My 20% project

My 20% will be about Cooking..

My goal is to eat healthy and fast homemade food..

I will be searching for ideas for recipes and for tips to make our food journey easier..

After finding these recipes  and tips I will put them all in a youtube video or in a place where they can be shared by everyone.

So If you need me you will find me probably in the kitchen or on the web trying to share healthy easy food.

I have already started this journey(See http://nouredu578.blogspot.com/2012/10/making-my-life-easier-and-healthier.html

The Essence of Connected Learning

This video was talking about:

1- engaging the kids in the learning experience, the key for a kid to learn is to make him need that learning and wants to do it.

Once the kid is ready and excited,t the information part will be easy.

2- learning should take place every were. In schools, homes, coffee shops ,ect.

3- we must change the way we teach. Instead of focusing on the outcome(backward design) we must focus on the learner on the kid.

the idea of focusing on the learner and not on the outcomes and goals, is kind of challenging. we are used to follow schedules and see if we met the standards. going on each student's interest might take time. It needs that we change the way we think and we see our children. also it is not a one person approach it must be the idea of the society...

Connected Learning: 'ESSENCE' from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

Making my life easier and healthier

Food has a important part in our lives. They make us happy and satisfied..
But What Is The Kind Of Food We Are Eating??
Is it healthy neutritious food
or
caned and fast food?????

Well all of us prefered healthy food.. But the challenge is having to go to school, do work, and having two kids..
Ohhhh don't forget the cleaning.. (dish washer problem:


So my goal is to make healthy neutritious and clean food.. I want to make a fast home made food...
So I did the following at one time:

1- Use T-fal fryer

you can't imagine how easy and healthy using it.. Its amazing and worth it every penny. 

2- taking fresh meat with spices (Kofta) and make it to be meat ball.. put every portion in a bag.

when I need them I will put them either with tomato douce or I will put them in my T-fal machine.

helping mommy

meat balls portion

Yousif enjoying the meat balls

Lasagna

3- cooking minced meat, boiling pasta and putting them together to have a Yummy Lasagna. 

Zucchini filled with meat

4- Zucchini filled with meat...
 It will be cooked with tomato sauce or yogurt sauce or......

So I will put them I the freezer and when I need them I will take one and add sauce to it, bake it or put it in my T-fal

This was the meat Journey.. I will up date you with the chicken journey....

New Mere Experience

This story starts last week in SOLES at USD. I saw so many people that I didn't see before at USD and a teens wearing read shirts greeting people. So I went to one of the read-shirt girls and asked her: what is going on?????

She told me their will be a debate between the meres of California.. I asked her: what is a mere??
She seems to be shocked so I've told her I am new to the american culture, she recovered from her shock and answered me.
I went to the library. And then I came back to SOLES on my way to the cafeteria.. as I was walking I saw the door of the room that the debate is in.. I took a pause and  decided I will go in. see what is this.....
I thought that this is an opportunity for me and a new experience that I have to go through even If I have an exam that I have to submit after that day..
I said well this is learning.. it  is about new experience


and here I would like to share the  ideas about education of the two meres:

Bob Filner

Bob Filner (congress man) Thoughts:

 Their is no friction between teachers and students. The teachers cares about their students and have high expectations of them. He said that the problem is with the funding not with the teachers. Acutely teachers want more time to teach and not less..

Also he suggested that  we have to engage institutions to take a share in education.. navy, sport teams, museum art.. we should make them care about kids..




Carl Demaio (councilman) Thoughts:

Carl Demaio

Make youth programs and let the students work,  and he mentioned after school program

We need school funding, yet it is not all about money it is how schools perform and how to spend that money..      
As talking about money he wants us to pay people for their performance.

Moreover, he talked about getting people involved in education and engaged in solving problems.. He will listen to all parties even students..





I have taken notes to what both of the mere said and after the debate I have asked a man to write for me their names because I didn't know anyone of them:) He was very nice..

So what do you think???? Who you will vote for????

Ohhh... Wait let me tell you about the red shirts..they were from an institution called reality changes, They were students that go through several programs. Going through this program will make them have more chance entering collages. especially that they will be the first generation collage students in their families

Note: If you was in the debate and I wrote less or wrong thing.. please feel free to comment.

