Tis' the Season -- To Be Cheating

In my intro class I have a module on ethics.  Part of that module has to do with cheating customers and why that is bad for business and society.  I then share national statistics on student cheating.  The high percentage of students, including those who are honors students, that cheat on exams and projects is alarming.  My point is simple -- students cheat if give the chance for many reasons: hard to catch, no big deal if caught, no code of conduct, norm is to cheat, etc. 
So it is test time for most of us.  Here are a few videos on what students do to cheat in the hopes you might be the wiser and able to deter the cheaters.  The craziest part of some of these videos on cheating have a commercial for bona fide companies advertising their products.  Say, what?!

Reconfiguring a soft drink bottle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lQK5SCzlQ&ob=av3e

Using a bandaid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2DNACy4_5I&feature=relmfu

Using a pencil eraser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyY-EqYW6Fs&feature=related

How to reconfigure a store bought pen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W9NA876fu8&feature=related

Teacher shares what he has learned from student cheating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2DNACy4_5I&feature=relmfu

Using a rubber band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGhOYbPgETQ

Low tech popular ways:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EExPFAFeTX4&feature=related

Using calculator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodpkQWHTyY&feature=related

How Not to Handle Student Cell Phone Use in Class

Cell phone use by students is a problem.  I know there are those who have no policy on it or do not care about students using during class.  I am not one of them. 

So for today here is a video clip of how not to handle student cell phone laugh as well as provide a little chuckle for you as the semester/term winds down at the peek of teacher stress.  Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLjgDYyR0m4&feature=related

Shoulder to Shoulder, Eye to Eye

I am now wrapping up my first full semester teaching the restaurant management lab that runs from 8:30 to 2:20, five days a week.  I am blessed with a chef instructor and TA's to get the fine dining restaurant and Cafe up and running each day.  I have mainly been expediter at lunch in our fine dining restaurant as well as check in now and then during the morning to see that we are getting ready to open the doors to the public. 

I got off to a shaky start since it has been 20 years since I worked full time in the back-of-the house but once I got my legs under me I was able to run the position and teach at the same time.  I LOVE teaching the lab everyday because the application of what the student knows and has learned happens in real time.  I am in there shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye, with the kids as we call in the orders and sell them each day from 11:30 to 1:00 PM.  I really think they love working alongside the teacher, too.  It is beholden to me to keep  my cool no matter how crazy it gets with kids who have never cooked or served a day in their life as the customers come in the door expecting quality food and service.  It is the ultimate teaching challenge.

I will make a confession to you.  I was bored out of my mind with lecture classes so glad I took on the ultimate teaching challenge of running the restaurant lab with novice students.  I have done all the teaching and learning techniques out there in my lecture classes and they were awesome at the time but soon -- based on the kind of person I am -- became old.  But when it comes to the restaurant lab, EVERY DAY IS DIFFERENT AND SOME DAYS ARE HORRIBLE!  But so much learning is taking place on good days and bad to discuss as a teachable moment(s) while the lab is in full swing or at the end of the day when we do our debrief.  I look forward to implementing our revised teaching techniques and sharing them in the spring semester.

So those of you who are out there teaching similar classes you are so LUCKY!  I wish I had realized it sooner and taken on the ultimate challenge of teaching the restaurant labs.  Cannot wait so see what we continue to do make improvements and share with you in the future.  Oh and thanks to Colin Roche I will be using some of his ideas to use my newly acquired Flip digital recorder to film demonstrations students will need to watch before coming to lab so they have a clue about what we are talking about when giving instruction.

Math for the Professional Kitchen

There is a new book hitting the bookshelves written by Laura Dreesen, Michael Nothnagle and Susan Wysocki from the Culinary Institute of America.  Many of you may have seen Laura at the FELC Summits.  I have had the chance to review it and find it to be a very good, straightforward workbook for teachers to use to teach culinary math in an easy to follow and grasp format.  The chapters are:

1.  Units of Measure and Conversions

2.  Recipe Scaling

3.  Yield Percent

4.  Purchasing and Portioning

5.  Recipe Costing

6.  Kitchen Ratios

In effect, the book covers the essential math that is required to run a profitable foodservice operation. As the authors state in the introduction:

Our goal is to show you mathematical procedures that are frequently used in professional kitchens and bakeshops.  We have strived to explain these procedures in a succinct, understandable way without oversimplifying them.  As with many topics in mathematics, the proof of the pudding is in the eating: it is your job to take these concepts amd successfully apply them.  As you progress through your culinary or baking career, you wil build upon the ideas discussed in this book.  You may even encounter procedures that work better for you and those we describe.

Give the book a try, your students may thank you, given the content and the reasonable price! 

Check it out at Wiley: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470508965.html

I Am Very Ready for Break!

As you may or may not know, I am now teaching our sophomore level restaurant management class where we rotate students through our Cafe and the Front- and Back-of-the-House of our fine dining restaurant.  The students also rotate through six positions on each rotation so there is a new face in a place each lab.  Since teaching the class I now respect the challenge that those teaching the class have faced over they years as well as all of you out there doing the same.  And since we are not a culinary arts program and most students want to be event planners or hoteliers the class is a challenge to teach to say the least.

Although the class is beating me down, I LOVE it!  It is the ultimate challenge to both teach students foundations of restaurant management operations while catering to the "Buger King Have it My Way" clientele that we serve every day.  I will be sharing more of this experience with you in the future on what the problems and challenges have been and the teaching theories, principles and techniques that I will start to incorporate to better manage the madness that is the restaurant lab.  That is why I highly recommend downloading and reading the Teaching that Sticks article I posted on last blog post.

In the meantime, I am very ready to enjoy Thanksgiving break and get the sense that many of you are in the same boat and ready to do the same.  So Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at FELC to all of our members and others.

Teaching That Sticks!

Awhile ago I made a blog post about a book I was reading by Heath and Heath entitled, "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard."  I am now reading another of their books called, "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die."  Both books are excellent reads on human nature when it comes to making things change or making things stick which apply to administrators and faculty alike to find ways to evolve a program's curriculum and teach courses in ways that students will remember the content.

