You Can Do It!

Due to the questions I have been getting via e-mail, I will accept proposals for FELC Summit into this weekend.  I know many of you are busy so if need an extra day or two we can accommodate the extension. If for some reason you need extra time beyone that please e-mail me directly at mlalopa@fooded.org especially non-refereed submissions because those do not need to be sent out for a blind review so more flexibility on acceptance.  We have had a variety of proposals submitted up to this point to make for a very educational second day of the Summit and looking forward to more.  So find the time to prepare and submit your proposal.  You can do it!

Visualization Toolkit for Educators

I have glanced at today's online resource a couple of times.  I looked at it today for the third time and finally got it.  I kept seeing periodic table and not really comprehended the excellence of this resource.  There is plenty of evidence that many students will not see the picture you are trying to paint with words so best to show them the picture you are explaining to increase the probability of all students in class comprehending the lesson of the day.  In fact, there are students who do not get a visual image in their head because they do not have that abillity according to a teaching workshop I once attended.

So check out this source below.  It has tons of different ways in which educators can formulate a graphic depiction of an abstract concept students need to learn, especially for those concrete learners we seem to have plenty of in our classrooms and laboratories.  Click around on the table and some pretty cool visuals will pop up that my may be able to use in your teaching:
 http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#

Sustainability Report Card

My apologies for not posting until today.  We are in the midst of our annual career fair and we handle it ourselves through a student association.  Our students have a board with officers responsible for all aspects of the event.  They produced the promotional materials, send them out to recruiters and every other detail that is required to have a senior and recruiter student reception on Monday and a keynote, luncheon and career fair on Tuesday. Faculty and staff support their efforts by finding classes for the recruiters, managers, or staff or visiting companies to speak in while they are on campus. There is quite alot of buzz right now so kind of energizing, especially when our alums are coming back to recruit current students making it a little like homecoming.

But that is not what I wanted to turn you on to today.  Have you seen the sustainability report card?  Perhaps your school is filling out the annual survey on your sustainability efforts and worth looking at how you performed or even compare to competitors that are also doing the survey.

In the about us tab, the effort is described as:
"GreenReportCard.org is the first interactive website to provide in-depth sustainability profiles for hundreds of colleges in all 50 U.S. states and in Canada. Information is based on extensive research conducted for the College Sustainability Report Card."

I was pleased to learn that Purdue earned a B- against the criteria.  So if interested in the results of your school or wanting to learn more about the criteria check out the following website as it is most informative:
http://www.greenreportcard.org/

Let Them Shine

I may have shared in other blog posts that I use undergraduate upperclass men and women as TA's in all my classes.  I currently have 18 students helping me administer three classes, one of which has 200 kids.  The students chosen to be TA have all done an exceptional job in the class they are to TA or not considered for this important job.

In my HR class I have worksheets that I developed for each of the 16 chapters in the book.  Today we covered the recruitment chapter.  I had a class prior to my HR class which was going to make me late so asked the TA's to do what I do on worksheet days which is go from student to student and listen to the answer given for each of the questions to validate if right or wrong. 

I indeed was late and showed up at about the halfway point in worksheet review and instead of take over, I sat in the back of the room to observe my TA's handling this assignment.  Guess what, they did a great job making sure the answers matched my key and cleared up any confusion during the review and grading process.  When they were done I went to the front of the room and had the class clap in appreciation for the fine job the TA's did as they were collecting the worksheets because they shined when called upon to do so.  I then elaborated on some of the questions on the worksheet, especially those that I know are going to be on the first exam -- and told them so cuz I do not play "hot and cold" or "hide and seek" when it comes to being honest with students as to what is going to be on the exam. 

So the message today is, let them shine.  I find that when I have high expectations of students and give them a chance to deliver they usally do -- and when they do not -- they learn the most from me about their ability as a student and future leader in our industry.

Internships

Like many of you, our department requires 400 hours of internship as part of the degree process.  We have clear expectations of those who take our students in as interns including a living wage, job rotation, and periodic review.  Those who cannot meet that basic test do not get our students.

The one thing we require our students to do -- on top of representing themselves, our department and university in a professional manner -- is to write a detailed report on the mechanics of the internship and reflect on their internship experience from beginning to end.  We then set up debrief sesssions with groups of students and a faculty member at the beginning of the fall semester to discuss the experience after we have read their 20+ page internship report.  Reading the reports and engaging in the debrief session is enlightening indeed.

Here is one of the key things I learn from reading the reports based on the perspective of students doing  summer interns.  There are far too many people who have zero clue as to how to manage a hospitality business and we wonder why our industry gets looked down upon as a joke alternative to a "real job!"

And I am talking independent and major chains.  The stories we hear based on clueless apathetic recruiters who are unclear as to  when and where to start the internship, the utter lack of training, bad training, no job descriptions, working with those who hate their jobs, abandonment and not empowerment, sexual harassment and on and on are all things that student interns face.  It makes me wonder what the _____ these managers can be thinking?  First of all, treating interns like shit means they are going to work for a competitor.  Second of all, treating interns like shit means they will shop with a competitor.  Duh!!!!!

