How Can a Passion Turn Into a Profession with Food?

A lot of people love eating food...and to be perfectly honest we all need it.  The question will inevitably arise; how can I take my love of food and make a career out of it?  As a Foods teacher, I try to be responsive to what my students are interested in and typically bring in two guest speakers each semester from two different institutions of higher education.  The two that I select are:

• Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte, NC

• The Art Institutes in Charlotte and Durham, NC

This exposes my students to opportunities in the culinary industry, as well as other areas.  For some, it is the first time they have acknowledged that there are opportunities for them beyond their own city or town.  Besides promoting their schools, the speakers also typically involve the students in question and answer sessions, as well as a culinary demonstration, which we all enjoy.  

Students who show interest in cooking and making it a career may enjoy careers that are categorized in the culinary arts or hospitality management areas.  Johnson and Wales University offers two and four year degrees in both areas.  

• Culinary Arts
• Hospitality

The Arts Institutes offer programs in: 

• Culinary Arts

For some the idea of moving away from home or the cost of attending these schools can be scary.  Both schools offer scholarships.  

• Johnson and Wales Scholarships
• The Arts Institutes Scholarships

There is also a great option for students who would like to stay closer to home.  Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown has an outstanding culinary and hospitality management programs.  The culinary program even offers certification in Baking and Pastry Arts which is an awesome opportunity typically only offered at traditional culinary schools.  It is a great low cost, local option for students interested in these careers.  

I would not be doing my job if I did not promote my own career in Family and Consumer Sciences.  For students who are interested in teaching and interested in foods, FACS is the ticket!  There are currently four North Carolina institutions that offer degree programs in Family and Consumer Sciences Education.  

• East Carolina University (Also offers great Hospitality Management and Nutrition programs!) 
• Meredith College
• North Carolina A&T State University
• North Carolina Central University

As a proud ECU PIRATE, I must promote my alma mater a tad more than the others...but no hard feelings if you wish to attend a different college or university :)

There are many careers that utilize foods and culinary skills in many ways.  When most think of a career dealing with food, they immediately think of a chef or cook.  The truth is those are only two careers out of hundreds.  There are careers, like those in food science, that are more science and experiment based.  Food scientists work with additives; flavors, colors, nutrients, texturizers, and preservatives that are found in many types of foods.  Food stylists work with photographers to present food in a pleasing manner when food is needed for a picture for a magazine, cookbook, or internet site.  If a student were interested in working with individuals and families on creating a healthy diet, they may seek careers in nutrition and dietetics.  These are just a few examples of ways to think outside of the box when thinking of careers involving foods.  As the semester progresses, your student will be given more opportunities to research and explore these careers.  Below are two sites that can be useful to jump start that research:   

• CFNC Career Search
• http://www.khake.com/page30.html

Aniwhaaaaaaaat? Animoto!

Everyone should check out Animoto!  It has several program options that use pictures and videos to make unique slideshows that you could use at home or school!  The best part is there is a free version, but there are also paid versions that offer more bells and whistles.  Here are some of the videos I made for my class.  Enjoy!

MyPlate Video

Check out my new video for how to create a personalized plan using the MyPlate platform!

Nutrition in the 21st Century: Using Technology to Teach Lifetime Nutrition

One of the most essential components of my Foods I class and curriculum is nutrition.  There have been numerous news reports and research completed on the childhood obesity epidemic.  Nutrition, as a curriculum component, can empower students to take their own health in their hands.  It can also help them to teach their families key aspects of nutrition as well.  This extension of classroom to home may also help to combat another crisis; an obese country.  The great thing about teaching nutrition in the 21st Century is the wealth of free technological resources available online.  Teaching nutrition can be a daunting task; having resources that each student can access individually not only makes the experience personalized, but gives visual and kinesthetic learners an appealing learning portal.

One of the most recent updates by the United States Department of Agriculture is the MyPlate tool, a replacement for the previous MyPyramid.  MyPlate is an easy to use website that offers free personalized diet plans including:

• Daily caloric intake recommendations
• Recommended amounts from each of the five main food groups
• Printable meal tracking worksheets
• Online meal tracking account   
• Online food encyclopedia with dietary information

There is also a free app available on iTunes that is compatible with iPod, iPhone, and iPad.  This app would be especially beneficial for students to use at school and home and can be shared with family members.  It is easy to use and FREE!

The new MyPlate is more simplified than the earlier Pyramids and gives you a more clear example of how much of your plate should be devoted to each group.  The MyPlate was designed with a wider base of users in mind, including children and students.  In this report, students give their opinions on the new dietary tool.

The free tools listed above also make planning your diet easier and at no cost to you!  The MyPlate focuses more on lifestyle change than a quick fix.  Most people are easily swayed by immediate results promised by "fad diets" that usually require you to purchase a book, DVD, and/or special food.  Though the results may come quickly, they usually do not stay around for the long haul.  Long after the shakes and cayenne pepper concoctions are out the window, the pounds are usually right back in.  MyPlate offers a plans that focus on maintaining your current weight or working toward a healthier weight goal.  By including foods from each group and making small gradual lifestyle changes, results will come and will be more likely to stay for the long haul.  