Low and behold, the authors have now come out with a paper entitled "Teaching that Sticks" which is based on the six traits they identified and defined in their Stick book, namely: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Story.  I am confident that if you read the article you will give some thought to the way you are teaching your classes and find new ways to deliver instruction that STICKS.  Afterall, it is NOT the students fault that they do not retain or remember what it is you taught them to demonstrate on a quiz, exam or lab -- IT IS YOUR FAULT, like it or not.  So read the article and see if it does not change your thinking on your teaching so that what you teach STICKS.

You may download the article at:
http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/CTE/documents/Teaching%20That%20Sticks.pdf

Food Day!

Darn it!  Food Day came and went on October 24 this year and I missed the chance to do a blog post about it so I will do one now thinking ahead to next year.  Food Day was launched by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  They are to the processed food industry and the restaurant industy what daylight is to vampires.  They tell the truth about the bad food that is being sold to the American public by food conglomerates and restaurant chains which has led to changes that are good for the health of our nation.  I am for one am a huge advocate for the Center because it educates Americans on making better food choices for the sake of their health.
As I indicated, Food Day was October 24 and should remain that date for years to come so we can plan events in our community to promote healthy eating.  As the website says:
Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. We will work with people around the country to create thousands of events in homes, schools, churches, farmers markets, city halls, and state capitals...Transforming the American diet means changing policies as well as changing individual behavior. Agricultural policies should support small and mid-size sustainable and organic farms—and not pour billions of dollars each year onto huge farms that produce monoculture commodity crops. The Americans—and the immigrants to America—who harvest our food deserve protection from harmful pesticides and poor working conditions. And the "factory farms" that hold millions of chickens, pigs, and cows should be replaced by farms that minimize suffering and avoid the pollution of our water, soil, and air.

It's all connected. The diets we select, the foods we grow, the policies we form, and the impact we have. Find—or create—a Food Day event today. It's time to get real about food and in the following ways:
1.  Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods.
2.  Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness

3.  Expand access to food and alleviate hunger

4.  Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms

5.  Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
6.  Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

What am I doing in response?  I writing this blog post!  I promote local farmers in our community.  I have a full share and am able to get produce from the farmer year round due to his safe innovative farming methods, like growing greens during our Indiana winters in a retrofitted hog barn.  I have put him in touch with local restaurants that now feature his produce.  We are working now on developing healthy food products that can be processed on his farm and sold in the community.  Once he is certified I will be using his produce in our student run restaurant which I now teach.

The menu we have put together for the John Purdue Room is healthy with lots of healthy (vegetarian) dishes.  Since making the menu change and promoting it as a project for the students in my sales class the numbers keep growing week in and week out.  If you want to check out our menu and the job the sales class is doing to promote the operation through Facebook type John Purdue Room into the search window at the top of your Facebook page.

If you like the idea of Food Day and doing something in response please share with me by sending an e-mail to mlalopa@fooded.org.  I am happy to post it to the blog to share with others.  If you are vehemently opposed to it and have your reasons we do counterpoints, too!  It is all in the spirit of education!

Course Design and Curriculum Reform

The weather in Atlanta has been gorgeous and the sessions inside the Hilton have been sizzling, too, at the POD Conference.  It is always so invigorating to be amongst those who spend every day at their respective campus working with faculty to be better teachers.

As always there is a session that really has a wow factor and presents a new idea on something I thought I knew very well, which in this case is curriculum.  I attended a session entitled, "Course Design and Curriculum Reform" presented by Edmund Hansen from Northeastern Illinois University.  For once, the session was better than the description as I gained new insights into designing a curriculum that enhances and ensures student learning.  As the presenter said, the session was about how to teach the curriculum and know whether your students have learned it -- based on factual evidence.  He walked us through a matrix that had the following column headings from left to right: Big Ideas, Enduring Understandings (on the part of the student), Learning Outcomes, Common Misconceptions & Barriers (to student learning), Essential Questions, Guiding Concepts, Authentic Performance Tasks, Performance Criteria, and Required Competencies.

It would be next to impossible to explain the content of the workshop so going to recommend the book that I bought from the author at his book signing today for just under $18, entitled, Idea-Based Learning: A Course Design Process to Promote Conceptual Understanding.  It has just hit the market and not even on Amazon yet.  You can get it in paperback and published by Styllus, ISBN 978-1-57922-614-5.  Get yourself a copy, you will not regret it and it will give fresh insights on how to formulate an effective curriculum or revise your current one. If interested in speaking to author, his e-mail is E-Hansen@neiu.edu

Heading to POD!

I am so excited.  I leave on Wednesday for the POD Network Conference in Atlanta.  I am also staying at the same hotel that hosted the eastern ACF regional conference which was near the restaurant that sold me the best seared Ahi Tuna ever, Ray's.  POD supports a network of nearly 1,800 members, who are faculty and teaching assistant developers, faculty, administrators, consultants, and others who perform roles that value teaching and learning in higher education.  I have been a member for over 8 years and have learned so much about teaching and learning by hanging out on the listserv and attending / presenting at the annual conference. 

The majority of those who are members of POD know the teaching and learning literature inside and out and have been an invaluable resource to me as I find ways to be a better teacher.  They know best practices on teaching and learning.  They know the movers and shakers in the field of education and many will be in attendance or invited to speak as keynotes.

I learn so much from those I have come to know over the years at social functions, keynote addresses, publications, and conference sessions.  I will blog the highlights of the conference while in Atlanta.

In the meantime, check out what POD is all about at: http://www.podnetwork.org/index.htm  You can even check out some of my publications in the publications link under Essays on Teaching Excellence.

Take 20 Minutes!

Business Week is still one of my favorite periodicals to read each time it hits my mailbox. There is always cutting edge information on our industry and our profession of “learning.” There was a section in a recent issue on “most viewed talks.” One of the most viewed talks was by Ken Robinson on how schools kill creativity. As stated in the promo for the talk “Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.”

After viewing the video he indeed gives one pause for thought as to whether at the OK Plateau (I talked about in a previous post) or doing things in class or lab that let enable student’s to apply their creativity in an educational setting.

Here is an application of the talk. In last Wednesday’s lab I returned to see how clean up was going. The students informed me that they had been working with the TA to experiment with espresso machine and created a coffee drink they called “The Turtle.” I asked what “The Turtle” was and they told me the recipe and believed it to be one great tasting coffee drink. I said “I believe you” so let us put it on the menu. There was jubilation all around while I reminded them that in the orientation for the class they were to think of the restaurant lab class as their own business and glad to hear they are taking ownership six weeks into the semester. I then told them I expect Turtle sales be stellar during their next lab because they believed in it.