But far too many are oblivious to this reality and wonder why their business continues to struggle in good times and bad.  The students cannot wait to share these stories with others when they get back to campus and those companies wonder why they do not get the best recruits.  Duh!!!!

To be fair, there are those independents and major chains that do a stellar job treating interns with respect and dignity and providing an educational experience working for them for a summer.  Those are the companies that the students talk about when they get back to campus to share the good news spreading positive WOM and I am happy to share, too.

So for all those companies out there that treat interns like shit, you shall reap what you sow, and deservedly so because you are a poor representative of an honorable, noble, and exciting profession and should suffer the consequences.  You can also bet your bottom dollar that I will not speak bad about you to students but when they ask what I think of hotel company A, or contract foodservice company B, or restaurant chain C that I know has treated interns like shit my response will be "have you ever thought of working for hotel D?" knowing that they have treated our interns very well indeed.

Organic Consumers Association

It is website Monday.  I wanted to share the link to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) that is an online grassroots organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability, and focusing on the crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture and sustainability and  the crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, fair-trade, environmental sustainability, and other key topics.

It is the only organization in the Unitesd States focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation's estimated fifty million organic and socially responsive consumers, and represents the intesests of more than 850,000 members, subscribers, and volunteers, including several thousand businesses in natural foods and organic marketplace.

The website has an extensive amount of information and a great resource for your personal knowledge or that of students working on local food projects in your classes.  There is a a great video on engineered crops on the home page that is worth the 3 minute run time:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Smart Seafood Guide

Due to Labor Day and the new realities of being a part-time administrator as Associate Department Head in my department, I find that I owe everyone a website of interest.  The website I would like to offer up may be helpful on a purchasing class or a food module on principles class, etc.

Food & Water Watch (http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/) analyzed over 100 different fish and shellfish to create the only guide assessing not only the human health and environmental impacts of eating certain seafood, but also the socio-economic impacts on coastal and fishing communities.  They then created this purchasing pocket guide for free to help consumers make wise food purchases when it comes to seafood.  Just download and carry with or put online for students (save paper) by visiting: http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/SeafoodCard2010.pdf

I reviewed the document and found it to be a most useful guide for seafood purchasing.  Hope you agree!  In case interested, the image above is a shout out to our seafood producers and those who teach it along the gulf.  Show your love and purchase some for yourself or your lab!

Pet Peeve

We are now into our third week of the semester at Purdue.  All my classes are up on running to establish the learning culture that is different in each class.  The HR class is a pretty routine class with video case studies, worksheets, exams, and project.  The sales class is completely different with students taking ownership of the hands-on sales requirement that is a big part of the class.

Then there is the introductory class that meets once a week for the semester and the reason for today's pet peeve rant.

I had two students show up today wanting to get into the class on the third week!  It makes me crazy!  Even though the class has 200 kids in it there is alot we do to get that class off the ground because it is much more than a lecture format.  For instance, there are 12 upperclassmen who serve as TA's for that class to mentor: a) incoming freshmen, b)those who are doing a change of degree from one program across campus to ours, and c)  those who want to check out the major to see if want to change later.  It takes a great deal of work to break the class up into smaller sections that are then assigned TA's.  We also orient students as to what is expected of them in the class and how to succeed, and form the partnership between them and TA's.  We also had an assignment today to prepare kids to succeed in their careers and future assigments. And so much more...

And then two kids meet me at the start of class and want to be signed in oblivious to what has transpired in the first two classes -- regardless of the policy that makes it clear that students can join in the first two weeks at the latest or wait til next year.  I think what angers me most is that students are reducing the classes they have to take to boxes that have to be ticked like some damn scavenger hunt on the way to get a degree.  And that they are imposing a great inconvenience on those professors they are now lobbying to let them into class late.  It makes me crazy!

Am I wrong?  Anyone out there thinking I should kindler and gentler and let kids enter at this point in time?  Or do you concur?

My New Animal Welfare Hero -- Temple Grandin

Yikes, how come I never heard of Temple Grandin whose documentary just won an Emmy.  I was listening to an interview with her this morning on NPR and while she was talking she was explaining the fears that animals have and how better treatment can produce a more humane, less stressful march to slaughter.  And how such humane treatment will produce cost savings for slaughterhouses/packers.  She talked at length of her fight since the 70's to educate producers, packers, and consumers on this subject and cannot wait to purchase and view her documentary.

Over the years she has developed a scorecard that can be used to indicate how well animals are being managed prior to slaughter.  I was really intrigued by this scoring system and found it on the American Meat Institute's website.  Please check it out or share with students because it may be a great way to teach humane treatment of the animals we ultimately serve in our restaurants. 

Check out her "Animal Welfare Audits for Cattle, Pigs, and Chickens that use the HACCP Principles of Critical Control Points with Animal Based Outcome Measures" at the following URL:
http://www.grandin.com/welfare.audit.using.haccp.html

Also check out Animal Meat Institute at: http://www.meatami.com/