Final Project

Just a quick note to say I've put a little something up on Google Plus...

Future Vision Project Post #4

So I like food blogs. So what? No big deal.

My friend Aimee calls me domestic... Actually she calls me a domestic goddess with a heavy eye roll. I certainly protest. A quick finger swipe along the top of my book shelves will reveal otherwise. While I can live with a little filth (not squalor, mind you), I do take notice of what I pop into my mouth. My last blog post revealed a happy little love affair with food blogs.

Thinking about food blogs first got me eating and then thinking about how more than anything I like the idea of food blogs and cookbooks. I love the spirit of a recipe, the glossy photograph (though, more and more often we're seeing a matte finish in the cookbooks), the clean list of ingredients running down a page, the comfortable cushion of text that follows...

For me, recipes are poetry. Teaspoons and tablespoons are metaphors and similes. A cup conjures the weight of symbol and underlying meaning. The theme is what really brings me to tears -- exotic, homespun, nostalgic, fusion, twist on a classic -- the list runs on.

Recently, I experienced  an epiphany delivered in a pan of brownies.
 
Alice Medrich is a sort of chocolate genius. She has countless recipes for brownies, all containing flour, salt, sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter, and cocoa OR chocolate. Nonetheless, much like snowflakes, each recipe is different and unique. Within each lies a different path each baker must travel to reach chocolate euphoria.

The full impact of this realization struck last week when I attempted Alice's New Classic Brownies (or, specifically, here) and I didn't follow the recipe at all! Ok. Back up the truck. Let's focus on the ingredients.

I had the ingredients right.

But part way through chuckling at CBC's the debaters, and spotting my cousin and her kids rooting through my daffodil patch, I rather ignored the directions and took my own path. Like, for instance, ice water bath? Not likely. Or my flour certainly met the sugar before it joined the chocolate and who bakes brownies at 400 degrees? Not me!

Anyhow, despite ignoring the advice of a renowned chocolate and recipe guru, I baked perfect brownies.

Ha!    Ha, ha, ha, ha!! (Maniacal)

Point (s):

I don't follow directions.

Things usually come out ok.


I hope you Bears have all had a look at Aaron's assignment details. I'm sure you would have before attempting to plan a Final Vision Project. That's what most people, most teachers, would do.

Yup.

Just checked them out. And so I'm rejigging. I'm considering what Aaron actually wants us to do. I've noticed, by actually reading the assignment guidelines, that the focus is on what we are taking away from the course. My vision should "encapsulate [my] potential path after [I]’ve completed this course" (Aaron Mueller, Library and Web 2.0 Guru).

What I'm creating is a reflective piece that outlines a plan for the future.

 I must share this vision using a platform of my choice.

Beyond this, Aaron has provided a rubric. This is just the sort of thing I love about Aaron.

Primarily, we are to articulate an idea. We are to express the articulation of said idea in a public and shareable manner. Originally, my thinking revolved around creating a lesson sequence that could be used in my teaching and that this piece specifically would be the item and the platform. I am realigning my thinking to consider the specifics of the project. I must gather some larger ideas, I must articulate details, I must lay the plans for my journey and I must  tie these concepts into one place.

I recently checked out Storybird. So cool! And would love to ramble out a story on that platform but I am held back by the inaccessibility of the site. Basically, after completing the story, one must wait about a month before it is approved and placed on the site for sharing. Bummer.

And so I moved onto the webpage. Perhaps not the most original choice, but I felt this would allow me to include a number of pages, each with a different focus. I began a Weebly site. I started recording ideas and links...but for some reason I just couldn't get the flow I was looking for. The truth is I like to prattle on a bit and the website format felt so succinct, too polished, somehow.

Then I read Leah's final vision project. She's using her blog. Wow. Why not?

I mean, really, it doesn't matter what I choose, like the brownies, I  just need to stir those essential ingredients together, scoop them into some type of vessel and deliver sinful decadence, or insightful education, depending on whether we're talking brownies or library. Because if we're talking brownies...