That is teaching to me! I hope it is the same to you. So stop in our lab on Wednesday and grab a Turtle, or favorite beverage, then kick back and enjoy it while watching a thought-provoking heavily viewed video by Ken Robinson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Rate Your Syllabus!

The syllabus may be one of the most important documents we can prepare as educators.  It is the primary method that students know what the course is about, how it will be taught, how they will be assessed, important policies, and so forth.  I must confess that I have seen plenty of syllabi from other faculty and amazed at how poorly they are written and no wonder the students struggle in the class -- they have no clue as to the instructor's expecations, what they are to learn, and so forth.  Indeed, many syllabi I have reviewed spend the vast majority on how students are to behave in the class when it comes to dress, attitude, attendance, punctuality, cell phone or laptop use in class, cheating, and precisous little on LEARNING.  It is more like Hammurabi's Code of Laws than a syllabus.

So for those who want to see how their syllabus stacks up to a rubric designed to assess one, first visit the following URL. Then go through your syllabus and score it.  Naturally, where a criterion has a ranking of 1, or perhaps  2, then make necessary corrections.  The rubric has such criteria as syllabus heading, learning outcomes, instructional strategies, and more.  As my friends in the UK would say, "give it a go!"  Your students will appreciate it for sure and be far less confused as to what it is they are to learn from your teaching. 
The URL with the rubric is found at:
http://www.fsc.edu/extended/documents/Rubric-evaluatingsyllabi1-5-06final.doc

Franke Leake Speaks on Teaching Culinary Arts

FELC member, Franke Leake, who teaches in Hawaii, gave a great interview about teaching culinary arts and the industry in general.  Here is the information that awaits those who click on the URL below to hear the short interview:

In the past decade, there’s been a huge change in people’s attitudes about what they eat and drink. America's chefs are changing to keep pace. This year the American Chef’s Federation and the American Academy of Chefs honored Kapiolani Community College’s Frank Leake, with the Culinary Traditions award for excellence in developing the next generation of culinary leaders. HPR’s Noe Tanigawa spoke with him about eating and cooking. The Hawai’i Food and Wine Festival starts this Thursday. Find out more at http://www.hawaiifoodandwinefestival.com/ . Hawai’i-born KCC graduate Lance Nitahara is currently competing in "Chopped", the Food Network program Frank Leake calls the most true to life. Be prepared for a dramatic finish.

You can hear the interview by visiting:
http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/content/frank-leake-chef-professor-part-community-shapes-what-we-eat



Great job, Franke!

What I Teach in Restaurant Lab Class

In the fundamental restaurant management lab that I teach we have academic objectives to teach for sure.  We teach the kids the equipment.  We teach the kids different service styles.  We teach the kids basic cooking.  We teach them sanitation.  We teach them management basics.  They take quizzes and exams to motivate them to do the readings as well as retain what was learned from hands-on experience they get on a daily basis in the lab.

But the we teach them much more than that; we teach them about a professional kitchen.  For example, when I am expediting during lunch service, or my TA's stand in for me, there is no YELLING at servers or cooks or anyone else for that matter.  No matter how deep in the weeds we get from time to time.  We run a cool, calm, level-headed kitchen where orders come in, they are made, and served to guests as a team effort.  There is no yelling like on Hell's Kitchen or some of the kitchens I worked in when I had the energy for this business. 

There is no crazy, arrogant, egocentric, rude, bullying, loud, demeaning, self-indulging, hungover -- pick your adjective -- "chef" running around making everyone crazy, scared, crying or whatever.  Our chef works alongside the kids because she has a skill set that the kids need to tap into to work the line, make salads, plate desserts, etc., so we can serve our guests.  She is patient, she is caring, she is cool and does not roll her eyes when showing a kid to make a basil chiffonade to garnish our whole wheat pasta dish for the 10th time!  She is an educational professional.

There is NO sexual harassment of any kind albeit hostile work environment or quid pro quo that we all know is too common in the industry we know and love.  There are only "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen" in my lab.  Nobody at any time for any reason makes any off color or sexual comment, nobody exhibits a behavior that is inappropriate either.  We show up, do service, have a robust debrief when the lab has been cleaned, and the students go their separate ways knowing a bit more about resturant management than the lab before.  That is what I was hired to do!

And this is what I want our kids to expect when they work as an intern or start their MIT program at an independent or chain restaurant.  That is what I teach.  I teach the professional kitchen.  Indeed, Bourdain would be hard-pressed to write anything sensational about the goings on in my lab!

It's a Beautiful Thing to Behold!

We are into our fourth week of rotation in the restaurant class.  The students in the BOH and FOH in our fine dining restaurant, as well as those on the Cafe side of the operation have hit their stride with confidence and competence at an all time high.  The kids have become a well oiled machine on the fine dining side for sure.  On the days that I expedite you can see the kids moving in unison as I call in orders and sell them one after the other.  Indeed today we taught them the old classic tableside dessert, bananas foster.  All it took was one server selling one and the rest of the orders poured in to the delight of servers and guests.

These are the days when the fruits of the labor of teaching the lab are paying off.  The kids really have got it together and it is a joy cranking up the lab everyday.  Watching the restaurant fill up with guests and watch the orders go out to our standards.  I will truly enjoy it as much as I can....

...because we will be rotating the kids next week into their new positions for another four week stint.  I am sure it will not be the same as going back to square 1 because we have a great debrief for all stations now so the kids at least know what to expect when they do rotate.  The downside is that they will not yet have stepped on the line to cook the orders I will most certainly call in an try to sell, parties big and small.  They will get the hang of it like the current crew, no doubt.

I am loving teaching this class.  I now know the joy that many of you must feel when the lab is humming like mine is today and hopefully in the days ahead.  So here is a shout out to all of you teaching labs that have a public face!

The Value of a $3 Cupcake

Today in the lab the students learned the value of a complimentary cupcake.  Let me explain.

We had an elderly couple make reservations for lunch today.  The Mrs. wanted to treat her man to lunch in our student-run restaurant.  She told us ahead of time that it was her husbands 80-something birthday.  We asked the kids what we should do, if anything, now that we know there is a special occasion in the house.  The students gravitated quickly to the idea of serving up one of our Guiness Cupcakes as a special birthday treat, compliments of the house, with students singing Happy Birthday.  Something I do not think we ever did in the restaurant but hey, I'm in charge now! 

