part of our school program is to get the kids ready for life out of school. so they have a whole team that tries to find jobs both in the school and surrounding community business that will let our students drop by every week to help out. i've been to off-campus job sites before and while that's impressive, there is something amazing about having a group of students act as kitchen staff - doing food prep, cooking, cleaning up, and menu planning - for the school staff members. i was as proud as a mother hen! we have the fantastic opportunity to have a certified chef come in two days a week to work with our kids. and if the students behave themselves, they can work with him to plan the next week's lunch menu. it's quite the honor. and you can tell that chef really does enjoy working with our kids. and today, i easily understood why.
today's menu was a salad with three types of dressing: 1) cesar, 2) home made honey mustard, and 3) italian vinaigrette. it came with strawberry shortcake made with fresh whipped cream, and the main dish was pizza. of course, it came with three options: plain, pepperoni, or white.
[i got the white pizza. it was absolutely scrumptious! there was a chives and shallot cream sauce, topped with mozzerella cheese, tomato slices and basil. i'm seriously going to make this sometime soon. and maybe post a picture just to make you jealous of my mad cooking skills ;)]
with a team of four, each student had their own food prep station. one was in charge of dressing, the other salad, one the shortcakes, and the last one was pizza. the one student doing pizza not only manage to turn out 6 pizzas (two of each flavor and also made by hand) but also managed to keep the dish room spotless. they could honestly work in an actual restaurant. i have no doubt in my mind. once the lunch rush started and dirty plates came in, he went to work quickly sorting and stacking like utensils and plates and cups and bowls so that he could stick them right in the dish washer (which was the weirdest machine i've ever seen, btw). he knew that wash space inside and out. as soon as dishes came out, he had them put away and had another rack ready to go.
the only small hang-up he had was when there was about 30 minutes of work left, and it was something so minor i was surprised. like, really? out of all the things that happened (a fire alarm, running around getting food ready, having a plethora of dishes, etc) this is what you choose? he threw a hissy fit because someone else was going to mop the floor and he had wanted to do it. i mean, he was upset! he ripped off his apron and his chef hat, claiming "i don't want to work here never again." and then he stomped out. for real dude?
and here is where i learned something about myself. if someone is angry at me and direct that towards me, i do not like it. absolutely not. i end up taking on a similar don't-screw-with-me kind of voice. or maybe i was just extra tired today: i don't know. but it didn't go very well. obviously something was wrong, and so i attempted to figure out what had just happened. case in point:
me: "what's up? why are you so upset?"
student: "i just told you right?"
me: "no you didn't. you just said you didn't want to work in the kitchen. you didn't say why."
student: "well, what do you think?!"
me: "i have no idea. i can't guess. i'm not in your head. you have to tell me. you've got the words: use them."
student: *refused to talk*
me: "ok, so was it about mopping the floor? because student #2 said they were doing it, when you had wanted to?"
student: *silent*
so at this time, the PE teacher comes over and notices that said student is upset. and somehow, he gets this kid to talk! something about how working in a kitchen is being part of a team, just like in baseball or basketball. the point is not to each finish one little task, but to achieve the overall goal. for today, it had been to make delicious food and help out with every aspect of being part of kitchen staff. and then, it gets crazier. sir hissy fit actually got up, when back to the kitchen and then cleaned up the rest of the dishes. and from that point out, if he was asked to do something he did it willingly.
but now that i think about it, this kid has the same reaction to me every time he's ticked off about something. he always gets sassy and back talks. i think before i've handled it OK, but not today. hmmmm....this might be a case of male-staff preference....
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| FOR REALZ? |
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