West Palm Beach (Part 4):

02 September 2009

If you are looking for chef coats for your class, try calling your local uniform rental/cleaning company. When the coats are barely worn, they will sell for almost nothing and/or donate the coats to your class. (MM)

I have students find an article in a journal related to the topic we are studying. For example: how food affects our health; why is it important for our health; what does it do for our body, etc. They have to read the article and do an article review for it. If we continue to do the same topic, they can find more articles from different journals. Now that I know about www.cafemeetingplace.com, I am going to ask them to find at least one article a month from your site. For the review, students do the following: (1) summary (2) things they learned (3) what more they would have had the author discuss or include (4) some questions they have…anything they did not understand. They get 10 points each week. 120 points each quarter. (KM)

I invite our county health department to spend a day with our students. They do a presentation on safety and food prep and sanitation. They test the students on their knowledge and if they pass, they issue a county food handler permit. This is an advantage in applying for a job in this career area. (MC)

As a foodservice professional and an educator, I find myself constantly working against time. Time management skills are a necessity in almost every profession. To help my students develop a sense of time management and to help develop organizational skills, I do these activities: Students are given a monthly calendar which contains events, deadlines, quizzes, birthdays and any other important events. Calendars are kept in notebooks and updated each week.

When given a lab activity, students are instructed to estimate the time that it will take to complete the assignment. They write their estimated time on the recipe or formula and compare it later to the actual finish time. After the activity is complete, we compare the actual time with the estimated time and then analyze where time was gained or lost.

Since time is our greatest asset, I use short periods (5 minutes) of free time as a reward if the students have done an exceptional job. (BR)

Some suggested “fun” activities: (1) A-Z fruits as intro or filling time…have students find the different fruit names from A_Z (can do it with vegetables as well) (2) Word for the Day helps with content and word meanings. Put word or words for the day on the board. Students look up and write definition in journal (3) How can you tell if an egg is boiled? If the egg (when spinned) continues to spin, it’s uncooked; if the egg stops spinning, it is cooked. (BH)