The kids were excited with their plan.

Finally the moment arrived.  The party's plates were cleared and three student servers accompanied the TA to the table of the birthday boy.  As the cupcake was placed before our guest, the kids sang a genuine Happy Birthday to the delight of the gentleman.  His wife looked on lovingly.

In the debrief we had a chance to discuss how comping a $3 cupcake was worth its weight in gold and how we made that guest's day very special indeed with the unexpected treat.  The kids basked in the glow of their decision which pleased me to no end.

Bottom line.  Although running this lab is really physically and mentally challenging for me these days, the days like today make it all worth it.  The kids learned how to create a memorable experience with a $3 cupcake and a song.

Greetings from the Restaurant Lab

There is a small cubicle with a half wall in the corner of our student run restaurant that allows us to store supplies needed for service and the pc I am now writing this blog post.  This is truly a great venue from which to observe students doing what they have been educated and trained to do from checking reservations to presenting the check.  I am almost invisible sitting here although I can see the entire lab.

Like just now...back in a moment.

We have a student in the management position today who is behaving more as a hostess than manager.  While typing this post I noticed our server place an entree before a guest af the improper position -- which would not make our chef happy.  I motioned her quietly over to the cubicle and asked her what she thought of the way in which the entree was presented at table 33.  She had no clue what I was asking.  That was when I was able to have Just-In-Time Teaching to discuss plate placement, which she said we had not taught her and a bad answer because we did teach her table service techniques.  Then again, it was a good answer because it means we may not have taught her this properly. 

Once she realized the conversation was aimed at improving her management skills she thought it would be a good idea to go to the back-of-the house to see the photos we have of our menu items for cooks and servers to know how to prepare and present menu items to our guests.  She also thought it would be good to call servers together to make sure they are placing the plates down in their proper position.  I thought that was a good idea, too.  Now she is managing instead of guarding the reception desk!

The bottom line for me is that I am LOVING teaching the lab this semester.  It allows me to see whether or not the way we have taught students to manage the restaurant has been effective or not.  And that is something we know in real time because the students are acting on what we have taught them and some things have stuck and others have not -- which allows for instant coaching.  I do not get the opportunity to see what is going on in the heads of my students in traditional classrooms like this lab and will miss seeing how thinking is being translated into learned service behavior.  Long live the lab!

Groundhog Day

Have any of you ever seen the movie Goundhog Day with Bill Murray?  If not, here is a trailer for the movie to refresh memory or give you an idea of the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_yDWQsrajA

In essence, the character played by Murray is reliving the same day over and over and the movie captures how he handles that situation and is quite hilarious.  Over time, he continually improves upon each day until he ends up with the perfect day!

Well that is how I feel teaching five sections of the foodservice lab this semester so far.  The alarm goes off every day at 7:30.  I go through the same routine to ready for work and drive to campus.  I walk into the back of the house of our restaurant and there stand 16 to 20 fresh faces, depending on the day, ready to open up a restaurant for the first time.  Many have never even made Mac-n-Cheese from a box and in an hour or two they will be wielding a French Knife to prep for service, setting tables, etc., so that we can open our doors to the public at 11:30 AM for service.  Like the Bill Murray character we do our best to make each day in the lab progressively better and so far so good; by the time we get to the Friday lab we know the best things to say and do to have a successful lab for that day in the front- and back-of-the-house.  And then we arrive back to Monday with a new rotation of fresh faces to repeat the day's lessons for the remainder of the week to reach perfrection on Friday. So it goes.

Alas, the life of the lab instructor!  I am sooooooooooooooo glad I took on this assignment to teach the foodservice lab for the fall semester.  I can now feel the pleasure and pain that many members have been experiencing at culinary arts programs and walking in their shoes will help me be more responsive to their needs through FELC!  Can I have an Amen!

We Teach the Finer Points of Service

I am so jealous of all of you that have taught or are teaching student run restaurants.  We opened today for service after having one week of orientation for the students last week. Today was the Monday section and we learned how well we did on orientation with a crew of students in the front of the house and back of the house.  I was pleased that we only had 14 reservations (6 parties) to get the kids some practice before we start to fill up on a regular basis.  All in all it went well.

HOWEVER, it was the finer points that we could not have possibly covered due to time constraints and other hiccups that reared their ugly head today such as no carbonation in the soft drinks.  The kids could not make up their minds as to which hand to use to set down plates or beverages and then take them away.  Where to stand when not engaged in service.  Which way do we want the plates to be set before the customer?  Where are the cut flowers for the tables?  When to return to the table to inquire as to the quality of the meal.  So it goes (stolen from Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five).

What I learned today is that what I need to teach is the FINER POINTS of service.  Sure, we reviewed with servers how to approach the table and what to say throughout service through to clearing the table.  Yes, we worked with students on cooking the menu items in the back of the house.  But where we fell down today was all the little things that add up to the big thing we call Stellar Customer Service.  And that is what we will spend the next 15 weeks doing -- the FINER points so that when students leave here we hopefully have corrected the bad behaviors they learned someplace else or taught them to do service correctly from that point forward.

I LOVE IT!

Research Study in Culinary Arts

Here is a letter from Glenn Mack, Doctoral Student at Nova Southeastern University and President, Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta.  He is doing research on culinary arts education and you can be a part.  I am sure he will be happy to share his findings when he gets his dissertation signed, sealed and delivered.  Please participate in the survey as the findings will benefit our profession.

Dear Culinary Educator,

When we speak of professionalism in culinary arts, what do we really mean? This research attempts to narrow our industry definition and ultimately find effective ways to teach, measure, and instill professional values and behaviors in the workplace and the culinary classroom. Your responses are a valuable contribution to our field. Thank you for your dedication to our craft.


This survey should take no more than 5 minutes, with only 4 questions and a handful of demographic options.
Phase 1 questionnaire: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22CTYEWY37S

All survey responses are voluntary and confidential. Answers are anonymous unless you wish to identify yourself through your email address. I maintain no database of those who have completed the survey.

