Rythm's Blog

For the last couple of weeks, I have experimented and practiced my cooking skills and when I hear good feedback, I am more determined to work hard to improve my cooking skills. I agree that “good feedback encourages positive motivational beliefs and elf-esteem” (Chapter 5: Teaching in Blended Learning Environments). This learning experience would not have been as successful without hep. I agree with Jack when he mentioned that technology has always been a great help for learners who want to learn. Like him, I am also learning my skills by reading recipes online and watching cooking videos. Learning is an ongoing experience and I will continue cooking even after I finish posting my last blog.

For my Post 2, I was focusing on improving my knife skills as it is important to be proficient with a knife before I start cooking recipes. In Post 3, I learned how to make an easy breakfast as breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day. I agree that “[b]y setting priorities and breaking the bigger project into smaller tasks, the work is more manageable and less intimidating” (UGA Today, 2014). Similarly, I broke down my learning experience into different levels, starting with easy and then challenging myself gradually. For my Post 4, I made kidney beans and rice which was a bit of challenge to cook as it involved more ingredients and steps. It was a crucial step in my learning process. If we “conquer challenges that stand in our way like roadblocks, refusing to allow our passing, we find confidence in our abilities” (Plaza College, 2013).

Since I am continuing to practice and improve my cooking skills, I made chicken tikka with cashew gravy this week. I challenged myself by creating the dish without getting help from videos, recipes, or anyone else. I have to say, when I made someone else try it, it was not so bad. Below is the final result and I am very proud of myself.

Overall, I leaned that if we put effort and hard work into our tasks, then we will be able to achieve success. This whole learning experience enabled me to be part of self-assessment which is “the act of identifying standards or criteria and applying them to one’s own work, and then making a judgement as to whether- or how well- you have met them” (Chapter 9- Assessment Strategies for Online Learning).

Thank you everyone for being a part of my learning experience and vice versa. Hope you all have a good future!

References:

• The importance of challenging yourself- Plaza College
• Break large tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces- UGA Today

The interactive resource I worked through as a learner is about Mindset, which is an interactive resource created by Group 2: Primary/Elementary Education.

When I first tried to get access to the quiz, I was quite frustrated when the link would not work. When I scrolled down, I realized that it was done on purpose. Would people be able to answer the questions better if they were frustrated? How is it better than being able to answer with a more clear, calm mind?

I really like the scenario pictures in the slides that give examples on what is it means to have a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. I think they were very interesting and aesthetically pleasing. I, in particular, agree with the girl (in math grade scenario) that we can accomplish our goals if we put enough effort. I once got a bad grade in my math exam as well; thus, I visited the math learning centre in David Turpin building and worked hard to earn a better grade.

The presentation is easy to understand and engaging which encourages us to scroll down and read more information. However, it would be even more engaging if there were videos related to mindset as Individuals learn better when they can see and hear at the same time (dual coding theory).

Overall, I learned something new about mindset and find out where I fall on the spectrum of mindsets. When I go back to the slides to see whether I have achieved the learning outcomes, I can confidently say that I know what mindset stands for and how I can change my mindset. This was an interesting experience. Good work Alex, Chloe, Julia, and Scott.

This week, I learned how to make rajma (kidney beans) and rice (also called Rajma Chawal). It is an Indian popular dish that people eat for either lunch or dinner. I used media technologies such as YouTube clips and online recipe articles in order to look for my cooking recipe (Chapter 6: Teaching in a Digital Age). Personally, I love watching videos when I want to learn something as videos have the “ability to [not only] offer text and sound, [they] can also offer dynamic or moving pictures” (Chapter 7: Teaching in a Digital Age). Additionally, “the ability stop, rewind, and replay the video [is] crucial for skills development” (Chapter 7: Teaching in a Digital Age). I agree with this statement as I am able to develop my cooking skills at my own pace. The ingredients I used in this recipe were:

The ingredients I used in this recipe were:

• 1 cup red Kidney beans
• 1 onion
• 1 cup rice
• 2 tomato
• 1 small piece of ginger
• 5-6 garlic cloves
• salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon red chilli power, coriander powder, cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon turmeric

First, I diced tomatoes and shredded ginger. Then, I added garlic cloves and added a little bit of water. I blended the mixture and created a puree.

After the paste was blended, I took a wok and added oil and chopped onions and sautéed them on medium high heat.

Next, I added the puree, salt, red chilli power, coriander powder, cumin powder, and turmeric into the wok. I cooked the mixture until the spices became fragrant and oil started leaving the sides of the pan. Then, I added the mixture in the cooker (where the kidney beans were soaking since previous night) and let it cook for 20-25 minutes on high flame.

After the pressure is released from the cooker, I added coriander leaves and garam masala spice for garnishing. The rajma (kidney beans) is ready. Next, I made steamed rice by boiling one cup of rice with double the amount of water. Once the rice is soft, I discarded the water.

Here is the final picture of my rajma rice. I am so proud of myself for completing this challenge as making rajma rice was not easy for me.

References:

• How to make Rajma Chawal Guide Video
• Rajma Chawal Recipe Article

This week I am focusing on cooking a breakfast recipe. This learning experience is a great way to establish social presence (Chapter 2- Teaching in Blended Learning Environments) as other people can read what I post on this blog. Similarly, I can read what they posted in their blogs. This experience encourages open communication among learners (especially people who are learning a similar skill).

