My work as a culinary educator began ten years ago at the Lake County Technology Campus in Grayslake, Illinois. At the “Tech Campus,” I team-taught, with three of chefs, the National Restaurant Association’s ProStart Curriculum. My focus was on teaching the Baking/Pastry portion of the program. Coaching students in Skills USA and ProStart competitions were a highlight in the school year. Watching the students follow their dreams of becoming culinary professionals was a thrill! After having my daughter, I decided to stay home with her and my (toddler) son. I continued to teach part-time at The Viking Cooking School and McHenry County College. In 2014 my family and I moved to Littleton, Colorado.
Personal / Professional Learning Network (PLN) Plan
Currently, I am completing my Master’s degree in Information and Learning Technologies at CU Denver, as well as looking actively looking for a new opportunity as a Culinary Training. My background and experiences are in Culinary Arts. I have taken on many roles in that field including; Pastry Cook, Catering Manager, Personal Chef, Chef Manager, General Manager, and finally Culinary Instructor. I began teaching the National Restaurant’s ProStart curriculum to high school students. At Metropolitan State University, I taught Food Fundamentals and Food Science. Working in the Hospitality Department was exciting. There are always new and interesting things going on at MSU Denver. The restaurant scene in Denver is exploding! Now, I would like to find an opportunity to work for one of the many restaurant headquarters in the Denver area. Working in the training department to help restaurant employees better serve their guests is a goal of mine. I would like to apply my new skills learned in the ILT program to the culinary world.
I have volunteered in my children’s schools since preschool. Now they’re older and I’ve taken the opportunity to connect my volunteer work at their schools into managing a Personal Learning Network on Google+. In that Google+ “Community”, myself and other 5th Grade parents can connect to plan the 5th Grade Continuation activities this year. There we can share fundraising ideas, photos, meeting times, and stay connected after the year is through.
Connecting to others professional is also important. I am on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Linkedin is where I can see what others in the professional culinary field are doing. Those professionals are also on the other social media platforms, where I follow them. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest is where I connect with personal friends only.
Karibereczky.com and has been indexed on Google. I’ve started my blog posts from Social Media and Digital Culture on my basecamp. The ServSafe module, I created, using Adobe Captivate 2017 will be accessible on the site also. The module was created for ProStart students to review “The Flow of Food”, food safety in a restaurant. Google Analytics will be added to my basecamp to track visitor traffic. I also plan to create and post instructional cooking videos.
My base camp is where I share my background as a cook and instructor. Privacy is tricky because I want to include information about myself but at the same time limit what others can see. Every one of my social platform pages serves its own purpose. My Facebook account only includes childhood friends and family. Linkedin, of course, is for professional connections. And Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram or just for fun. A place to share thoughts and images. Every one of the platforms has its own privacy settings that I make sure to set up and check frequently.
Moving forward, I plan to continuously update my Linkedin page and connect with others. I’m hopeful that I will get noticed for my culinary background and emerging technical skills. In addition to networking on Linkedin, I’d like to start adding personal food and cooking pictures. I know that a lot of people post photos of their plates while dining out. But I want to practice food photography and styling to be included in my base camp. I would also like to increase my posts on other platforms including; Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. There I can share those new images that I plan on creating.
Social Media
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karibereczky/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KBereczky
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohmy_ganache/?hl=en
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bereczky/