Week 2.7 Sign Language

   Well so much for genius hour. When I compare my progress to Brianna's it's like comparing a supermodel to My 600 lb Life. It's not good. I did not expect to have so much trouble remembering all the signs. When I asked Brianna how she was so much farther along than Brooke and I, she said she simply practiced. She told me that she works on her signs outside of class and simply remembers them by repeating them over and over again. I realized it is not only a case of remembering the signs, but also motivation. She wants to be a speech pathologist. I do not. I understand that knowing languages can get you far in life, but I would have to have more motivation and time in order to learn sign language comprehensively. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate and respect sign language, but I do not think I will continue to learn it after this genius hour is done. For now I would really rather practice my Spanish and focus on one language at a time. Perhaps in the future I will see where life takes me and go from there. I can't quite call it good yet though, because we still have TED Talks. 

   Brooke and I have discussed what we wanted to do for our TED Talks and we plan to find a song and sign that song. With our very limited knowledge of sign language it is going to be very repetitive and probably pretty short but that is all we can do for the time being. I am going to apologize in advance for this presentation. However, talking with other students it seems that this genius hour collectively did not go as well as the first. The only success story seems to be Channing's, because her dog is amazing. I guess the plan for next week is to finalize the song we are picking and actually prepare our genius hour. I hope I have better luck focusing next week. I was thinking that doing a partner project would make me more accountable but if that was the case then I picked the wrong person. Brooke can do anything she puts her mind to but we both have slacked off when it comes to our genius hours. This does not bode well for our TED Talks, but hopefully we can pick it up by then. I want to end on a high note. Here's to next week! 

https://www.lifeprint.com/   This is the link to American Sign Language University, a website that I have found incredibly helpful. 

Week 2.6 Sign Language

This week has been rough. Looking back at my planner, I am not even close to where I thought I would be at this point in time. Brooke and I worked on reviewing our greetings and we also learned family terms. We decided it would be best to start working with Brianna since teamwork makes the dream work and she is actually motivated. This has turned out to be very beneficial and I have found that we are learning more terms faster. It also helps to have another person holding you responsible because Brooke and I are both skilled in the art of procrastination. I am still struggling with remembering the words. I figured out that I am not a hands on learner. I need to speak to Brooke and figure out a plan for our final presentation. For now I plan to keep trying and make as much progress as I can. On the bright side, I found a new website that has helped me a lot. I'll include a link at the end.

https://www.lifeprint.com/ 

Week 2.5 Sign Language

   This was a tough week for me when I tried learning sign language. I realized I could hardly remember any of the signs I had previously learned. I tried to talk with Brianna in sign language and became aware of the fact that she is considerably farther along than I am. I was also hit with the conclusion that there are different signs for the same word and different words for the same sign. I watched a couple of contrasting youtube videos. The videos used many different greetings when the greeting boiled down to the same thing. For example, I wanted to be able to sign,"what is your name?" One video showed how to sign those exact words in that sequence, another video showed how to sign the same words but with different signs, and yet another video showed the phrase with similar signs but in a different order. At this point I do not know what is right or wrong, which is a typical hindrance of the internet. I am just going to along as best I can and hope people are able to decipher what I am trying to say.
   Since I was unable to recall many of the signs which I had learned, I spent some time this afternoon reviewing. I went back over simple greetings and common phrases. Brianna and I compared our different methods of learning and signing and found some contrasting ideas therein. She told me she prefers to use a book and learn the individual signs that make up a sentence. I have had fairly good luck up until this point using youtube videos and trying to memorize phrases. It was interesting to dissect the different ways in which we learn. For now I hope to practice a little bit more and try to get better at memorizing signs. We'll see how I do next week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWwKwKH8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCk3WqtVi4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raa0vBXA8OQ

Here are some of the different videos I watched. Just be aware they may not all match each other exactly.

Week 2.4 Sign Language

   Another week has come and gone, and more sign language was learned. This week Brooke and I focused on simple greetings and small talk. I learned how to say hello and goodbye. I already knew how to sign my own name but now I have the abilities to use this skill in context. I now know the phrase, "hello, my name is Maci." I know it doesn't look like a lot, but it is cool for me to be able to start putting some of what I have learned together. 

