The Life of Good Food... Good People... & Good Travels...: Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushroom, & Font...

Here's a link to my other Blog... I'll be posting my recipes here :)

But for now, enjoy the one's I've already posted!!


**Disclaimer: After learning about all the in's and out's from EDUC 578 about how to change settings in our blogs, I have yet to change anything from when I first published this blog, so the design will change soon as well... Now to find the time!

The Life of Good Food... Good People... & Good Travels...: Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushroom, & Font...: Hands-on Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Serves: 4 1 small butternut squash (2 lbs), peeled & cut into 1-inch cubes 1/2 button ...

The rundown of my Innovation Week!

Previous Weeks Dinner: Grilled Tilapia, Roasted Eggplant, Wild Brown Rice Medley, and Steamed Veggies

Day 1 (Monday): Stuffed Feta and Spinach Chicken, Brown Rice Medley with Roasted Red Grapes, and Steamed Green Beans

Day 2 (Tuesday): Grilled Rib-Eye, Steamed Veggies, and a Baked Potato 
I forgot to take a picture this day!  The boyfriend is in charge of making dinner on Tuesday's since it is my long day.  He surprised me with some wine, candles, and a yummy dinner!

Day 3 (Wednesday): Tortellini with Roasted Butternut Squash in a Mushroom Cream Sauce

 

Day 4 (Thursday): Panko Breaded Pork Chops with Roasted Brocolli topped with Feta (I LOVE FETA!!)

Day 5 (Friday): Arugula and Spinach Salad with Feta, Shredded Parmesan, and Red Grapes (this was lunch)

For dinner I made Shrimp Tacos with Black Beans and I forgot to take a picture because I was in such a hurry to eat before I went out to play a soccer game!

Day 6 (Saturday): Stuffed Asparagus and Jack Chicken, Roasted Parmesan Acorn Squash, Side Spinach Salad

Day 7-14 Consisted of Carnival Cruise Food
For those of you have have been on a cruise, you know how you gain at LEAST 10 pounds off of their unlimited all you can eat food!  For those of you who have yet to cruise (you HAVE to do it at least once!), my menu included anything from Eggs Benedict, Belgian Waffles, Buttermilk Pancakes, Eggs, Oatmeal, Cereal, Fruit for breakfast.  Burritos, Mongolian Noodles, Grilled Paninis, Tandoori, Pizza, Calzones, Burgers for lunch.  And for the best part... DINNER!  Consisted of Steak, Prime Rib, Chicken, Pasta, Lobster, Mac & Cheese, Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, Spankopita and Stuffed Peppers, and so much more, I'm sure I forgot...

Now, after that binge, here's my projected lineup for this week!

Monday: Chicken Enchiladas with Fat Free Pinto Beans
Tuesday: Boyfriend's Choice (hopefully healthy)
Wednesday: Spinach and Spring Mix Salad topped with Grilled Chicken, Almonds, & Feta
Thursday: Rotisserie Chicken Tacos
Friday: Roasted Butternut Squash and Quinoa Salad
Saturday: Open for suggestions!  Any other favorites????   

**I'll post recipes soon!

I'm Back!!!

Ok.. So in between Innovation Week and my cruise vacation, I've been away from all sorts of phone, internet, television connection for almost a week and boy did it feel good to disconnect, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about work and things I needed to do for school.  Now, I kind of was forced to stay away because the slow Internet connection on the boat, a $0.75 per MINUTE charge, plus tax and connection fees were ridiculous and out of my price range!  Anyways, looking at Tweetdeck and everyone's blog posts, it seems that I missed out on us connecting with other students at U of R!  I'm excited to hear more about everything I missed and I will be posting more on my Innovation week later on tonight!  I'm sad to have ended my vacation, but I'm glad to be back home!

Innovation Week

So, I had to share... even though I know we were told not to blog until Saturday-ish... but I've started my innovation week off by cooking homemade dinners!  Kind of exciting because the boyfriend and I have REALLY been trying to eat healthier... I'll share recipes and pictures soon!

Anyways, my technology innovation that I attempted to learn more about was GoogleDocs... and although I love GoogleDocs, I hate it as well.  So, as you (my classmates) have heard, I will not be in the country next week.  (Scott (the boyfriend) and I are leaving on Sunday to the Mexican Riviera to celebrate his birthday and our 3 year anniversary... Not to mention, we booked this cruise REALLY cheap a few months back on a Travelzoo special!! $300 a piece for 7 days on a cruise ship)  Anyways, I've been trying to "share" a PowerPoint presentation with my group members because we are assigned to present on Tuesday while I am gone and I volunteered to do my share of the slide and audio record whatever I'm talking about in my slides.  I got that part done (my first time really recording myself and attaching to a PowerPoint), but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to share the PowerPoint (without screwing up my format and theme that I had on my desktop) and make the audio work through GoogleDocs.  I tweeted, I used jing (unsucessfully), I used a new converter website, I tried uploading to YouTube and NOTHING!  So, basically with the limited time I have, I decided we were just going to have to share using regular old email!  So, I finished my slides today and I go to attach, and of course, my file is too big.  I try to compress my file, still to big, then I remembered the the dropbox Jeff had us sign up for!! YAY!!!  So that worked and I sent off my PowerPoint contribution... Now, I am just waiting for one of my group members to respond to me saying that they are able to open the PowerPoint and hear all of my audio.  I sent it to myself and opened it up on Scott's computer and that worked, so hopefully it will work for my group members!!!!!

