home Economics is all about, it will also serve as a great guide in searching their answer to whether taking up Food and Nutrition in upper secondary is the correct move for them.

cyberbee.com  helps students gain a better understanding through the various resources links listed on the website.

Some interactive websites which are useful for students are: 

1) http://www.eatsmart.org/article.asp?id=6450

The highlight/advantages of this website is the  Nutrition Cafe .

It provides nutrition information on the types of typical food intake of teens and give an evaluation on whether the nutrition contribution of the food intake is advisable or not.

Nutrition information such as Food Guide Pyramid, Dietary Guidelines for americans, Food Glossary are also made available.

The Nutrition cafe also comprise of an answers and facts activity that gives anwers and solutions to students with the common difficulties/questions encountered. This will serve as an advantage to clear their doubts regarding Home Economics and give them a clearer decicion making path in whether uptaking Food and Nutrition is ideal or not.

The short game (GRAP A GRAPE) is useful in helping the student construct the link between healthy eating and body image/bone building.

These games and acitivites are useful but the Limiting Factors are that:

• The website is too brief for use in Upper Secondary Food and Nutrition subject delievery
• The nutrition tools are american-based, not Singapore-based
• E.g. In Singapore, the Food Guide Pyramid is known as the Healthy Diet Pyramid

 2) http://www.dole.com/NutritionInstituteLanding/Foodfacts/tabid/998/Default.aspx

The highlight/advantages of this website is the content covered in  

Food Facts and Dole TV.

The Food Facts tab provides in-depth information on the typical foods that students are unfamiliar with.

Example: Anthocyanins, Antioxidants, Various vitamins and its Clinical terms

The food facts will build up on the students prior knowledge on nutrition facts, building up the nutrition dictionary of the student.

The Dole TV tab is useful as a aid in understanding the preparation of meals and the suitability of meals for different catered needs, such as for weight loss, prevention, health, fitness and other recipes.

Serving as a great resource tool for students in decision making as to execution of their choice of  dishes for their coursework section on Decision Making.

The coverage of content in these tabs is good to a large extent but the Limiting Factors are that:

• The meals featured in Dole TV are american-based, not Singapore-based
• Food Facts serve as a brief introduction, for more in-depth information to support, cross-referencing to other websites may be necessary

 3) http://www.pork4kids.com/

 The highlight/advantage of this website is the content covered in Food Fun Zone Recipes Section.

The Recipes provided in the Recipe tab are unique and interesting (in terms of colour combination, food presentation skills and use of cooking methods in meal preparation), giving an added plus point to the overall execution of meal/s preparation.

These recipes are also useful for the teachers in practical lessons planning as the recipes made available on the website will engage the students due to the scarce availability of these foods in Singapore.

These recipes will broaden the students knowledge on different american dishes, instead of the typical fish and chips/baked potatoes/chicken chop.

Examples of some unique recipes are :

 Apple-Pecan Tenderloin Medallions

Coconut-Crusted Pork Tenderloin Lollipops

Ham and Noodle Tarts

These recipes are useful but the Limiting Factors are that:

• The recipes are more suitable for lower secondary students compared to upper secondary students
• The dishes consists of Pork, which may not be feasible for use in schools with muslim-students
• The dishes american-based, not Singapore-based
• E.g. will affect the recommended serving size for Singapore and not Americans

How to intergrate the advantages of this website into the classroom ?

These websites and web tools available will serve as a valuable teaching resource tool in lesson delievery to faciltate a higher level of understanding of the content in the textbook.

Instead of hearing and visualizing the typical Home Economics is being carried out, it will be much easier for students to understand via visual aid and hands-on online resouring and exploration.

How to go about doing it?

Deliever the lesson from the above websites with a projector for the whole class 

OR

Set up group discussions among the Home Economic students, where computers are made available for students to research and complete the worksheet/activity task list given.

TIPs :

• Background building on the content of Food and Nutrition needs to be done before class for better lesson delievery 

So Check out this site, you will be wowed!

Do you feel that this site will be a useful tool as we embark on our teaching career?

Do leave your comments/questions.

Many many thanks. 

♥ Angela insights of Home Economics

Second Educational Resource

Web Review II:

2.      http://www.nutrition.gov/

What is it?

This website provides an easy, online website that provides easy access to information on Food and human nutrition for Consumers. What I love about nutrition.gov is its availability of different Subjects with different categories. This pose as a great learning tool for students to learn from as well as a great teaching tool for teachers to construct their lesson plan from.

For Example:
If you click a Suject on <Browse by Subject> ,take an example Shopping, Cooking and Meal Planning.
It has many sub-categories such as Food labels, Food shopping and meal planning, Cooking methods and recipes, ethnic cooking, Food storage and preservation.
These categories serves as an additional guide as it act as an supplement to the topics in the Food and Nutrition Textbook itself, serving as an additonal coverage to facilitate better understanding in pupils and smoother lesson delievery due to the greater availablity of examples listed on the website.
One Highlight:
The category on Meal Planning and Food Safety,  provides a list of excellent resources.
Especially on Food Safety as it provides a more in-dept view on the awareness of Food Safety, the effects and the preventive measures of
Food Safety. 
The temperature chart showing the appropriate temperatures for different types of Food such as Meat and Poultry, Fruits and Vegetables, will serve as a great tool for students as visual aid will help them understand better. In addtion, the table covers a greater list of food as compared to the textbook.
The extra learning points will help them prepare for their quizzes/exams/coursework.
 See here for the table and other explanati0n  


+ PLUS 

Under the tab (Other GovernmentSites) stated on the websites, there are a wide variety of useful websites that can be used and referred to.

Examples of SOme Govt Sites found:

How to intergrate the advantages of this website into the classroom ?

Teachers could refer students this link as their source of research for their coursework question or for clarification of their doubts pertaining to the different chapters of the coursework. 
Hence, this website serves as a great teaching tool aid since it covers alomost 70% of the chapters in the Textbook, and consisting of resources that supplements to the information provided in the Textbook.  

The tab on Food Composition Finders are perfect for looking up the Nutritive Content of a Meal. This can be done through analysis of the different ingredients of the Recipe.

The only Disadvantage is the limiting availabity of Foods to only the western cuisine. 

How to go about doing it?

Introduce this website to the students durring Research Part of Coursework A/B

OR

Implement the tools of this website into their investigative tasks during class/group discussions

Do you feel that this site will be a useful tool as we embark on our teaching career?

Do leave your comments/questions.

Many many thanks. 

♥ Angela insights of Home Economics