A response to Maureen Taylor’s “How to bring the magic back into the classroom”

My boyfriend took me to Disneyland for my birthday. It was a great day. I couldn’t help but remember a recent post my colleague wrote about how magical a place Disneyland is, and how sad it is that teachers don’t strive to put some of that happiness into the classroom. I looked about me and realized that the park was packed with lots and lots of people. With so many people in the park, we probably spent more time waiting in line to ride the various Disneyland attractions then in the actual rides. But we didn’t seem to mind. There were so many noisy obnoxious kids and the sun was hitting our eyes; the tiring wait should have been enough to drive us crazy, but we didn’t seem to mind the wait because we knew that once we reached the end of the line, the ride would have been worth it, even if it were short lived. I feel like education is like that, there are some of us who have the will to endure the least desirable parts of education, and because we convince ourselves to hold on, we are then able to enjoy the benefits of our perseverance. But why isn’t it like that for everyone? What are we doing as teachers that make students say, “this isn’t worth pursuing,” or “this is something that I am willing to give effort and time to.” Better yet, what is a place like Disneyland doing that makes people want to endure the least desirable conditions ever in order to enjoy a short lived adventure? For starters, they offer rides that are both thrilling and safe, rides that can be enjoyed by many people regardless of age, religion, or language. The atmosphere is thrilling to the eyes, the smells are inviting, and one knows that everything in the park has been created in detail for them to enjoy. If a high school English teacher like myself for example, were to create an inviting atmosphere for a teenager, we should probably keep in mind that the majority of teenagers  don’t like school and should try to make the classroom look as much as a hang-out as possible. Perhaps add a couch, lots of cut-out magazine collages around the room ,posters of famous writers and poets (as a young girl might have of her favorite pop-star), and maybe play a little music in the background as they write on their journal (or assignments). And I know there are so many bad reviews about showing too many videos and movies to students, but what if every other Friday students were to present videos they have made themselves? If the world is changing towards a more technological one, why can’t they have a way to present their observations of the world to their peers through a movie day? And yes, there should be popcorn! Why should the classroom stay traditional when it is clearly not working? I feel like the real magic of Disneyland is that people are waiting around in line for so long because they know that when they are enjoying the ride, it is their experience and no one else’s. No one can take that moment away. No one is telling them how to enjoy it, what to look at, or what part of the ride is important to remember. Their experience is theirs alone and they leave a little better because of it. They know they are in good hands, safe hands, and they know that they will be different on their way out of the park. It is the happiest place on earth because no test or agenda determined the success of the day, but rather the meaningfulness of the experience, which is something they strive to recreate outside of Disneyland. That is what education should be like.

On MOOCs part 2

On MOOCs

On MOOCs

MOOC represents Massive Open Online Courses, it was coined by Dave Cormier from the University of Prince Edward Island in 2008. Today, most MOOCs share the following characteristics:

1.       They can either be massive with a few hundred to several thousand students in a course simultaneously.

2.       Interactions through blogs, portfolios, websites, social networking sites and more.

3.       Course content is not found in only one place but can be found all over the web

4.       Course participants are distributed all over the world.

5.       Most MOOCs are free but there may be a fee of for accreditation programs.

6.       Participants and Instructors aggregate, remix, and repurpose the content

7.       The courses do not have specific requirements but participants must stay up to date with rough schedules

In 2011 Stanford University offered an Artificial Intelligence course online. 160,000 registered students from 190 countries. 23,000 completed the course, 248 of those (not Stanford students) earned 100% on the score.  

MOOCs are become popular because the online experience improves as technology evolves, the high cost of education causes people to look for cheaper forms of education, and MOOC allows participants to build professional and and personal skills sets in their own time. 

Some famous MOOCs include Coursera, edx, udemy, and KhanAcademy. 

On Our Google Conference

The Google Conference! It was impressive, almost unbelievable, I couldn’t believe that I was participating in such a complex meeting. I can’t wait to try it out with my family members from Mexico, but in order for that to happen I will need to learn how to invite people to chat and teach my aunts and cousins how to set up a Google account and do a bunch of neat stuff on it. I know for sure my grandmother and mom will LOOOVE it because purchasing calling cards to Mexico is time consuming and expensive. Plus, this would be way better than calling because we can actually hear the other person and see their facial movements and it’s almost like were in the room, plus we can invite my other family members from Los Angeles, Texas, New York and Chicago in on our calls. I’m getting excited just thinking about how this can actually happen and I’m forgetting to respond to the actual experience. I wish I could have had the conference on my iPhone, that would have been awesome, but then again if that were possible I would have looked awkward talking to my phone on the bus hahaha, plus I wouldn’t have learned all the neat stuff I learned. I learned how to view the same documents, the same videos, and how to wear artificial hats online. I was in our room by myself, but honestly I felt like everyone was there because as soon as I was disconnected accidentally the first time and when we said our goodbyes, the emptiness of the room all of a sudden became evident. Overall, it was an awesome experience and I can’t wait to try it again.