Thank you so much,

Glenn R. Mack, Doctoral Student
Nova Southeastern University
President, Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta
404-353-8405 grmack@nova.edu

IF YOU WANT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE STUDY before agreeing to participate contact Glenn or review an explanation of the research, preliminary results, and contact information may be found at http://mackpar-culinaryprofessionalism.wikispaces.com/

It's That Time Again!

Now that the Corona Light fueled vacations have come to an end it is time to get back to the business of teaching!  I could not be happier to be back now that I have rested body, mind and spirit.  I enjoy my time away from campus with the family but find it hard to keep the thoughts of the upcoming school year out of my head.  I love teaching, what can I say.  I cannot wait to step back into the class or lab and look into the faces of the industry's future and do my level best to prepare them as best I can to meet the challenges that await them upon graduation.

For those of you dreading the return of the students to campus to start the school year, however, I gotta ask, "What's up with that!?"  If teaching does not define who you are and what you do for a living perhaps it is time to go back to industry or go be a "fire watcher" (for those familiar with Caddy Shack).  And this is not something that can be hidden from the students, they will know if you are not dedicated to your craft because you will be easily compared to those who are jazzed up about teaching like so many in our learning community.  So if dreading the return of students perhaps it is time to do some soul searching.  Find that spark that used to be there when first teaching and fire it up for the sake of our profession and our industry.  The kids depend on it!

Preparation for Fall Classes

As many of you know I am an avid reader and consumer of print and digital information pertaining to teaching and learning and this beloved industry of ours.  I am always trying to keep up with news and information that effects the industry and discover new ways of teaching or simply improve those methods I am using now or have in the past.  But this blog post has to do with one of the greatest preparation methods I use over the summer to prepare for fall classes and that is do to NOTHING WHATSOEVER related to teaching and learning.  I even left behind a fascinating book on college teaching I shared at the ACF National Convention during my workshop on fun, engaging and innovative assessment methods.  I will resume reading the book and share in an upcoming blog post.

I just returned from a week of vacation to western NY to visit family and friends and eat those foods that I loved growing up as a child and young adult. If you are from that area you can relate to a "white hot", Grandma Brown's beans, and sweet corn which I enjoyed on several occasions.  You can also relate to the Friday night Haddock fish fry complete with crinkle cut fries, cole slaw, and a dinner roll.  All of which are found among the beautiful lakes, rivers and streams that are nestled among rolling hills that can be found in the Finger Lakes Region where I was born, just outside of Rochester, NY.  As I consumed such delicacies I did not give a single thought to what I do for a living.  I even did that which is the hardest to do when dining out -- NOT critique the quality of the food and service I was subjected to along the way unless it was horrid, which it never was.  I just simply enjoyed the blessing of being alive and healthy to go and do as I pleased with my family.

I find that these breaks rejuvenate body, mind, and spirit and allow me to take a fresh look at my teaching when I sit down before the computer, as I am doing now to lazily prepare for the fall.  I feel alive again and ready to get down to business in a few weeks.  I hope you have been able to do the same.

So the message for today's blog post is that sometimes the greatest thing one can do to prepare for fall classes and be a better teacher is to do absolutely nothing at various points during the summer if one has the luxury to do so as I just did with my family.  Give yourself permission to do nothing, too.  You will find great rewards in the pursuit of not doing and simply being!

Culinary Education Loses Chef Antun

John Antun, associate professor in the Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences and director of UT’s Culinary Institute, died last Monday after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.  I am sorry for not posting this sooner to the blog.  Chef Antun was a GREAT teacher and human being.  He was there from the start to help launch FELC and was present at the last Summit although he was suffering greatly from his cancer.  He hung in there up to the end doing what he loved best -- teaching. 

Chef Antun was also responsible for starting the Journal of Culinary Science and Technology which is widely read by teachers and researchers in academia and industry alike.  The ecclectic journal always has something of interest for everyone to read and the brainchild of Chef Antun.  We will great miss him in the future but his spirit will live on in the years ahead as we keep his memory alive by being the best teachers and researchers we can be in culinary arts and science education.

To read more about Chef Antun visit:
http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/2011/07/14/memoriam-john-antun/
http://hosting-24617.tributes.com/show/John-Antun-91905077

For those who may have known Chef Antun, part of his obituary states:
“The family is requesting donations be made to the John Antun Scholarship Fund, c/o RHT Dept., 110 Jessie Harris Bld., University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1911”



Rest easy, big John.  We will truly miss you as you have been an inspiration to so many.  We just hope will be able to return the favor.

Well Bust My Buttons

I awoke today to some great news making me even more impressed lately with the National Restaurant Association.  Today they launched a new initiative called Kids LiveWell.  The lead paragraph on the website say's it all: When parents dine out, they are looking for healthier options for their kids. Many restaurants already have them. The National Restaurant Association has teamed up with Healthy Dining on Kids LiveWell. The new initiative showcases the restaurant industry’s commitment to offer healthful options for children.  To that end the NRA has launched this new program with the industry.

If you go to the website http://www.restaurant.org/foodhealthyliving/kidslivewell/index.cfm you will find detailed information about the program, participating restaurants and companies, and media resources.  This program is destined for success since more than 15,000 restaurant locations became part of the launch of the program that belong to the following 19 brands: Au Bon Pain, Bonefish Grill, Burger King, Burgerville, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Chevys Fresh Mex, Chili’s Grill & Bar, Corner Bakery Cafe, Cracker Barrel, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, Friendly’s, IHOP, Joe’s Crab Shack, Outback Steakhouse, Silver Diner, Sizzler, T-Bones Great American Eatery and zpizza.

This is great news indeed as long as the brands start to promote the healthy eating options over those laden with fat, sugar, salt, and artificial colors & flavors.  Indeed this has to be done if we are going to reverse the obesity epidemic in this country which is costing the economy billions of dollars each year due to fast and junk food addictions.  And if you do not think fast food can be addicting, yes just like heroine and nicotine, then you should have watched this past week's episode of the Extreme Makeover weightloss tv show which showcased the power that food had over this gentleman who had to be checked into a rehab clinic to stop his addiction and lose weight for the sake of his health.  He actually lost 110 pounds in three months under the watchful eye of the trainer then gained 70 of it back when on his own to lose more weight due to sneaking fast food meals everyday.

