San Antonio Summer Workshop

02 September 2009

Starting each semester, I ask students to find a dish or a recipe that they have always wanted to learn how to prepare. It gives students something to look forward to. (LP)

I have students participate in an experiment with yeast. The purpose is to see the reaction when you combine yeast and the incorrect temperature of water. They actually label three jars, put the same amount of yeast in each one and they put hot, warm, and cold water in each jar respectively. They are instructed to write down their observations and then write a paragraph applying the results of this experiment to the use of yeast in a baking class. (EG)

To make all students feel important and a part of the class, I start each class with “good things.” Each student tells something good or positive about themselves and other students give them a “cheer.” This is an effort to bring those special needs students into the class more. It makes them feel more comfortable. Also those students who are shy about presenting are encouraged. (DT)

For open house: Have each student make a cream pie. Let parent or guardian come with student to receive the pie. Take picture of student holding pie accompanied by parent or guardian. Put picture in scrapbook to be given to student at the end of the class year. Meanwhile, use that picture to make a bulletin board the next day so everyone can see the parents or guardian that came to the open house that night to represent their child. (YV)

Invite the Health Inspector to come and talk to your class about safety and sanitation codes. They usually will put on a presentation using glow germ where the students can see the germs on their hands with a black light. They have excellent videos. It’s a great way to introduce sanitation requirements to your students. (MN)

Intro on the first day of class with Level I Freshmen: I have the students all sit in a circle. In the center of the circle I place enough 3”x 5” cards for each student to have one card. The cards were donated by Healthy Heart Information Center and have beautiful photos of fruits and vegetables. Each student chooses 1 card, returns to their seat and sits on their card. I stand in the center of the circle, the only one without a card, and can call out a variety of things. For example: banana basket upset, vegetable basket upset, fruit and vegetable basket upset, etc. Those sitting on the cards must exchange seats. I try to take one of their seats. It is the age-old fruit basket upset, but it breaks the ice and is a good lead into things they may or may not know about fruits and vegetables and food in general. There are lots of ways to springboard from this. It seems too juvenile when you think about it, but students have great fun and it really does set the tone socially that learning will be fun. (PB)

On the first day of class, I thank my students for being on time and that I appreciate the fact that they value the importance of my class and education. (VA)

I utilize pda’s in my classroom for a number of different applications. The use of technology such as this “speeds up” the student’s ability to process information and gets them into the kitchen that much sooner for hands-on experience. (RW)

The first lab that I do is a measurement lab. I do not go over any of the principles of measurements beforehand. I give the students the recipe with only the measurement utensils listed in singular form. I wait until someone notices that there aren’t any numbers on the recipe and then I give them the range such as ¼ being the smallest number used up to 3 being the largest number used. The recipe I used this year was for oatmeal cookies which limits the cost of the lab to about $10 for 5 labs. The results range from rock hard to something similar to pancakes. The following day I demo the recipe with assistance from the students. (NH)