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| Proof that cookies make you happy. |
This refrain kept running through my head like a musical ear-worm today as I worked my way through five classes preparing/baking cookies. Now I have a song running through my head and I'll be sharing it with the students tomorrow.
During the last round of Oatmeal-Whatever Cookies, I had a student approach me with a bowl of cookie dough, genuinely perplexed. "How do I get cookies out of this?" she asked. This was new - having students who didn't realize that we took portions of dough and baked them into cookies.
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| I don't see the cookies. |
Now, it seems it's the norm. Many students struggled with the dough to cookie relationship. And they struggled with a lot of other things too:
Measuring. 125 ml of margarine is easy when they come in prepackaged blocks (don't judge me!). However, when you hand the dairy-free group a block of Crisco (I said don't judge me!) and they speed ahead without reading the recipe we so painstakingly reviewed the day before... guess. C'mon, you've been here before. Ten points if you guessed that they randomly whacked off a chunk of fat and just hoped for the best.
Measuring. "How much X did you use?" asks the teacher.
"Oh, about..."
"No! There is no "about". There is no "winging it". Baking is chemistry!"
Measuring: Gold stars to anyone who figured out that 175 ml of flour requires one of your 125 ml cup and one of your 50 ml cup. That was TWO students (of 100 or so).
Measuring: No home ec teacher will be surprised to learn that some fast-moving groups poured themselves a generous 250 ml of chocolate chips, even though the recipe calls for 125 ml.
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| I know... a little extra, just in case... |
One group must have discovered the blog, because they ADDED WATER. (See Teaching Home Ec Through Interpretive Dance, also December 2015). I'm so careful not to mention mistakes other groups have made. I would say - "be extra careful with your measuring, several groups have struggled with measuring." "Watch the dry ingredients. Be sure you have the correct amount. This has been difficult for the other groups." I have learned not to drop hints about HOW to mess up the recipe. For some reason, one group added water and they were pretty darned sure that this was the only sensible course of action and could not understand why I might be agitated about it.
Are you surprised to learn that a child wipes her hands once on a clean towel and then throws it in the laundry?
Did you know that a child uses half a bottle of dish soap to wash a few measuring cups and two bowls?
Corrections, inspections and trouble shooting is on-going and constant in our labs. Two classes baked their cookies today. They were varying degrees of "pretty good". It's too early to call, but we may get through without tears.
