Get Your Students Hired
As a culinary instructor it is sometimes hard for students to understand why they are doing a particular thing. So telling them why sometimes is hard. BUt if you can relate the why with what you have done or seen in the "life of a kitchen" it helps put things in perspective it makes them want to do it. Culinary students hate baking. But if you explain why they are doing it, for instance the baker gets sick and you have to make the desserts it forces them to take another look at the why.
I've always been a big fan of using real life stories. When applicable to the subject, I'll not only share stories of my own, but encourage the students to do so as well, as I find it promotes both discussion and general understanding.
I do this as well. Many times ethics are involved in the scenarios so this usually gets a lively discussion. I also get very animated in both my success stories and my failures. I never knew what an impact it had until some of my students in different classes that had graduated told me how they remembered how to do and handle situations because they remembered the class discussions!
As a Pastry instructor most pastry students are very precise in learning their knife cuts in CF1. It is a very easy item to judge because it is either done right or wrong. When you get to the Advanced Plated course the students are allowed to use their creativity and right and wrong have shades of gray. This becomes a very difficult concept for them to grab quickly and they get very frustrated.
I remind them of when they learned how to ride a bike. How long did it take you? What were the challenges that you had to overcome? And most importantly I tell them that we all can ride a bike but I would bet that no two of us do it exactly the same way. We have to learn our own techniques to accomplish this goal.
This life lesson is the same strategy they should take to producing their plates in class. Find your niche and what is different about you from others and apply that to your plating style. Even though every student is required to make a plated crème brûlée no two plates are every the same.
Paul,
the real life stories are a great way to make the subject come alive for our students & help them learn from these.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I teach a blueprint reading class and I have 25 years of construction experience. I tell my students war stories which I like to call them because I can give my take on a subject and put them in a kind of like what would you do scenario. I feel like this will help them cope with the different situations they will encounter. Also I would like to add I don’t drone on about how great I handled myself I tell them my failures as well.