Will the Poltergeist get the last laugh?

Things have gone missing and have moved, seemingly of their own volition, throughout the year. Mostly, it's just been irritating. The item that worried me was the Chef Knife. I have six, new, not-very-good-quality-but-sharp knives. Okay, I have 5. One has been missing for a few weeks now. I didn't put it in any of my silly hiding spots. The Community Schools group swears that they didn't touch it. I can't see any of the kids sneaking off with it (Really. It disappeared between labs, and they'd have to get into a cupboard and into a drawer.) None of the other staff know anything. It's just weird.

Well, it got a little weirder today. I found a knife. Not that one, either! Actually, I found 3 knives, a chef's knife and two paring knives. They have a decent edge, so I assume I sharpened them this year, and then put them... into my ESL lesson bin?

As I tidied the detritus of the year, I spotted the contents of a plastic tub. "Tchaikovsky? I was going to teach music? What was I thinking?" So, I opened up the bin to rummage through a melange of music books and Canadiana. And 3 knives.

So far, I cannot think of what prompted me to put 3 knives in a bin and then forget about them, for most of the year. I hope I remember. But until I do, the Poltergeist gets the blame.

I should have told them to peel the banana, first

Well, that's it for the year. The last cooking labs are complete and class ends in a few days.

The quinoa brownies turned out really well. The students seemed pleased - or at least satisfied. The last group told them the brownies were gross, so their expectations were low. I don't think you should take culinary recommendations from the group that ruined their recipe. Or the group that measured their salt OVER the dry ingredients. (It's really hard to pick the extra 4.5 ml of salt out of a bowl of dry anything).

The 6/7s made blender smoothies. I'd saved it for last simply because I'd anticipated hot weather, which hasn't arrived. I just didn't want to be baking on a scorching hot day. Four classes of using blenders... they're still a bit iffy about how to wash the silly things, but overall quite good. As we entered the final class, I was feeling pretty good about their ability to complete the lab.

Group 5 erupts in dismay - it's a blender blowout and smoothie ingredients are oozing onto the counter. The problem isn't that the blade assembly is mis-threaded. It's that the blade assembly is sitting, loose, inside the jar. Not attached. At all. No wonder it's leaking!

I get them cleaned up and re-started. (I want water-proof blenders so that I can just deal with a blow out by giving the thing a good rinse. So much faster!) I turn to the group next to them and begin to survey the room. The Special Ed. Assistant swoops in behind me to Group 5. Utters things in disbelief. The boys look baffled. She holds up an unpeeled banana that she intercepted on its way into the blender.

I should have told them to PEEL the banana before putting it in the smoothie. Is it ironic that the next day, some visiting high school students ran past my class dressed (among other things) as a banana?

And that's my first year teaching Home Ec. And you know what? I'm looking forward to next year.

The Applesauce Must Go On!

There are so many good reasons why I should have stayed home the past two days.

1. I am a bad role model. I should not teach cooking labs when I am sick.
2. My classes are noisy, and that much noise on a stuffed up head is very unpleasant.
3. Now, I'm really tired, and it will take me that much longer to get better.

Oh well. I had one good reason why I chose to come to work with a rotten cold.

1. The 6/7s are making applesauce.

Yesterday, one class was cooking, and another was prepping. Today, the final class was cooking. I don't feel comfortable leaving cooking labs for guest teachers, unless we can discuss in advance and ensure that they can and want to deal with it. While I have no doubts that a certain Guest can indeed handle anything and everything that comes up, would she choose that harrowing experience, or would she rather pick up another on-call job? Yeah, I don't blame her either. (I told the kids that Ms. T. could handle the job, but she might not be my friend afterwards. They think that's funny, but they nod, sagely.)

Since this lab involves grade 6/7 student handling knives for the first time, and boiling pots of apples and sugar, I decided to just deal with it.

Good thing! Another teacher in my school was away, and no teacher was sent to replace her. The principal and vice principal covered her class. I probably wouldn't have been replaced either. Yikes!

The kids are actually quite nervous about the knife skills lab. We go over knife handling and safety (especially around dishwashing - and some classes did hear about the time my little brother put the just-sharpened knife in the sink without telling me, and I got cut AND I got in trouble for swearing at him!)

I'm more concerned about the cooking part. Six stoves, each with a boiling pot, and 25 kids who bounce around like Tigger. Anyone who cannot behave sensibly gets sent to the hallway to compose themselves. If they calm down sufficiently, they can come back. (Everybody does - No One wants to miss a cooking lab!)

So... Applesauce lab successfully completed. One injury - not related to either knives or boiling pots (she slipped on the floor during clean up, and bashed her leg on the table, poor thing). The rest of the classes were content to watch Bill Nye the "don't bug the teacher, she's sick and lost her voice" Guy. I love you, Bill. Never change :-)