Using Restaurant Inspections to Increase Awareness
Picture this: Your students are in the middle of a cooking lab when you notice small, clean up tasks being overlooked, such as spilled spices on the floor not being cleaned up. After the lab, you notice a kitchen sink is clogged due to food in the drain. Another kitchen has enough crumbs left on the counter to count as a bite of food.
Sound familiar?
Surely I am not the only FACS teacher who has experienced some chaos in the kitchen. If you too are rolling your eyes and nodding your head, you are not alone.
You might be wondering how you make cleaning a priority. Of course we want a clean kitchen, but I don’t feel like it’s my task when allowing students to cook. We also want students to take ownership.
Taking ownership, to me, looks like cleaning up when a mess is made. It happens and it is usually an accident, but finding a way to motivate students to complete the task can seem daunting.
There are a few ways I encourage students to become motivated when cleaning the kitchen. It’s much easier than you might think.
Make it relatable
Most junior high and high school students are close to or are entering the first job era. Often, this is a job in the food industry.
When you bring money-making opportunities into the conversation, those imaginary dollar signs start to chime in student’s ears. Cleaning the kitchen is not always the most pleasant task, but it certainly is an expected task if one chooses to work in a restaurant.
This could be cleaning the eating area, customer bathrooms, food prep area, etc.
These conversations about expectations if choosing to work in a restaurant and cleaning the classroom kitchen are comparable. To hold a job, you must complete the expected tasks. To continue cooking labs, you must also meet the expectations for clean up.
Grading rubric
In addition to making it relatable. Make it worth a grade.
I have taught long enough to know intrinsic motivation isn’t always there. Of course, you should thoroughly clean the kitchen after a food lab simply because you were given the opportunity to cook. We all know that isn’t always the same mindset of our students.
In the kitchen, I include clean up, safety and knowledge, and also working together as part of their grade.
All three of those things tie together with cleaning the kitchen. Sometimes a student needs a little tough love from a group member to start cleaning, but when it becomes a continual problem, I make note on the rubric. Cleaning is a group task and not left for one or two with the integrity to clean up.
I use a 27 point rubric on a 3-2-1 scale. Each one of my cooking labs uses the same rubric, students are always aware of the expectations. If students are meeting clearly set expectations, I make note on the rubric and then add to our grading software when putting in the lab score.
It is a natural consequence and sometimes it takes a low score once or twice to realize I mean business in the kitchen.
Use restaurant inspections
Another way I encourage participation in the kitchen is by looking at local restaurant inspections.
Students’ interest is peaked because eating out is a common trend and who doesn’t love to look to see which restaurants aren’t doing well?
I mean, I want the best for all restaurants, but it only takes one or two questionable inspections for students to start taking notice.
It creates great dialogue about expectations in a commercial kitchen. Once students begin to realize the high level of expectation placed on restaurants, it makes it easier to understand why similar expectations are happening in the classroom kitchens.
One way I help boost learning is with a puzzle. It gets students talking about and finding connections between a topic that can seem drab and never-ending.
After completing the puzzle, students start looking up local restaurant inspections, finding highly rated, some of their favorites, and those in need of improvement.
Not only was this puzzle and printable engaging, but it was sub approved. It required very little prep and kept students engaged for 49 minutes. In fact, it could almost work as a two-day activity. That’s a double win in my book.
If this resource sounds like something you could use or you need a quick and easy sub plan activity, you can find it here.
Will these three ideas solve all of your cleaning problems? It’s not likely, but making it more meaningful for our students is key. Those entering the workforce and those who are now more aware of restaurant inspections, might see a reason to put forth more effort in the kitchen.