WebMD also offers a wealth of resources through their FIT programs.  These online resources, quizzes, and games are great learning tools offered for teens that can educate in a fun way.  These resources can be accessed at school and on home computers, phones, or tablets as well.  There are also versions for younger children, so this resource could also be incorporated at the elementary and middle school levels in addition to the high school classroom.  This platform, that has varying levels for ages 2-19, focuses on the following areas of fitness:

• FOOD: Nutritional Fitness
• MOVE: Physical Fitness
• MOOD: Emotional Fitness
• RECHARGE: Behavioral Fitness

The website allows participants an area to track exercise, lists ideas for exercise activities, and gives examples of good food choices.  The website also allows users to earn points on games and quizzes in an appealing video game format.  

Let's Move is a program launched by Michelle Obama to reduce childhood obesity.  The Let's Move website has resources and information for everyone ranging from students to schools.  Since both the Let's Move and MyPlate sites are operated by government agencies, there are similarities.  The main difference is that the Let's Move site offers more suggestions geared toward children and students involving both exercise and nutrition.  

Jamie Oliver's website is also another great online resource for nutritional information.  The British chef is most recently noted for his ABC television show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a show focused on reviving schools and home menus to include fresh and healthy food choices.  His website focuses primarily on teaching children to cook and prepare meals with their families.  The Jamie Oliver website has a wide variety of recipes and video versions of recipes that make preparation a breeze.  Jamie Oliver has several free and low-cost apps and podcasts available on iTunes.  Episodes of his television show are also available on:

• ABC
• iTunes
• YouTube

The video below is an excerpt from an episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution showing the amount of sugar that students in Los Angeles consume through flavored milk in one week.  These short clips, easily found on the ABC website and YouTube, are quick ways to get the attention of students, parents, and school officials!

A variety of resources are waiting waiting to be utilized in your classroom and home.  The resources are technologically rich and most offer other methods of staying up to date through links to Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger.  Most of the websites mentioned also have apps that are available for little or no cost on iTunes.  The platforms utilized by the websites are not complicated and all of the resources (except some of the iTunes apps) are completely free!  Since most students have some way to connect or download this information and applications, either through home and school computers, smart phones, iPods, and tablet devices, gaining access to these resources poses limited problems.  Schools that have access to class sets of iPods, computer labs, or mobile labs should find the resources blend seamlessly into a nutrition curriculum.  

Food and Learning....What?

On a tidal wave of recent research I have completed related to kinesthetic learning, I began thinking about how kinesthetic based activities in my own high school classroom could transcend to a variety of classes.  As a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, I primarily teach Foods I classes at the high school level.  My class obviously revolves around food, but in recent curriculum changes and new teacher evaluation standards, I have become more and more increasingly aware of how many subject areas are intertwined into my class; making my approach to teaching more global.  I began to wonder, how can parts of my curriculum be used in other subject areas to meet the needs of both the curriculum and overall education of students?  How can foods based activities be utilized to enhance kinesthetic learning in the classroom to not only engage learners, but to increase concept attainment as well?  I decided to break my emphasis down into the core subject areas:

• Math
• Science
• English/Language Arts
• Social Studies

The Foods I curriculum focuses on integrating the aforementioned core areas daily.  Below are some ideas and links that I use and that may be effective for fellow educators to use in their own subject areas:

• Math
• Use food and recipes to teach fractions, geometry, and measurement
• Give students a recipe with vague measurements and ask them to complete it.  This can easily teach how important precise measurement is.  There are many easy no-bake recipes that are inexpensive and don't require a kitchen! 

• Science 
• Cooking with Science has a lot of great ideas from yeast to eggs!
• Teach chemical reactions using leavening agents!
• Blow up plastic baggies!
• Yeast balloons!
• Teach about bacteria and viruses through food safety and sanitation.

• English/Language Arts
• Use recipes to increase literacy awareness
• I use high interest articles about food and its effects to do an array of literacy based activities like 3-2-1, Fast/Quick Writes, Annotation, etc. 

• Social Studies
• I use Country Reports, which our county has a license to use, to research food preparation in different countries

• Other useful resources

• UEN has lots of useful lesson plans for ALL subject areas!
• Fight Bac has useful food safety and sanitation info!
• Food Master has many lessons for using food in science and math!

These links can be used as a springboard to get educators involved with using food in their classrooms.  I know that some teachers may already use food in their lessons and that is great!  But if you aren't, there are many inexpensive ways to integrate it in your classroom.  

Stay tuned for my next blog, Nutrition in the 21st Century: Using Technology to Teach Lifetime Nutrition.  

Gettin' Bloggy With It.

This shall be my first of several blog posts.  I'm already pretty excited to get my blog on.  I think it will be interesting to see everyone else's posts and blogs from class.  I think blogging will also be something useful for students, if it were allowed to pass through our school's filter :/.  I think it would be a great way for students to create authentic writing that is concise and would be available for peer and teacher review and comments.  Stay tuned for the Blog 1 assignment post!