I do hope that culinary arts and education can join with the NRA to reformulate menu offerings that are tasty and healthy.  It is very possible to provide food that is good for customers without sacrificing the profits of a foodservice operation.  My hat is off to the 19 brands that signed on to the program.  Now what about us?  You can bet your bottom dollar that I will be pushing harder than ever to offer healthier options on the menus we offer the public through our foodservice operations because we are in the EDUCATION BUSINESS and have to do all we can to educate the next generation of students and consumers to make better food choices.  I hope more of you will join me.

Fixed versus Growth Mindset?

This week’s read is another book that I highly recommend reading if you are attempting to effectuate change upon yourself or others, such as faculty or students. The book is entitled “Switch” and written by Heath and Heath and published in 2010 by Broadway Books. In the author’s words, This book is to help you change things. We consider change at every level – individual, organizational, and societal. Maybe you want to help your brother beat his gambling addiction. Maybe you need your team at work to act more frugally because of marketing conditions…For individuals’ behavior to change; you’ve got to influence their hearts and minds. The problem is this: Often the heart and mind disagree. Fervently.


The authors then boil change down to a matter of directing the rider, motivating the elephant, and shaping the path and provide plenty of examples of how this formula has effectuated both small and large scale change.

One particular section of the book caught my attention as it relates to teaching with people having either a “fixed mindset” or a “growth” mindset. People who have a fixed mindset believe that their abilities are basically static. People with a growth mindset believe that abilities are like muscles – they can be built up with practice. Guess which of the two is harder to teach?! The answer of course is the fixed mindset and you will have to teach them differently than the growth mindset to get them on track to do well in your classes -- because they do not think they can "do it" or "get it."  These students may very well be in need of “brain is like muscle” training before they can get down to the business of tackling the coursework. For a great explanation of this very important concept be sure to read pages 161-168 when reading the book.

By the way, are you reading a great book you would like to recommend to FELC members and others? Just write a short synopsis as I have done in this blog post and send it to mlalopa@fooded.org with your name, title, and school and I will be happy to post it for all to see.

High on the Hog

I have just finished yet another interesting book as part of the usual happily self-imposed summer reading program while on break from Purdue.  The book is entitled, "High on the Hog, A Culinary Journey from America to America" by Jessica Harris.  The book is a fascinating account of the slavery period in the United States intertwined with the culinary heritage of slaves that influenced the American diet.  I learned a great deal about the slave trade that I either did not remember from K-12 or was never taught in class.  One of the most interesting facts was that only a small percentage of slaves garnered from Africa came to America, the vast majority went to Central and South America.  I thought all slaves traded from Africa by traders were brought to America.  I also learned that it was possible for slaves to become free and live a somewhat normal life -- mostly in the northern states -- and become quite successful business people in the hospitality and services business during and after slavery was abolished.  One example is the Harlem street vendors who sold pigs' feet, fried chicken, hot corn and other vegetables out of horse drawn carts using syncopated rythms and humorous rhymes (eary form of rap?).  In many ways, these entrepreneurs were direct descendents of the vegetable hawkers of Charleston and New Orleans and even the black street-food sellers who had dotted the downtown New York streets in the colonial period and early years of the nineteenth century.

I also learned that ochra, watermelon and black-eyed peas are  native to Africa and brought here on slave ships and the reason that those plants figure into the culinary heritage and diet of Black Americans.  There is also a nice selection of recipes in the back including those to prepare pigs feet, watermelon-rind pickles, possum with sweet potatoes, and bean pie.  There are also many references to those who became successful restaurateurs over the  years and cookbooks that would be a nice addition to one's culinary school library.

All in all it was a very good book and I learned alot and confident you will enjoy it, too.  The author did extensive research to put this book together to tell an accurate and interesting story of the role that Black Americans played to integrate their cultural traditions into the one we take for granted today.

2011 Issue of IJ-SoTL now Available Online for Free!

Alan Altany has announced that the July 2011 issue of International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (IJ-SoTL) is available free and online at http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/v5n2.html

This online publication is always worth a peek because it may include tested teaching methods that you can apply in your culinary kitchen or classroom.  Perhaps you could even do a teaching experiment of your own someday and get it published in this fine online journal.  I would even offer you my assistance to get the article ready for review.

If wanting to know more about Dr Altany and his work on SoTL, here is his contact information:
Alan Altany, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Teaching, Learning & Scholarship
http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/cet/
Editor, International Journal for SoTL
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/
Chair, SoTL Commons Conference
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/
Coordinator, SoTL at Georgia Southern
http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlgsu/

Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, Georgia, USA 30460-8143
Email: aaltany@georgiasouthern.edu

Fair Food

I may have indicated in previous blog posts that I read at least two books a week.  I am an educator and I hold my feet to the fire to stay educated.  I tend to read nonfiction that somehow relates to the world of food production and consumption because it is vital to our very existence as a species on Earth and an industry that we love -- especially now by teaching it to others to prepare them for the rough and tumble career that awaits replete with many joys and sorrows.

The book I just finished is called Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable, Food System For All by Oran B. Hesterman, Ph.D.  It is a WONDERFUL book indeed and cannot recommend it highly enough.  Why?  Because I have read a littany of books that speak to what is wrong with the way we grow, process, serve food, and consume food at home and food service outlets which are DAMN DEPRESSING!  This book tells many, many stories about what people, communities, schools and businesses are doing to turn the tide and make things right in the world of food production and consumption.

The author was a former professor of agronomy at Michigan State and co-led the Integrated Farming Systems and Food and Society Programs for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, during which time the Foundations seeded the local food systems movement with over $200 million.  He pours out his vast knowledge into the pages of this book.  For example, he started Fair Food Network in Detroit to encourage people to spend their food assistance dollars in the local farmers' market, which was later implemented in other American cities for good reason.  He also speaks to programs like School Food Focus that was started in St. Paul. MN, to encourage school districts to increase the percentage of locally grown produce it purchased to serve in the school and reduce the sugar content in milk.  There is also Farm to School which connects educational institutions with local farms that has captured the imagination of tens of thousands of educators, parents, students, volunteers, community leaders, and farmers across the country.  And there are countless other stories about those leading the effort to produce and consume foods that are locally produced and healthy to eat.