In Chapter 2: Design, it is mentioned that “clear objectives for content and performance expectations will ensure a productive educational experience” (Teaching in Blended Learning Environments). It is clear that my objective was to learn and improve my cooking skills and breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I made egg toast with spinach for breakfast. The ingredients used in this recipe were:

• Bread
• Eggs
• Spinach and Onions
• Spices
• Oil

First, I start with making an egg batter which consisted of cracking 4 eggs into a big bowl. In the bowl, I added onions, spinach, and spices like salt and red chilli powder together. I started whisking the batter until everything is mixed well.

Then, I dipped the bread pieces in the batter. It is also important to make sure that I am not letting bread soak too much batter otherwise the bread will be soggy. Afterwards, I added oil to the pan and waited for the pan to get hot, and then I put the bread pieces on the pan to cook. I was also making sure that the gas is on low heat otherwise the toast will burn.

After cooking on low heat for some time and flipping the bread pieces in between the cooking process (image on left), the egg toast with spinach was prepared for eating(image on right). This recipe does not require many ingredients and does not take too much time to cook. I asked my sister to give me her feedback for assessment my my cooking skill.

This ongoing learning experience enables me to apply deep learning (Teaching teaching and understanding and understanding). Watching cooking videos has enabled me to use ideas and techniques, that I learned from the videos, in my own cooking.

I have analyzed (from ADDIE model in Chapter 4- Teaching in a Digital Age) that I need to start small and become proficient in basic skills before I jump into cooking recipes. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I want to improve my knife skills first before cooking any recipes as it will not only help me work more safely, but this will also make me much more efficient in the kitchen. Thus, this week, I am focusing on improving my knife technique skills.

For the first few days, I researched and watched youtube videos that showed easy and useful ways to use the knife. This is similar to how students learn by listening to lectures. Using online videos and listening to instructions on how to use the knife are some of the examples of transmitting information (Chapter 3: Teaching in a Digital Age).

Now that I have a general idea regarding how to use a knife, it is time to test what I learned by practicing those skills on vegetables, including onions, carrots, celery and so on. It is essential to choose a good kitchen knife that will help me in dicing, mincing, and julienne the vegetables. I used onions to show my dicing technique, garlic to show my mincing technique, and carrots to demonstrate my julienne cut.

I encountered a few challenges whiles I was practicing my knife skills. For the initial few days, I was having trouble cutting vegetables and cutting onions made my eyes water. However, I practiced whenever I could and my mom provided me with her feedback and advice. This is one of the examples of apprenticeship (one of Pratt’s five teaching approaches), which means learning by doing under supervision (Chapter 3: Teaching in a Digital Age).

By practicing and gaining feedback, I have decided that I have developed some decent knife skills. In order to monitor and reflect on my experience, I have posted an image of my most recent work and next week onwards, I will start cooking recipes. After analyzing my goals and objectives (which is to develop some cooking skills) I will design what recipes I want to cook every week. After that I will cook recipes (develop) and present it for feedback (implement). Additionally, evaluation will be an on-going process throughout the whole cooking experience (ADDIE model from Chapter 4: Teaching in a Digital Age).

References

• Basic Knife Skills
• Culinary 411- Basic Knife Skills
• CookSmarts- Knife Skills

I have always been interested in cooking; however, I am not very good at that skill. When I was on my coop work term and was responsible for cooking my own meals, I realized that anyone, including an amateur like me, can cook. Thus, I would like to use this learning opportunity to challenge myself and cook various recipes. From my brief cooking experiences, I have observed that you cannot get anywhere in the kitchen without being proficient with a knife, thus knife skills are important. In my free time, I am planning on watching youtube videos and learn basic ‘how-to’ use knife videos. Then I will use what I learned to chop and slice onions, celery, and carrots until I feel I am good at it. Additionally, I came across an article that I found on BBC good food website that talks about 25 ‘must-know’ skills that every cook should know, including cooking pasta, making an omelette, and cooking rice.

In addition to the the basic resources and tips and tricks that I researched that will assist me with cooking recipes, I have created a list of cooking methods that I would like to try every week and challenge myself. The list includes methods: sautéing, roasting, braising, and so on.

In order to reflect my experience, I will cook recipes and let someone else taste the food and give me the feedback accordingly. I will then use the feedback to improve myself and my cooking.

References

• ‘How-to’ knife skills youtube video
• 25 must-know skills for every cook
• Cooking methods

My name is Rythm Nagpal. I am a third year undergraduate student at University of Victoria. I am majoring in Health Information Science. I have worked for Island Health and VCH as part of my coop work term so I have a good knowledge about data cleaning, analysis, and validation. Working with different databases is a big part of my degree.

Recently, I have also volunteered as a Statistics Volunteer at Volunteer Services-Island Health. Other than that, I have volunteered at ED, hospital main desk, and cardiology department. This way, I got to learn about different departments in the hospital and how work is conducted accordingly.

I love travelling- I have been to Germany, Austria, Singapore, Thailand, Italy, and India (my home country). I have travelled either through school trips or with my family. I would love to travel more someday, exploring and visiting all the popular places.

Learning Experience

My most recent learning experience is when I lived alone for the first time as part of my coop work term. My coop work term was in Vancouver and I lived in a sublet for 4 months. I learned how to take care of the house, including cleaning and cooking, and visiting the grocery stores. I am not very efficient at cooking, so I looked for recipes online that were easy to make. This experience pushed my out of my comfort zone and taught me how to be more independent, organized, and plan accordingly. I also visited places in Vancouver- Granville island, capillary bridge, and art museum. It was a wonderful experience that gave me the confidence to live on my own in the future. I also look forward to cooking more challenging recipes.

I look forward to learning with you all during these two months!