Month: May 2019

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!