Best of all there is a final chaper devoted to resources one can get in touch with to learn learn more and get actively involved.  I will share many of them in blog posts down the road but for now the chapter is broken into resources for: Consumers (such as CSA Farming, Eat Well Guide); Urban Agriculture Food Systems (such as Fair Food Philly, People's Grocery); Business Incubators and Related Resources (such as Kitchen Chicago); Hunger Food Security; and Food Access, Youth Development and Food Systems (such as The Edible School Yard); Education / Research Centers and Programs; Farmer Training, Networks, and Resources; Institutional Purchasing; Environment and Conservation; Activist Networks (such as Farm Aid); and Policy Advocacy Networks.

So pick it up at a local bookseller and support your local economy while enriching your mind with what is capable when people work together to do right by others around food.  Your students depend on it.

Most Children Left Behind

Many believe, as do I, that the trouble with the public education system is that it has not evolved from what it was originally intended to do, prep kids to work in manufacturing based jobs or educate those who were living on the farms when not planting and harvesting crops to educate a nation.  It was also developed during a time when there were not as many distractions for children as there are these days from the advance of technology.  No wonder it is difficult for kids to sit in a classroom all day long when their world is abuzz with distractions.  Case in point, my son was playing a hand held game device a few years ago (10 years old) when we were taking a extended ride in the car.  He asked me if I had a similar device when I was a kid.  I told him "no, we did not."  He gave me an incredulous look and asked what we used to play with when we were kids.  I told him we used our imagination!  Heck, when I was a kid we used to play army and use our finger for a pistol and a long stick for a rifle -- when kids play army today they have air soft guns that look like the real thing, dress in camouflage gear, and go out on patrol.

That is why you may very well enjoy this 11 minute presentation by Aaron Lewis on public education.  He speaks to the heart of the matter and lays out the key problems in public education.  If you listen carefully enough he is suggesting that we stop doing the same shit they do in K-12 when kids come to our campuses and get them engaged in the learning especially with each other for maximum learning.  Check it out and see what you think at  the following URL:
http://www.youtube.com/user/aaronlewis321?email=share_video_user

Perhaps the entire public school system has gotten to the "OK Plateau" I mentioned in last blog post.

Are You at the OK Plateau?!

Since I have been teaching for 20 years, I do not hold much stock in standardized course evaluations.  Indeed I have been reading the littany of research that has to do with student evaluations of teaching (SET) and convinced now more than ever that they are but one limited method by which to assess the quality of one's teaching from the students perspective.  I will be sharing this research in future posts.
As a result, I piloted an in depth SET with help from the students who took my spring human resource management course under the auspices of employee performance evaluation. The purpose of the activity was to allow students to apply what they were learning about employee performance evaluation to the context of teaching and get a richer more meaningful understanding of what it is like to be a student at Purdue.

The students answered five essay questions which essentially asked them to describe their dream teacher, describe the typical professor they have had at Purdue across all classes, the one course evaluation item they would pick to assess the quality of a professor’s teaching, how they would evaluate teaching if President of Purdue, and how I compared to their dream teacher and what could be done to do a better job.

The studentst took to this essay assignment like never before on written assignments.  There were no questions on "how many words" or "how many pages?"  They poured their hearts into the assignment because they need to be heard and they knew I would listen because I give a damn. 

I will tell you that I learned a great deal about what students want from teachers and it is pretty simple; someone who likes what they do, engages students in the learning, dresses professionally, enthusiastic, prepares them for the career that awaits them upon graduation, and can speak English. I sadly learned that students do not experience their dream teacher very often at Purdue.   What about your school, college or university?

The response to the last question pertaining to my teaching made my heart sink.  The students basically told me that I have reached the “OK Plateau” in teaching the human resource management class, which was described in Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein with respect to learning a new skill (a book I constantly recommended during all the ACF regional workshops I did this past spring). To get to the OK Plateau people go through three stages:

o Cognitive stage – intellectualizing the task and discovering new strategies to accomplish it more proficiently.

o Associative stage – concentrating less, making fewer major errors, and generally becoming more efficient.

o Autonomous stage – when you figure that you’ve gotten as good as you need to get at the task you’re running on autopilot.

Based on the feedback from students they told me I appeared to be on autopilot (Ok Plateau). Yes, I was dressing professional and enthusiastic as always but I was not digging down deep and giving student’s current information on HR in the hospitality industry and I was teaching them in an old and tired manner. I took each and every comment to heart because teaching defines me like nothing else in my life so I pledged to those students that I would reinvent myself and the class to be more current and engaging when I teach it in spring 2012. In fact, I am going to do more cooperative learning as I had used successfully early in my career at Purdue. I will also look at ways to improve the HTM 331 class for fall 2011 and the HTM class for HTM 100. I got low scores on the exam course evaluation items for HTM 100 so will look for ways to make that more fair when teaching it in 2012.

So I am putting the question to those who follow the blog.  Are you at the OK Plateau?  Are you showing up for class, going through the motions, putting in your time, and moving mindlessly through your day?  If you are, guess what, the students know it!  You are not fooling them one bit and they are paying you for your services.  That was how they were feeling about my teaching this past spring and had I not taken the time to ask them for deep meaningful feedback I would still be under the illusion that I was doing quality instruction -- when indeed I was not!  Perhaps you might conduct a similar feedback session with your students, which I highly recommend because the results can be sobering.  Of course, that depends on whether you can handle the truth!

My Marriott Hotel

Marriott has developed an online game that could be fun to play and recruit new employees, too.  Those who play "My Marriott Hotel" will find themselves in the restaurant business and have to make decisions to keep the kitchen moving.  The game is as realistic an experience as possible to see what it takes to manage all aspects of the restaurant business from purchasing to service and more. 

I went to Facebook where the game is to be found and it is not ready to load yet but here is the URL that you can access if you have an account to download the App.
http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q=My%20Marriott%20hotel&init=quick&tas=0.739057746431893&ref=ts#!/apps/application.php?id=145796492133388

According to an article in the Wall Street, Marriott chose to create this game due to the success the U.S. military had with its online game to recruit soldiers.  Also cited in the article was the success of Siemens AG which brought "Plantville," which simulates being a manager for bottling facility, a vitamin factory or a plant that builds trains.

In any event, this would be an EXCELLENT free tool to use in your restaurant management class for budding chefs to see if they can run a restaurant for Marriott.  The game is intended to be as realistic as possible.  According to a Marriott spokesman, those who who play the restaurant game will have to buy ingredients, such as cheese for spaghetti, after given an array of options in quality and price.  Players will also hire staff, purchase equipment and small wares.  During rounds in the kitchen, players have to direct tickets to cooks and inspect food orders for quality before sending them out to customers and more.