10 Thoughts on Whole Living

I subscribe to the magazine Whole Living and found this to be something that could relate to what we have been talking about within Pink's book and our Innovation Week of doing something for us!!  Enjoy!

10 Thoughts on Whole Living

1. A meal shared with family and friends sustains you in more ways than one.
2. Gratitude cannot always change circumstances, but it can help you see beyond them.
3. With rejection comes a decision: You can either turn back or find a new way forward.
4. Feeling restless may be a sign that you haven't sat still long enough.
5. Stop seeing life as a problem to be solved and, instead, as a mystery to be enjoyed.
6. Sometimes you have to travel to a new place to rediscover the old you.
7. To make the best use of your intuition, think less and listen more.
8. Give above and beyond what you think will help.
9. Rather than worry about how your body should look, focus on how you want it to feel.
10. Virtuous and delicious aren't mutually exclusive; the most nourishing foods can also be the most delightful

** This was taken from the November issue of Whole Living (g. 91)

Our blogs!

So... I tweeted out our blogs!  Let's see how many people will actually look at our blogs!! :)

And if you're a visitor, please check out my classmates blogs in the blogroll!!

We are M.Ed. students either in Curriculum & Instruction or Math, Science & Technology Education taking a Learning and Technology class at the University of San Diego.  We are gather tools to build our PLN's and are designing a portfolio based on our interests in the classrooms.  These portfolios are ranging from integrating iPad's in the classroom, to adding art in the classroom, to creating an ESL writing cookbook, to integrating math and technology.

Any help, suggestions, tools, or resources would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!!

One Laptop per Child

Hi all!

I was wondering if anyone has heard about the guest speaker that will be at SOLES next Tuesday?  His name is Robert Hacker and he is the founder of "One Laptop per Child".  In my Tuesday class, we are voting on whether or not to go, so hopefully everyone votes yes!  I don't know too much about the program, but here is their mission from their website:

One Laptop per Child
We aim to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

Can you find the mistake?

My First Re-Tweet (by a stranger!)

So, I just saw that I got my first re-tweet and it had nothing to do with this blog!!  Someone actually re-tweeted my post on my other "personal" blog about the butternut squash recipe that I made for dinner last night!  I'm wasn't following the person, nor do I think the person was following me, but maybe he had a search of "butternut squash"???  Anyways, it got re-tweeted to the #food feed! :)

Too funny!!

I saw this tweeted in #edchat... thought I'd share!

A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink

To be honest, I don't think I've read a book, let a alone a homework assigned book that actually grabbed my attention.  I've ALWAYS been the one that is jealous of those who have the time to read novels just for fun.  Now, I do read, but nowadays, it's reading that is assigned for a class.  I've bought many books that I've been interested in, but finding the time to actually sit down during my free time is scarce...  I guess maybe because I choose to sit on the couch, relax, and catch up on my DVR'ed shows during my free time... After reading Chapter 1 of Daniel Pink's, A Whole New Mind, I left myself wanting to know more!  (Now I haven't felt this way about a homework assignment for a really long time!!)  I think it's fascinating to read about the new technology that allows us to view the human brain.  I've always considered myself a little more right-brained because of that creative, empathetic, and simultaneous side that I demonstrate, but I can also see the sequential side of the left in me.  Now, reflecting on Part 1 of the book, I can see where both sides are tied together, especially with things that I do.  Although I write right-handed and throw right-handed, I bat (in softball) left-handed, do kartwheels left-handed, and many other things left-handed.  I now don't know if I was actually trained to do things "lefty" or if it just came more natural that way (when I first started playing softball, I was pretty fast, so they trained me to hit left-handed, but I could also hit "righty", but it felt more natural on the left side).  Anyways, after reading Part 1, I found myself really interested to read more about the quote on the front of the book "why right-brainers will rule the future".  I can't wait to read more!

Visitor or Resident???

After watching the video, I would say that before EDUC 578, I definitely would consider myself a visitor.  Although I participated in social media networks like facebook and myspace, I was completely (and still am) private about what I post and who can see my posts, photos, uploads, check-ins, etc.  For awhile, I was very active in "posting my status", but found that to be too much information to be sharing even with my selected "friends" on facebook.  At this moment, I would say that I am still private, but like the presenter mentioned, I am a visitor in the "non-institutional" way where I keep my family and personal life "private".  As for the context of the institutional way, I would consider myself on my way to the resident continuum.  I'm not all the way there, but I am participating in twitter, LinkedIn, Diigo, my blog, etc. that is much more open for everyone to see my footprint that I have left on the web.  I don't think my facebook will ever turn into a "resident" way, but I use that social media tool as a way to keep in touch with people I already know and use that in the non-institutional sense.  To close, I really like how he described a visitor and a resident...

A visitor sees the web as an untidy toolbox.  They go in knowing what they need, mill around in the tool box, find their tool, use it, and then put it back, whereas a resident sees the web is a collection of tools.  The web is a social space to mill around in and leave your footprint behind.

SDUHSD looking for AVID tutors!! (Part-Time Position)

Thought I'd forward this to anyone that may be looking for a part-time job.  They (San Dieguito Union High School District) are REALLY flexible with your school schedule and the only job I've ever worked with that really follows through with they're saying that your schooling comes first!  Here's the info... Feel free to forward to anyone that my be interested in the AVID tutor position!  Send me a message and I'll send you the job description/who to contact!

Hi Tutors and others,

 

Our district still needs tutors, so please talk to friends and classmates to help find possible good candidates. If you are enrolled in an education class of some sort, please ask the prof if you could announce to the class that this job opening exists.

 

Remember that candidates must currently be enrolled in at least one college class and be available during the day (roughly within the window of 7:30-3:00) on weekdays.

Tagxedo vs. Wordle

So, I was browsing through some cool programs similar to Wordle and came across Tagxedo.  You can shape the word clouds to resemble many different things.  Check out the ones in their gallery.  Pretty cool!!  Here are some that I designed using my Passion post!

Now, how do I remove the tagxedo.com from my image?? :)

Here are some from their gallery!

New Teacher Chat #ntchat

So, I had to take a break from my homework in EDUC 572 (The Psychology of Mathematical Thinking).  My break consisted of literally sitting on the couch and thinking about how overwhelmed I am right now!  School, homework, three jobs, having to drive all over San Diego for my three jobs, and balancing my personal life are all catching up to me this semester!  Anyways, after all that thinking, I logged onto tweetdeck and found some cool posts on #ntchat (New Teacher Chat).  Since many of us are new teachers or going to be new teachers, I thought there was tons of great info and I was able to stumble upon their archive of educational chats and their website... so I thought I'd share with you all!!

Here are two resources for New Teacher Chat!!
New Teacher Chat #ntchat (from the creator, Lisa Dabbs @teachingwthsoul
New Teacher Chat

I have yet to REALLY check it out (I really need to get back to my other homework) but I'll let you all know if I find anything else interesting!!

Question...

So, I'm on campus at USD and I'm using a computer in the lab upstairs in SOLES.  I was going to try to do a little work for our class and browse some chats that I have on my tweetdeck on my computer that is currently at home.  I tried to log onto tweetdeck through using the browser and not have it on the desktop (since this is a shared computer), but is that possible?  On tweetdeck's homepage, there is an option for "web" but you have to be approved to use the Beta application.  Has anyone else used something different to check out different hashtags??  I tried searching #ipadchat on twitter, but it only gave me posts of people who I'm following.  I think I'm missing a step inbetween there to actually find everything posted to that hashtag, so any help would be appreciated!!

My First Educational Chat on Twitter!!

So, I participated (well, kind of participated, more observed) my first #scichat or first educational chat ever during my EDUC 573 class. (I promise I was participating in both the class and chat at the same time in case Dr. Spencer ever reads this!!)  Anyways, I was actually viewing the chat through tweetdeck and was going to switch over to tweetchat, but saw that the chat was actually going pretty slow, so I was able to keep up.  Some of my initial impressions after hearing about other classmates experiences was that I would be overwhelmed with the number of posts, but I felt ok observing.  The chat started off with people "trying" to suggest topics for the night.  I guess since there were not many people involved and for the time that I was there observing, they mainly talked about different engineering programs (I forget what it was called and I just tried to look up a transcript of the chat, but does that exist?  I thought it did somewhere).  Anyways, I hope to participate in either the #ipadchat or another #scichat in the future!

What is my passion??

While thinking of what I want to concentrate on for this class, I immediately thought about the grant that I wrote this summer in my Curriculum Innovations class on iPad's.  Since I have yet to start taking classes for my action research project (I plan on taking EDUC 500 this summer in Tokyo), I have not really thought about what I want to do, nor do I even know where to start with action research!!!  So, I have started looking at the #ipadchat &#scichat posts through tweetdeck and I have even started bookmarking websites related to using the iPad specifically in a science classroom.  I have done a little bit of research this past summer on the benefits of using an iPad in a Science classroom and have been gathering that information as well.  Of course, one of the challenges is sustainability and getting funding, but I think I have that covered with the grant that I wrote.  Now comes relating the iPad to a Science curriculum.  I guess one of my questions about our project is can I be specific in using the iPad to a specific subject or do I need to be more broad and say using an iPad in schools?

I would say that one of my passions is technology and I really do hope to learn more about technology education especially since I have transitioned from the M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction to the M.Ed. in Math, Science, and Technology.  I think I would still like to go beyond just using the iPad as a technology tool in the Science classroom and maybe add more "personal" passions, but I am still thinking about that... but for now, here are some of my personal passions... Being outdoors, traveling, being healthy/eating healthy, and adult sports/exercising.