Generosity

Every person has a desire and something he is curios about. We have our own interests that we would like to create and then share. In our lives we have plenty of time to do the things we desire and we will do them without a pay back or contract. This what we call the design for GENEROSITY..

People usually will give more and more for what they desire than if we have a contract with them and have punishment. Actually it is said if you want someone to do less of something then add a punishment.

This idea of generosity might be related to education.. If we formed groups in school and give the students right to choose which group and area they are interested in, we will get high results of creative things.
We also can use these generosity assignments and activities to help us in our daily study, we can use them to as models clarify ideas and show the students how this good creative information is being shared. And they can also create and share theirs.

But down the road we might be encountered by THE KIND OF GENEROSITY. We see that we have two different paths in were we put donate our time.
The first path is that we create and share things that has a communal value. This kind of work is important to the participant yet it doesn't solve crucial issues.
The other path  is the path in which we create and share things with civic value. These kind of shared documents is very important in our lives and it helps us to solve problems.

This idea might lead us to what Keamen have said "Free culture get what they celebrate" That means  we have to reward and appreciate the people who use and donaite their time to cognitive surplus. 

This kind of work... This kind of Generosity is what will change the world..

well What is in my internet bubble???

I would like to start from the idea of last sentence of the video.."the web job is to connect us all.. It will not do that if we were on the web of one"

We always think about the internet that its connect people and show us the world. Yet it might be the case that it show us our own world.. It show us what we want to know.. For example if I were back in Kuwait and I have google something I might have different results from what I will get if I google the same thing in US.
 It is interesting to know that we are having electronic guards that filters whats get to me and what enters my bubble..

I agree that we must have the option to choose our domain search.. set the kind and information that we would like to be introduced to..

What's wrong with my dish washer????

I hate dishwashers and I think that they are dirty..
well this might not be the case now because I have realized that the problem is me not knowing how to use them. one of the problems I have encountered is using normal sop for the dish washer.


 I made a small on line research about dishwashers and how do they work. I have got some information about the best way using my dishwasher and her is the link to a helpful webpage:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7599915_operate-ge-potscrubber-980-dishwasher.html

And also I saw on youtube how to use the dishwasher.

But I needed more advanced way to make my dishwasher function, since it is filled with water

I saw also a youtube about problems with dishwashers and how to solve them..

 Although my dish washer problem haven't been solved, I was  thrilled to see how professional were some of the videos and web pages.. I was interested to see how people have interest in dish washer tutorials..

well I think that  this  is relevant to what I  have  learned about tribes and community of practice..
every group of people have their own interest even if it was as simple as a dish washer,, Yet in my case dish washers are so complicated....

Hope the problem will be solved soon.. I would like my dish washer to work just like this:

Use both of your minds

A whole New mind
When we were small we always have dreamed to be a doctor, an engineer or a pilot.. At these days studying what is in the book, getting tested and score grades is what matters. Actually by doing this we were using our left mind. the left mind is responsible for patterns, sequence and details. However the right hand side was not much used and appreciated.
So in this book Daniel pink says that it is the time of the conceptual age.. The age in which we shift from being so left mind and use our right side..

It is now the time for the conceptional age because of three things:
1- Abundance: we are surrounded with all what we need, we can buy so many  quality things in a reasonable yet cheap prices.. so the market is full of things..
But what makes me choose this product and not the other is its appearance and how nice it is.. In order to add beauty to the good product we need the right side help.
2- Asia: Asian people are smart and clever they can do so many things in a low cost.. So if you want to keep your job and not lose it(being replaced by Asian employee) you should show some other skills using your right brain.
3- Automation: THis technology flow is affecting every one.. computers can do so many things that the left mind can do.. So show your intelligence  by using your right mind.

I agree with Pink we should use our two minds. We have to see the whole picture by the right mind and the details by the left mind in other situations.. THe flow of information and the constant change of the world requires that we change also and use our two minds.. and be unique

My 20 percent project

HMMMMMM....... I think  this will be an interesting project, since we will learn something we decided to learn it and yet get marks on learning  it..