  After I learned my one little phrase, I moved on to small talk. I learned the signs for what's up and how are you. As I stated in my last blog, paying attention to every little movement is crucial in sign language. It is easy to get sloppy but that can make your signs illegible. For this week I opted to go with quality over quantity. I really focused on making my signs clear and understandable, rather than trying to learn a bunch of sloppy signs that I don't truly know. I feel pretty good about this week after learning some conversational signs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCk3WqtVi4 This is the video I used to learn conversational signs. 

Week 2.3 Sign Language

   I learned the animals and basic adjectives in sign language this week. It is amazing how fast you can forget a language when you are not practicing it. It is the exact opposite of riding a bike, if you do not practice it you will most surely forget it. I have found this is true in Spanish and the same goes for sign language. I forgot most of the animals in just the week I spent not practicing them. Some of the signs make sense and are easy to remember but others are not. I try to come up with little tricks for remembering them but they do not always work. I will just have to keep practicing so I do not forget what I have learned.
   All hardships aside, I was excited to learn adjectives because that meant I could start to put together sentences. I learned words like short and tall, ugly and pretty, and nice and mean. I can produce simple sentences once I learn some nouns and other words, but even just having that framework is really cool. The hard part of learning anything new is usually the beginning. It is difficult to practice something and work at it when there is no end in sight. Once you begin to become proficient in any skill, it becomes easier to stick with it because you are able to see the product of your hard work. I believe that's why most people quit projects in the early stages. While failure is an option, quitting is not which is what I like about genius hour. I look forward to learning more this next coming week.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nza_xrSQ8nQ This is the link for basic adjectives in sign language.

Week 2.2 Sign Language

   Learning sign language is much more difficult that I had anticipated. I never realized how precise every movement had to be and how much significance each and every action holds. Now that I step back and think about it, it makes sense. If you are sending confusing messages by making sloppy signs, then the whole purpose of communicating is kind of defeated. I tend to rush through things and so this week I really focused on making my movements clear and precise.
   Although I was focused on making neat signs, I also managed to learn something new. Brooke and I continued to work on animals this week. We have found that Youtube videos are working the best for us. The funny part of this whole endeavor is trying to follow along with the five year olds making the video. They really know their stuff and can go quite quickly. I try to use their skill as a motivator and tell myself something along the lines of, "if a five year old can do this, then surely a seventeen year old can." I hope I am right, otherwise I have just been shown up by a kid without her front teeth.
       I had a lot of fun learning all the different animals. I was talking to my mom the other day and she said she likes to use simple signs in her preschool classrooms. When she is teaching the alphabet, she likes to associate letters with actions so the kids better remember what they learned. She has discovered that the best way to do this is to sign the letter that they are working on. Sign language has many added benefits, besides the obvious of communicating with other people. It can be used in many different ways and that is why I wanted to learn it in the first place. I am enjoying seeing all of the ways in which sign language can be used.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-f1My_8OFE This is the link we used to learn the animals in sign language. Keep up with the kids if you can!

Week 2.1 Sign Language

   I made it to week two of genius hour! For this week Brooke and I focused on learning the alphabet and numbers 1-30 in sign language. I already knew the alphabet so this part was easy for me. I learned the alphabet in the fifth grade when Mrs. Gruba taught it to us. I do not really know how I retained that information over all these years but it has come in handy now. For the first thirty numbers Brooke and I watched Youtube videos. It is handy doing this project with somebody else because you can mirror the other's actions and learn more efficiently that way. I did not anticipate how tired my hand would get after just an hour of practice. There are a lot of small, significant movements when it came just to the numbers and my hand was getting tired by the end of it. I also realized how utterly useless my left hand is. Despite these setbacks, I was able to learn the alphabet and numbers in sign language so it was all worth it. Once I get a little more proficient in the language I think I will really start to enjoy the learning process. If you guys want to learn the sign language numbers, I will include the link for the video that I used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFCXyB6q2nU

Week 2.0 Sign Language

   Well, we are halfway through the year and that means it is time for another genius hour. Brooke and I have decided to work together to learn sign language. Once again we started out with our shark tank pitch. For this pitch we talked about our plan and our hopes for this project. Like we stated in our pitch, we want to start simple. We are going to learn the alphabet, simple words and phrases, and work up to constructing basic sentences. We are going to use many resources to help us along, like books and websites. April McAuliffe is also going to be helping us. By the end of our project we want to be able to construct simple sentences and have a basic understanding of the language. It will be interesting to see how this project progresses since it is very different from cooking!

http://www.signlanguage101.com/ This link can help with learning basic sign language if anybody is interested.

