While the Quesadilla Lab didn't give me much blog material (that's a good thing, by the way) the Grade 8 Apple Crisp lab is another story. Being a short week, interrupted by an afternoon meeting, and a shortened term for the eighth graders, I decided to forge ahead without a demo. The horror of it all! A cooking lab without a demo! Heresy!
Once they recovered from the shock, the 8s settled in peeling, cutting and coring their apples. They had as much trouble with the task as the 6/7s did, and were repulsed by little imperfections in their apples. There were two minor cuts to deal with in the course of the knife handling (while there was only one boo-boo out of all three junior classes). A glass dish was also broken. They're starting to understand why they need to wear closed shoes in the lab.
The face-palm moment of the day was the student who slouched on the supply table and said that he needed some stuff. He didn't know what, or how much, nor did he have anything to carry his "stuff" back to his unit. The Unit Manager is away, he announces. And refused to understand that you cannot assign a lab job to a person who is not physically present. Utterly refused. Needless to say his unit was a tad late in finishing up.
We baked the apple crisp the next day (today), and the results were quite good. Clean up was much improved, and many As were awarded for a successful lab. One boy was given the unwanted portions of food by his lab partners, and he left with a huge bowlful, looking very pleased.
I'm planning ahead for next term, and thinking of how I want to re-play the food labs and lessons... but then again, I'm not looking forward to starting the learning curve over and over again as the year progresses.
The apple peelings and bits were saved for a pet guinea pig :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment