Culinary Skills and the Alternative Curriculum Program recently joined up for a class period to cook together. This was another way to make school more inclusive and brought a lot of joy for them and added to their experiences, as well as the students already in the class.
“In my previous school,” family and consumer science teacher Emily Murphy said, “we used to work a lot with the AC students, so it’s something that I very much enjoy because of their love of interacting and socializing and getting out of their classroom,” she said.
Students enjoy having new experiences in school, especially with the last stretch of the school year. This prompts the idea of if there will be more classes like this in the future. According to Murphy, “Not officially, but we will see how it kind of works. Then we’ll invite them up. Our plan right now is to maybe invite a couple of them up for lab days next year as we go, to see if they’re comfortable with it. Some are already very comfortable but some not as much. They seem to be doing very well with cooking and eating. I also learn things from them like a little bit of sign language. Along with them interacting, it gives my students a chance to learn to interact and get to know all kinds of kids.”
Guiding kids into this is great and it educates students on how to help them be comfortable, which is a great skill to have. When this event was happening, the item on the menu was chicken parmesan. Although this was in the curriculum, Murphy said it was chosen because, “It comes with a lot, like they get to make the past as a grain, the sauce for the tomatoes, and we got to work with meats/poultry.” As well this dish gives the students a chance to experience serving and cooking like in a restaurant,” she said.
Special Education teacher Nate Alfson accompanied his students to the cooking class for the period.
“It was part of my idea, but me and Mrs. Murphy collaborated on it. She has always been super helpful with my students. She wanted to include and have our kids around, she thought it would be a fun idea to cook together.”
He said he thinks they will have more days like this.
“We have a plan to test out some opportunities to come up more often. We’re big advocates for getting all types of kids together,” Alfson said.