Week 7

   I am very pleased with the way this week turned out. My grandma and grandpa moved to Miles City this year and since then we have started the tradition of Sunday night dinner. I was excited to be able to cook for Sunday dinner. My grandmother is a very accomplished cook so the stakes were high. For this meal I made salmon with mashed potatoes and salad. I also made Red Lobster biscuits. I started with the salmon. I seasoned it with lemon garlic salt and butter. I also chopped up a red pepper and an onion. No, I did not cry. I threw all of that in the oven and let it cook for 45 minutes. I prepared the potatoes and set them to boil on the stove. Then I made up the biscuit mix and set it aside. I finished with the salad. While everything was cooking I was busy setting the table. I cooked the biscuits for the last fifteen minutes. I served the salmon and the salad. Then I mashed the potatoes and added butter to the warm biscuits. This was probably my most in depth meal yet. It was helpful to have my mom and grandma there to answer questions. I treasure these Sunday night dinners because I know the life moves fast. It has been a lot of fun spending time this year with my grandparents.
   I included a picture of my dog because this is a really cute picture and it deserves to be seen by everybody.

Week 6 Cooking

   Once again I have made food. This week I incorporated a little bit of culture into my meal. I made Norwegian shrimp sandwiches. I have never been to Norway but I am fifty percent Norwegian. When my parents traveled to Norway they decided that their favorite dish was the fresh shrimp served on warm bread. We are not in Norway and as such our shrimp is not nearly as fresh but the frozen bag from Walmart was still good. This meal took me a total of twenty minutes and so it is handy for times when you need food that can be readily made. I started by thawing the shrimp. I estimated how many I thought I would eat and thawed them in the sink by running cold water over them for five minutes. Then I grabbed a pan and added a slab of butter and some cooking oil. I added shrimp and sauted them until they turned pink all the way through. Shrimp are easy to prepare because they turn color when cooked so you know when to safely serve them. As I was making the shrimp I put the loaf of French bread in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and baked it until it was warm. It is important to note that wrapping the bread in tinfoil allowed it to cook much faster. When I had the bread warmed up and the shrimp were done I put them on the table with the Norwegian mayonnaise. Norwegian mayonnaise is a light yellow color and different in taste compared to American mayonnaise but it was still very good. I had fun making a meal that deviated from tradition and tasted good all at the same time. Due to the minimal time spent on this meal I would probably make it again. Now I just have to go to Norway to see what fresh shrimp tastes like.

I Cooked but Only Sort of Successfully Week 5

   Well this week did not go as well as I had planned. I made food twice but it was rough both times. I did not get to make a desert but I did make another salad. I like salads because they are easy. I made breakfast for my friends one morning using a bunkhouse kitchen. My supplies were limited and I had to use very different appliances. The stove was old and the pan I found was mediocre at best. I did not have any no-stick cooking spray and my poor sausage suffered as a result. It stuck to the bottom of the pan if I did not keep it moving around and as a result I burned some. In the end it turned out all right and there was still plenty to  make a meal even after I burned the sausage. When I completed the incineration of the sausage I grabbed some tortillas and shredded cheese to make breakfast burritos. All in all it was not a bad breakfast. 

   Last night I made hamburgers. Well, I tried to make hamburgers. This time I was at home so I cannot blame the kitchen. I softened the ground beef and that was the last part that went smoothly. 

Instead of putting the meat in a bowl and grinding it up with the seasoning in the mixture like a normal person, I simply made the patties and threw the seasoning on top. Then I set the stove to a high temperature. The temperature was too high. The burgers cooked very quickly on the outside and very slowly on the inside. Had I set the temperature a little lower they probably would have cooked much more evenly throughout. However, I did not know this until too late and charred the outside. I threw some cheese on to distract you from the black hockey pucks my family kindly ate. This certainly has been a learning week full of trials and errors. Oh well, there is always next week. 

I Made More Food! Week 4

   I have cooked again successfully! This meal did not actually require any heat so I was not in risk of burning down the house. I made chicken salad sandwiches for dinner this evening. This was not entirely the meal I had in mind when I first started my blog project but it was a good meal nonetheless. This week has been pretty crazy and so I needed a quick and easy meal. I grabbed a couple of croissants and some salad greens to round out my meal. The salad was much like last week's and consisted of lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and ranch. For the chicken salad sandwiches I just needed mayo, some seasonings, chicken, and craisins. I started out by throwing the chicken into a bowl and shredding it into bite size pieces. Then I added lots and lots of mayo. This was not necessarily the healthiest meal ever. After mixing the chicken and mayo I added some flavor. I did this by adding dill spice, pepper, and garlic salt. I mixed that all together and then added the craisins.

