Cooking

In my daily living class, we have been focusing on making lunches. My students decided to make sandwiches. We decided to make peanut butter and jelly, turkey and cheese, and grilled cheese with soup. We started with peanut butter and jelly. Each student had one class period to make the sandwich. My one student struggles with cooking as he has not had much experience in the kitchen. He knew to get out all of his material. He then was not sure what to do next. He figured out that he needed to put jelly on one slice of bread and peanut butter on the other slice. He did not spread his jelly or peanut butter out and he did not match up the pieces of bread correctly. We talked about ways to improve his sandwich and he worked on fixing it. The next time he made his turkey and cheese sandwich. Again when he put his mayo on his bread he put it all in one spot as well as the turkey. However, he knew to line up his bread correctly. We talked again about spreading out his turkey. The next sandwich was the grilled cheese and soup. This student chose to make tomato soup. He needed help reading the directions on the can but was then able to make the soup independently. He then went to make his sandwich. I had him use a sandwich maker instead of cooking it on the stove. He was able to put his sandwich correctly, however; once he put it in the sandwich maker he separated the pieces of bread. So when he was done he did not end up with much of sandwich as all of the cheese was stuck to the sandwich maker. We then talked about why it didn't work and he tried again. Overall, I was pleased with his success. We have some work ahead of us but he is making progress. It is great to see what he has been able to do.

Modified block schedule

This was our 3rd week doing our new modified block schedule. So far, I have been very pleased with this schedule. I have really enjoyed the longer class periods and feel that most of my classes have been successful. I like how I am able to implement more hands- on learning and not run out of time in the middle of a lesson. In my daily living classes we have been able to complete cooking lessons from start to finish. I like that we are not rushed during this activity. In the years prior, the kids would start cooking, I would have to finish the project, and then they would enjoy the food the next day. It was not always very productive. In my academic classes, I generally try to implement station teaching. This has worked out really well. It keeps the kids going and they aren't stuck doing one activity for a long period of time. This also allows me to check progress on IEP goals as most of my stations are based on their IEP goals. My biggest struggle is preparing for these days. It takes a lot of time to get everything in place for each class. Now that I have done it for a few weeks, it is getting easier. I have enjoyed this type of schedule so far and am looking forward to the weeks to come.