001so in Foods one um towards the end of the semester we usually do a pie lab to have the students kind of show off their skills they learn throughout the semester they create a homemade double crust pie from start to finish over a course of three days in the beginning it seems so intimidating making a homemade pie completely from scratch so what Mrs lizak and I do is we demonstrate the recipe from start to finish using our demonstration cameras that we have in the foods classroom so they can see from their seats on the demonstration camera what we are doing Within These recipes I think one of the great things about our Foods classes and family consumer science are all the different academic skills that the students are drawing from so the cool thing about
002Foods in general is that we are pulling a bunch of different disciplines into our class for example when students are reading a recipe they're learning vocabulary skills they're learning how to follow directions from start to finish as far as math skills go they need to measure their ingredients appropriately using fractions sometimes doubling or tripling or cutting a fraction in half that becomes science right because you're taking taking a leavening agent like baking powder baking soda and you are producing the end result which is a rising pie crust so you're bringing in math science reading and all these different aspects throughout their school day and they're learning it in a different way so the first day they create their own homemade pie crust the second day they create their homemade filling which then becomes Frozen with
003the apples and the cinnamon and all the goodness that's inside and then the third day they kind of combine everything so this is a double crust pie which means that they have a layer of pie in the bottom the pie filling in the middle and then they can choose the top crust of their choice so they can choose whether they want just as simple with a fluted Edge they can choose what's called a lattice crust which has the strips or they can use some cookie cutters and make it kind of fun or braids and kind of make it of their choice I feel like the apple pie lab really like reflects you you could add like your little little spice to it you know like you could add your personality to it with the pie
004crust so I feel like bringing that home and showing it to your family really shows like not only your cooking skills but like your creativity skills when it comes to stuff in the kitchen like that so one of the things that is so much fun about being a food teacher is seeing these students faces light up when they make something amazing what's really cool about this unit is that students actually take home their pies to serve to their families and friends over Thanksgiving break and it's just awesome to hear how much their family loved it through the pie lab they're really able to finally show off their skills and bring home something for their families to enjoy that they've made handmade when students are able to turn in their pies to us ready to be
005frozen to take home seeing the smile on their faces like we did this look what I did it's just amazing as a teacher to see it's really cool because I'm the one in the family who like my mom complains about because I don't know how to cook but like it's the dish that everyone's waiting for this Thanksgiving so the goal of all of our Foods classes and really all of our current tech ed classes as a whole is to provide students with experiential learning where they're going to get hands-on experience and hopefully by the end of the semester they find something that they're passionate about maybe for potential career or just develop life skills that they'll be able to carry on outside of school coming back from covid we notice a lot of students were
006struggling with communication we were just behind the screen for a while and coming back in person was a little bit of a struggle so what's great about Foods classes it really gave them an outlet to practice those skills yet so what makes Foods classes set apart from other classes around the school is that we are 9th through 12th grade so students can come into Foods one as a freshman and be in a group with two other seniors maybe a sophomore I always like to say food brings people together when you cook together when you eat together they get to know each other when they work together they kind of build this bond that gets stronger and stronger as the semester goes on hey we're a team right here team right here I can't do anything
007without these girls right good job I was working together and it's fun you're really going to get your social skills up because you're talking with everybody in your group and it's just so fun to cook things and you get to bring them home and eat them at the end of the day not only do you get to learn different skills and cooking but you also get to communicate with other smart friends your social skills really like improved because if you're not talking during the lab and stuff like that is going to be awkward when you have to cook so you really have to open up and stuff like that and you're gonna make food you get food out of it you get cookies out of it [Music]