Blog Post Week 5

This week was the week that I actually had time to complete my genius hour project. It was reading week and with all the time off I decided that it would be the perfect time to compete it. After settling on a simple recipe which I curated from scouring the internet and people's Nona's for ingredients I set out to the store to buy some All Purpose flour, some Semolina Flour, eggs, and olive oil. Here is a quick summary of a recipe very similar to the one I used. I kind of free styled a bit off of the recipe but for the most part this is what I followed:

Make the dough. Sift both flours together on a large work surface and make a well in the center. Place the eggs, olive oil and a pinch of salt in a bowl, then pour into the well; with a fork, break up the eggs, then gradually mix the wet ingredients into the flour mixture just until combined.
Knead by hand. Gather the dough into 2 equal-size balls; flour the surface. To knead each piece, push the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over itself and turn it counterclockwise. Continue pushing, folding and turning until the dough is smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes.
Rest the dough. Pat each piece into a ball. Flatten slightly, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Roll out the dough. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and dust with flour. Starting in the middle, push away from you with a rolling pin, easing up on the pressure as you approach the edge. Continue rolling the dough into a sheet, turning occasionally, until you can see your fingers through the bottom. Let dry about 10 minutes.
Cut the pappardelle. Dust the top of the sheet of dough with flour and loosely roll it into a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch-wide slices. Unwrap the noodles; dust with semolina and gently toss to separate. Place on a sheet pan and cover with a tea towel until ready to cook

I was actually very happy with how the pasta came out. Earlier in this semester I wrote in one of my blogs that a successful genius hour project would mean that I was able to at least create a good dough, because from there, any pasta could be made; the key is the dough. My dough came out perfect, so therefore, I would already consider my genius hour project to be a success. On top of the dough coming out correctly, after boiling and tossing in some sauce, the pasta was absolutely delicious. All in all, my genius hour was a SUCCESS!
I feel like the genius hour project is something that can prove to be very useful in the classroom and can motivate students to learn through their own inquiry project.

Blog Post #4

This week we did not have an actual in class session and therefore all of the work had to be done individually and without one on one instruction. I found this to be a little daunting as we all know that sometimes technology can be unforgiving to those that do not know how to properly use it. However, I was able to manage fairly smoothly and was able to complete what was asked of me in the online slides. I completed the "Not a Box" picture but had a little trouble posting it to the google drive slides. I am assuming others had the same issue as Sue had to send out an email informing us that she had to make some changes to the google drive form to make it editable by the class. I also had a good time making the genius hour movie trailer. I bought my MacBook two years ago and aside from wen browsing and streaming movies etc I had yet to really use any of the cool applications that come standard with the Mac. For my trailer I used the iMovie Application which I found to be really cool. It comes loaded with trailer templates in which you can just plug in your characters, pictures and different names etc. I chose the film noir template. All in all I am pretty impressed and satisfied with my movie trailer. I think that it conveys what my genius hour project is all about and why I chose this specific topic. In terms of my actual Genius Hour project, there is not very much left for me to do in terms of planning. Now it is just a matter of me actually putting my plans and recipes into action. If time allows it, I think that this weekend will be my first attempt at actually making some pasta. Wish me luck!