IST 511 Reflection Day 4

I am exhausted, my eyes are red and it is way past my bedtime. Nonetheless, I need to note the networking I was able to do over lunch. Today we had Tina Nabinger in from Minoa Elementary. She developed a project called "Book Cooks" held in her library every other week. Tina has a background in restaurant management and used it to spice up her after school curriculum. Her schedule allowed for a block of time from 2-3 at the end of the day that she used for planning and special projects. This project quickly grew to 40 kids and she raised $350 in grants from Wegmans.

Aside from learning cooking basics, children are reading recipes, learning kitchen safety, and table manners. Evey week the kids log their reflections in a journal that was provided at the onset. The program wrap up is a student led presentation in which students present the various meals they prepared. Reading, writing and presentation skills are just some of the things this project entails.

I started to imagine how I could apply my background in much the same manner. I have a business background, some finance, budgeting, marketing ,and sales. I imagine I could have a financial literacy segment where we planned ways to earn money, budget for a day trip and estimate expenditures. Of course, I would like to have a video game evaluation club and a chess club too. In addition, we also discussed the need for assessment in the library and she recommended literature written by Allison Zmuda.Thanks to Tina for all her time. I am so grateful!

Spring,

Kate

Zmuda, A. (2009). Retrieved from http://competentclassroom.com/assessment.html