I am thinking about doing one of these things;

 painting

making a small  cobord from wood (when I was young I brought some wood to build a cobord but I wasn't able to;(

 cooking(back in Kuwait I was living in my family in low's house I didn't need to cook, So in San diego I am discovering cooking)

crochet

learning how to photoshop

playing tennis ball or tennis

If you have any other suggestions please help me with..

What is a community of practice???

Human beings are created in a way they need to communicate, share their interests and thoughts. So, as you can see you will find groups formed that share the same interest and connect because of it. This concept is their long time ago but it was toughed with more deepth and organization by the community of practice theory developed by Jean Lave and Eitinne Wenger. So what is this theory?? "The Communities of practice is a group of peopleshare a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly."(Wenger) Such groups has a great influence on individuals. Imagine you having an interest, how good you will feel when you know that you have a grouop that shares that interest and is commeted to it the same way you do. You can then stand on a solid ground with a high self esteem.
 Furthermore their are some characteristics in order to call a group Community of practice and these characteristics are; 1- shared domain, that is members share and focus on the same interest. 2-The community, the community members often share and collaborate together. They actuelly learn from each other. 3-the members share the same practice. What makes community of practice different from other communities is that the members are active practitioners. They don't only share a common interest yet, they are in the field practicing it in their everyday lives. They will be working on their interest and they will share what they've got with their group. What they will share might be a new thing that they tried and worked out with them, information transfer....and problem solving.(ex. is in the video) These communities where created in governments, organizations,....and education. applying them in educational feilds is the thing that I would like to touch more deeply in this blog. According to the community of practice, schools are part of learning. They are essential yet they serve one sector of the learning process.listen to a lecture about the world and being tested on them is not the way of learning. The effective way of learning is to be in the picture of the world. being engaged and interested in the things that I am learning about with a community back up is the effective way of learning. To apply this theory in real educational practice we have to consider Three things; 1- learning occurs within the relation of the community members. Communication and relationship play a big rule in applying this theory. 2- Educators are not being the source that students will go to know the answers. Instead educators are involved in this community thats mean they are also seeking knowledge. 3-There is a connection between Knowledge and activities. After being explaining the community off practice theory , The question that will raise up is; how to apply this theory in my educational PLN????? To apply this theory we might find it hard because we used to believed our whole lit that learning is being addressed at schools in formal way. Yet we can apply this theory. To apply such thing I might post several life issues. Foe example; cooking, cars, races,...ect. introducing them to the students and every student will go to the subject that he is interested in. In this way we will be forming a groups that share the same interest. In every community of practice students will be reading, writing, analyzing, criticizing and searching for knowledge. After that every will share its results and thoughts and will be given feedbacks and corrections. The students at the end will be learning with such interest and engagement. THis kind of learning will last long. At the end I will quote some difficulties that the community of practice theory has encountered. "While some success has been had using communities of practice to enhance student learning, issues such as community membership, power relationships, student legitimacy, evaluation, and overlapping communities still need to be addressed." this quote is from

My passion

what you are passionate about in terms of education or leadership. . .What do you hope to do with this passion (or what are you already doing with this passion?) If you had to narrow down your passion to one specific aspect in terms of your future research, what would it be? I find this question being very good and hard at the same time. It is hard because I didn't think about it seriously. yet it is so important because answering this question will determine how you will teach and how your relationship with your students will be. So it's time then that I think about this question and answer it. My passion is that I would like my learning classes to be different. meaning that I would like the students to imagine and be creative. and to satisfy this passion I always try to let my students think outside the box by giving them assignments where they have to think and do creative ideas. Moreover,as I am encountering new ideas and thoughts at USD new passions have pop. They are to create a non sheep walking student. A student that has his own ideas and thoughts. Since I my program is curriculum and instruction, I would like to construct curriculums that will focus more on how can we engage the students in what we are teaching rather than teaching them e boring stuff in a boring way.

Discovering me in the Web

We usually type an unknown thing person or place in Google and get to know it.. But it is also good to search yourself and see what kind of participant you are in the world. More prosaically what did you do and has been shared with the world. When I googled my name I was like a visitor to the web. I uses the web when I need so to search and use certain things. But in this class I was exposed more to web media communication. As I continue my journey in life, I like to use these tools of communication and share things I do, feel, or believe with other people.

My storify on Tribes