On Making Meatloaf

Perhaps the most surprising dish I have made so far has been meatloaf. Never in my right mind would I ever imagine myself making meatloaf! The reason why I decided to attempt this dish was because my attempt to make flour tortillas and Chile Verde were not what I expected. And the most infuriating part is that I can’t taste my own cooking, not for another ten days anyway. I took a look at my Chile Verde and I took a look at my tortillas and decided that the best thing to do in such an ugly situation was to combine the two and serve it on a platter, but because I was unimpressed with myself I decided to add in a Meatloaf as well. I have been following two individuals on Twitter, Hilah and Nicko. I followed Hilah’s recipe on making flour tortillas and I really liked her YouTube channel because she is so funny and nonchalant about cooking. After pinning various of her videos on Pinterest, I found a video of her visiting with another chef, Nicko. Nicko is from Australia and also has a YouTube channel of his own. Wow, his food is amazing. They both made meatloaf seem so easy, just mix a bunch of ingredients together and pop it into the oven. Since I have a small toaster oven, and since I made two loafs, baking these to perfection was nearly impossible. I think they were on the oven for about three hours rather than one and a half. I concluded that the next time I make this dish, I will put the meat loafs into the oven for about an hour and a half first and then add the ketchup-mustard-barbecue sauce that goes over it for the last hour and a half, this way the top of the loafs don’t burn. My boyfriend seemed to like it. It was the dish he seemed to enjoy the most so far. Apparently, he thinks that I can only cook deliciously when he’s in the kitchen bugging me since the Spanish rice I made with him around me was actually the most delicious thing I’ve made on the first try.

On Making Flour Tortillas

This was a complete disaster! First, I should have poured the warm milk onto the bowl slowly as I stirred the dough with a fork. Secondly, I should have let the dough sit for a couple of minutes before I used my hands to mix the dough more. Thirdly, I should have allowed the dough to rest for 20 minutes rather than half an hour because according to my mother-in-law who came over later on, “it is best to let it rest for just a few  minutes when the weather is cold and for half an hour or so when it is warm out.” The young girl on the video allowed the dough to rest for thirty minutes, so I decided to do the same thing. The fourth mistake I made was that I added too much flour while I was rolling the dough into flat tortillas. The fifth mistake I made is in the way I rolled the dough, some of the tortillas I made resembled stars, triangles, and even horses rather than circles. And the fifth, mistake I made was to leave some of the tortillas on the fire for far too long. Because of these five, and probably more mistakes, my tortillas tasted extremely floury and according to my boyfriend resembled the taste and texture of a pita bread rather than flour tortillas. While making the dough, I did make a myriad of adjustments that the young girl from the video did not use. For example, I decided to use margarine instead of oil and I decided to warm up the milk rather than use room temperature milk. I’ve decided that since the tortillas have been the most horrible thing I’ve made so far, I will follow the young lady’s instructions word for word the next time I try making them. I have decided to make Chile Verde burritos in which I filled the tortillas with the Chile Verde that I made before and cut them up into small pieces with toothpicks stabbed into them so that everyone can have a taste. This way, everyone can have a chance to try my awful cooking tomorrow without tellling how terrible my tortillas looked J.

On Cooking Toni’s Chile Verde

I can't upload the videos :( 

This was a fantastic recipe, and my boyfriend said he loved the texture and that the taste wasn’t too bad either. Unfortunately, my overtly-honest boyfriend admitted that he wished the recipe was a bit spicier. The funny thing is that as I was making the salsa, I questioned the use of only two jalapenos. I’ve seen my family use various chilies when making salsa, and I wondered if I should add any more jalapenos or more red hot chili peppers since there is an abundance of them in the fridge an on our counter. Unfortunately, I convinced myself that it was probably not the best idea for me to screw up the recipe by adding my own ingredients. I wish I would have listened to myself because I would have loved it if Toni loved the platter the first time I made it. My mother-in-law tasted it as well, and apparently it was yummy. She even told people about it. Heck, I called my family to show off too. The next time I cook Chile Verde, I will do three things differently: First, I will add more chilies and leave their seeds on the salsa since that makes the dish spicier. Secondly, I will use less garlic, because even now as the left-overs sit cold in the fridge, there is a stronger smell of garlic than chili. And Finally, I will let the minced garlic and onion brown a little longer before adding the chicken broth and olive oil. Overall, I had a great time cooking it and I can’t wait to share some of it with my dear Education 578 group. Because I didn’t follow my intuition on adding more chilies on my Chile Verde platter, I decided to follow my own taste while making flour tortillas and meat loaf. It worked wonders for my meat loaf, wish I could say the same about the flour tortillas :/