Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Digital Reflection

Here is my Digital Reflection.  Enjoy the video.  I looked at the samples posted on Edmodo and did my video like one that really resonated with me.  This was a very powerful learning experience, seeing how I can integrate all this technology.  Probably the most profound piece has been creating my presentation on the beer making using Edcanvas because of how it ties everything together and integrates so many different tools into one interface.  

Thursday, May 2, 2013

WE HAVE BOTTLES!!  I will be bringing in a few bottles for tasting today.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Exciting News!

I am going to filter and bottle the cider tomorrow for class!  Super exciting.  The project is coming along quite well but unfortunately has had to somewhat take a back seat to AR right now.  After the conference on Saturday, I will have time to make a presentation about my brewing process for the final session.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

20% Project, Update

The mash is doing well.  I will take another alcohol reading and taste test it tonight and update this post.  I tasted it after our virtual class, and it actually tasted decent!  I am going to do a little bit of research into the bottle process before I undertake it so I do it right.  I will post a picture of the mash tonight!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

20% Project

So I have a mash currently fermenting. . .so far at 3.9% apv (alcohol per volume).  If anybody is interested, the flavor combination (it's a cider) is acai, blueberry, pomegranate, almond, honey, sage, and thyme.  I am planning at least two to three more brews, possibly 4.  Depends on supply procurement, and yeast supplies. I will need more buckets because of the time required.  I will bring samples for tasting of the different ciders that I have ready for tasting for the field testing day probably.  The next flavor blends I am planning are:
Candied Apple (apple with cocoa powder, maybe nutmeg), Buster (named for my dog, will be either strawberry-lime or raspberry-lime), Capone (named for a friend's dog, mango-peach-strawberry), Tikal (a Classic Mayan city and one of the major power centers, aloe and agave, possibly with cinnamon).  Any flavor suggestions are much appreciated!  I will post a picture of the mash fermenting tomorrow night.  There are a lot of different substances involved in cidermaking.  It's not just the yeast!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

PLN Reflection

READ:  I am somewhere between "Between Two Worlds" and "In the Matrix" on this one.  I read articles on CNN almost everyday and sometimes go to news.google.com.  I don't generally collect things using an rss aggregator to collect news stories.  I use tweetdeck, but I only check it sporadically.  I love being able to read books on my Kindle.

TWEET:  I check my feed quite often and retweet meaningful tweets and good quotes.  I am not as prolific as some of my colleagues at tweeting educational articles and such, but I will get better at that.  I don't check tweetdeck as often as I should.

ARCHIVING/BOOKMARKING:  In creating my annotated bibliography for my action research, I have made use of Diigo to archive the papers and websites I wanted to use for later reference.  I have not done much cross-sharing, but I will do more.

WRITING: My blogging so far has been exploring my own writings and making use of tools such as Wordle.  I need to comment more on my colleague's blogs, I know that.  Looking at my colleagues' blogs, I also have noticed that I should also be writing more professional and less whimsical entries.  \

COMMENT:  As I said above, I need to comment more on my colleagues' blogs.  I do respond as quickly and professional as possible to inquiries in response ot my blog entries.

GROW/SHARE:  I have shared freinds' blogs, I have grown my number of followers on twitter.  I try to blog at least once a week, but I tweet rather sporadically.  I love looking into different tools and using them.  I have Dropbox across my computer, my phone, and the cloud which I love to make use of it.  Word clouds are exciting and the myriad presentation media are intriguing as possibilities in my classroom.

MY PLAN:  I am going to make a point to check Tweetdeck at least once daily and repost from one of the educational hashtags I follow daily.  I am going to check educational and mathematical journals and such at least weekly and Diigo interesting articles and papers.  I will comment on at least 3 of my colleagues' blog entries every week.  I also have a growing network of friends that is already a good size on Linkedin, and I maintain a fairly profession, if left-leaning, presence on Facebook.  I have friends across the community, from my dentist to my rabbi and parents from my placement last semester to professors from my undergraduate studies.  As I have grown and gotten more professional connections on Facebook, I have matured my presence there, leaving behind less appropriate things and being very selective about what I share and post.  I do the same on Twitter.  I had an active presence with my sixth graders on Edmodo last semester, and really like the service.  I have tried as I become more mature to do the same to my web presence. I put a lot of plan type things up in each section of this entry as well as here, and I know what I need to improve on.  I will improve, and I will succeed.