Thursday 20 October 2016

Genius Hour Week 6 Final Reflection

Prior to taking tech class, I felt extremely nervous and overwhelmed because of my very limited knowledge regarding the use of technology. This course has expanded my knowledge greatly, as I have learned so many new skills and techniques that will not only benefit my self in terms of establishing a professional identity online and building my own portfolio of tools for enhancing my own projects and presentations, but it will also help me as a teacher to share these tools and strategies with students while also enhancing student engagement and learning! Before this course, I did not have any knowledge of the majority of the tools I learned about and used. This course introduced me to the world of blogging, Powtoon and so many other teaching tools and strategies, so I am definitely starting to feel more confident about ways to use technology in the classroom. A big challenge for me was stepping outside of my comfort zone to try new tools for presenting information, since the extent of my exposure and use of technology has mostly been word processors for writing formal essays and research papers. I have to say that although it was time consuming learning these technologies, I really did enjoy and benefit from them and I feel that these new tools and skills I have learned have really helped me to become more informed about different technologies and also a lot more willing to try new things!  Overall, I feel that I would not have gained the same amount of exposure and knowledge of technology that I did throughout the duration of this course about teaching digital learners in the digital age.
Genius Hour Week 4 Reflection

This week, I chose to learn how to cook a healthier alternative to one of my favourite meals, chili. I was surprised at how many different recipes I was able to find that offer a wide range and variation of this classic recipe! Instead of sticking to one recipe, I decided to look at few that I thought could taste good. In order to make mine more personalized, including ingredients I thought I would enjoy, I chose to incorporate certain ingredients and foods from each recipe. Here are a few chili recipes that are delicious and at the same time, promote a healthy lifestyle. These recipes provide ideas about alternative food choices, such as using ground turkey instead of beef and coconut oil to replace olive oil and each of these recipes also include a large variety of vegetables!

Throughout my search for healthy recipes I learned that it is possible to enjoy many of my favourite meals and that there are many ways that I can simply switch out certain ingredients for those that are healthier and more nutricious. This may require taking some time to research information about different foods that can be a healthier choice as well as ways to incorporate them into recipes to enhance meals but it is well worth the time spent to gain this information. 
Chili (October 2016). Image retrieved from my personal collection

Friday 7 October 2016

Genius Hour Week 3 Reflection

This week I chose a new recipe that I found on Pinterest and attempted to prepare it. The meal that I chose was an Avocado Caprese Skillet Chicken recipe,and I chose this meal becuase it includes some of my favourite foods and I was interested to see if I was able to replicate the recipe and find out how everything will taste. What I really liked about this recipe is that it was healthy and incorporated foods from different food groups. I also enjoyed the addition of the balsamic glaze- I found that it added a new flavour to the entire meal. 

From making this meal, I learned that there are so many creative ways to incorporate foods from various food groups into one meal. Instead of making separate small meals consisting of only chicken and only vegetables etc. I was able to combine foods to make one tasty and healthy meal! I also learned that balsamic is a wonderful and flavourful addition and topping to a variety foods! 

I also learned that preparing these meals is a very time consuming process- I noticed that it took me much longer than the stated time frame on the recipe to prepare and cook this meal. So far, aside from the specific time I had designated to prepare and cook my chosen new healthy meal for the week, I have been trying to motivate myself to eat less junk food and to consume more water, however I have not been as successful as I had hoped. I have realized that actually taking the time to be more conscientious of eating habits and ways to maintain a healthier lifestyle is a challenging task, and just as time consuming as actually researching about effective habits and practices to adopt. 
Avocado Caprese Chicken (October 2016). Retrieved from my own collection.