Once I had all of my ingredients mixed together I piled the chicken salad on a croissant and called it good. This has been a good meal to learn how to make because it is quick and inexpensive, perfect for college life. I had planned to make chocolate chip cookies for dessert this week but I ran out of time and I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients so I will try again next week. Chicken salad sandwiches are really handy and they made a good quick meal. If you guys want to try making them and have questions just let me know.

I Cooked- Successfully! Week 3

   I finally cooked and I did not even burn down the house! For my first meal I made spaghetti. I made a simple, fresh green salad with ranch. Then I made spaghetti with Texas toast. I know I said that I had planned to do it all myself but in reality that did not happen. I wanted to get the groceries myself but I forgot that I have very little time and money. As a high school student I would be able to afford grapes for dinner and that is all. As a result, my very gracious mother bought the groceries for me. I started preparing the meal at 6 that evening. First I made the salad, which required very minimal work. I threw in some spinach and lettuce leaves that I had washed beforehand. To make it fancier like they do in the cooking shows I embellished my salad with cherry tomatoes. Then I put a bottle of ranch on the table and called it good.

   In order to make my main course I first had to gather my supplies. I grabbed some spaghetti noodles and ground beef, along with some tomato sauce. I thawed the meat and cooked it until it was all the way browned. While the meat was browning I brought a pot of water to a boil so that I could cook my noodles. I added a jar of tomato sauce to the meat and put it in a bowl. I used half of the package of noodles. Then I broke the noodles in half, which made quite a mess. While I boiled the noodles I put in the Texas toast. This along with the salad was the easiest part of the meal because I just had to follow the directions the box provided me with. After the noodles and toast were cooked, I put it on the table with proper plate presentation. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Learning to Cook Week 2

    Hey guys! Over this past week I have made some very exciting progress! I have been extremely busy learning all about the different cooking terms and terminology. There are a lot of them! Most of them make sense once you boil it down (see what I did there?) and practice using them. I want to be able to use these terms in my videos once I get to the cooking stage, so it is important that I know what I am talking about. Now that I know some of the basic terminology, I will continue to keep practicing it and advancing my cooking vocabulary with each week that I work on this project.

    It has been a crazy busy week for me. I need to be really good about staying on top of this project as the fall gets even busier. With college and scholarship applications looming over me it is hard to focus on something that does not seem as pressing at the moment. 4H Livestock Judging and a feedlot during the fall run also make it hard to get in some cooking time. Despite these setbacks, I want to stick to my original plan and be very organized when it comes to this project. To help alleviate some of the time constraints, I'm going to break this week up into smaller, more manageable chunks. I plan to go get my supplies early and know what I am going to make earlier in the week, that way when the time comes to make the food, I won't have so much on my plate. 

    I hope my schedule works out a little better in the weeks to come so that I can have lots of trial runs when it comes time to actually make the food. I am excited by the little progress I have made and can't wait to keep growing in my project! If you want a glossary on some basic cooking terms, I found a good website that helped me a lot. Just go to

https://www.d.umn.edu/~alphanu/cookery/glossary_cooking.html   

Let's Cook! Week 1

   Hey everyone! I am very excited to start my journey into cooking and can't wait to get started. Before I feel like I can start actually making food, I should probably familiarize myself with the basics of cooking, including utensils and terminology. That's what I have been working on so far this week. Well, that and getting myself organized which is a project within itself.
   Getting myself organized took a while, but I found that the planning sheet helped quite a bit. If I stick to my plan then I should be able to make steady progress, assuming all goes as planned. I plan to make four meals in all, with an appetizer, main dish, and of course, dessert. Knowing me, I will put the most effort into dessert. The planning sheet helped me a lot and I hope I will be able to stick with it.
   Presenting is very stressful. My shark tank pitch was short and sweet but I was still a little nervous about it. Getting up and talking in front of people is a critical skill though so it was good to practice it. I will need to keep practicing for the Ted Talks which seem really daunting! All in all I think it will turn out okay.
   I am ready to start learning a new skill, one that will be very rewarding if I am successful. If I am not, there is always ramen. I will keep updating my blog as I make progress and look forward to seeing how I progress!