The Process of Learning How to Make Bread

Welcome to my inquiry project, where I have decided to focus on the process of learning how to make bread and its contribution to shaping my teaching practice. Over the winter holidays, I saw lots of content on social media of people making sourdough from sourdough starters. I was intrigued, so I decided to give it a try. I spent weeks creating my sourdough starter and tried to make a couple of loaves. Unfortunately, none of them were successful, and I was exhausted from trying, so I took a break. In the new year, I decided I wanted to give it another try; however, after feeding my starter, I dropped the jar, and it shattered in the sink, cutting my finger. After that, I threw it in the garbage and thought it was a sign that I should not bake sourdough.

Now it has been almost a month, and I have built up the curiosity to make bread again. I felt very deterred after my initial experience, but I am happy to feel inspired and confident enough to give it another attempt. During this attempt, I hope to take more thoughtful steps, including in-depth research and documenting my experience. I hope my documentation, observations and reflections will assist my learning in making bread but also inform my teaching practice. I aim to take away valuable insights into the learning process and reflect on how I could apply them to teaching students between kindergarten and grade eight.

I have decided not to begin with a sourdough starter, but to try baking bread with yeast instead. I found that my first sourdough starter was very time-consuming and required a lot of attention. As a challenge, I may later commit to making a sourdough starter.

Throughout my inquiry project, I will document:

• How I decided where to look for information
• The process of learning how to make bread
• The process of making bread
• What I learned about myself during the experiences
• How I will use this experience to inform my teaching practice  
• How would I design similar personal learning experiences with students

For reference, this is what I created and documented in my first attempt at making sourdough bread:

I followed McKenna Clare‘s TikTok videos and recipes.

• https://www.tiktok.com/@mckenna_clare/photo/7445164487360990510
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mckenna_clare/video/7459537110861647146
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mckenna_clare/video/7456459455576853806

Unfortunately, the loaves would not rise, be fully cooked or hold shape. I did not do in-depth research and take the time to analyze my work. In this inquiry project, I plan to take more thoughtful steps and reflect more deeply to achieve better success. I hope that at the end of this project, I can look back and see how far I have come and reflect on the learning process.