If you do choose to use this game in your class please let me know so we can share with others on the blog.  I am teaching the restaurant class this fall at Purdue and once I navigate it I will look into using it to establish extra credit points or something.  Time will tell.

The Pyramid is Dead!

If you are up on food politics in this country you know that the food pyramid has been under attack by those whose financial futures are tied to their influence over what American's eat, whether it is good for them to do so or not.  For example, the first pyramid design was unpopular to some because those food groups at the top were not happy that it indicated to Americans to eat less meat, for example.  Then the pyramid was revised to have slivers, more or less, running from the base to the tip to indicate what percentage of daily foods should be eaten from the basic food groups and there were still those who did not care for that design either especially if your food group was the smallest sliver.  For more information on this subject read Marion Nestles Food Politics or follow her work on her website at: http://www.foodpolitics.com/

Anyhow, the food pyramid is no more, it has been replaced by a plate, which is what most Americans eat from anyway so it makes sense compared to the pyramid.  Regardless of what one thinks about the food items that were included or excluded from the food groups on the new plate concept I think it is a more common sense approach to educating Americans on what should appear on their plates or in their drinking glass at each meal.  You can check it out for yourself and draw your own conclusions at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/index.html

I especially like the link to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 and Michelle Obama's efforts to end childhood obesity through Let's Move, which I reported on in an earlier blog post.  What I do not like is an aspect that is found on the food pyramids used by other countries which has exercise at the base or people running up the side -- how sad!

I guess when all is said and done it is still up to us in culinary and hospitality programs to educate ourselves and our students on serving more healthy foods based on dietary guidelines to the dining public without compromising profitability.  Afterall, when McDonalds's, the King of QSR, is revising its menu to add more healthy items it is time for academics to get ahead of the curve and do what we can to support our industry finds its way down the path of healthy eating.  Besides, it is truly sad when one realizes that there are hundreds and thousands of people in the country who have contracted diseases they would not have were it not for their inability to stop shoving garbage in their mouths and engage in regular physical activity.  if you stop to think about it, we could do our part to help reduce the cost of health care in this country by doing our best to help Americans make better food choices on a regular basis and indulge on occasion and myplate might help us in that regard.

The Future of Higher Ed?

I was alerted to two articles that speak to the future of higher education and they are both sobering.  Perhaps you are an administrator or a faculty member who is experiencing some of what is being talked about in the articles.  Either way, there is a concerted effort to cheapen what educators do in this country and if we do not take a stand we will find ourselves to be falling further and further behind Inda, China, and the rest of the world that is taking a bolder brighter path to educate its people and compete and win for the future.

Read the first article at appeared in the Nation by William Deresiewicz--"Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education" http://www.thenation.com/article/160410/faulty-towers-crisis-higher-education

The second appeared in the Chronicle and penned by Margaret Miller:
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Profession-More-Pressure/123918/

Lecture heureuse!

Taking Students Seriously in the College Classroom

This e-mail came from Helen M Bergland, PhD, Faculty Support, Student Learning Assessment Academic Integrity, Office of Undergraduate Studies, Eastern Washington University, hbergland@ewu.edu.  It is definitely worth the time to read the article she mentioned in her e-mail because it applies to culinary arts education.

If you haven’t read Vincent Tinto’s article “Taking Student Success Seriously in the College Classroom” yet, I strongly suggest that you take a few minutes to read it. You can read the article at the following address: http://coredogs.com/blog/coredogs-way.

This article provides information that could be used to significantly support the value of faculty development programs (e.g., Teaching & Learning Centers, etc.) – something this listserv has discussed in the past as we have watched one Center after another closed due to budget cuts. Some of the recommendations/studies are based on community colleges and technical/vocational programs’ efforts; nevertheless, there is much outstanding food for thought for four-year institutions.

What do you think of this article?

NRA Show in Chicago

I have been going to the NRA show in Chicago since the late 80's and have to admit that this has been one of the best.  The show is buzzing with the prospects of growth in the industry this year.  Of course there are the products and services that have been at the show for years to promote plates, cooking equipment, clothing, knives and such.  But there is no mistake that healthy eating has gone mainstream big time.  It was also hard to go an aisle without finding someone who was marketing gluten free baked goods and other food products. The weather has also been excellent!

I really enjoyed a presentation on NRA's Conserve: Walking the Pathway to a Greener Restaurant.  This program can be a great teaching tool and great industry tool for those who really want to know what it takes to go green in restaurant businesses and just how much energy is being wasted right under the noses of operators.  There is a membership fee of $125 per year but worth every penny to have a one stop shop for educators and industry people going Green.  The program is chock full of video vignettes on ways to save money on energy and more.

You can check out a couple of links to get familiar with this program through NRA who is working with the Foodservice Technology Center to role out and manage the program:
http://www.fishnick.com/greenrestaurant/
http://conserve.restaurant.org/
Here is also a food business green checklist available in San Diego and quite comprehensive:
http://www.foodnbeverage.org/images/pdfs/green_business_app.pdf

International Lilly Conference on Teaching Call for Proposals

There is a call for proposal submissions for the 31st International Lilly Conference on College Teaching, in Oxford, Ohio, on November 17-20, 2011. The conference theme this year is "Teaching for Brain-Based Learning," but contributed paper topics do not have to be connected to this theme. 

You can view the conference website for a listing of the plenary sessions confirmed thus far at:
http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/

If you have not been to a Lilly Conference you are missing out on one of the most straight up gatherings on teaching and learning in higher education attended by those on top of their game who study teaching and learning for a living.  To submit a contributed paper proposal for the Conference, go to the website and click on "Proposal Submission" at http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/ .  The due date is July 11, 2011.

Also, visit the Conference website to register for the Conference (register by October 1 and receive the $50 early registration discount): http://www.muohio.edu/lillycon/reg_info.php

If you cannot attend the Lilly Conference this year, please pass this message along to a colleague.  We hope to see you in November!

Regards,
Milt Cox and Gregg Wentzell

Pearson Higher Education Requesting Feedback

Pearson sponsored the Ultimate Teaching Competition.  They are seeking feedback from educators. If you are currently teaching with MyManagementLab, MyMarketingLab, MyIBLab, MyBIZLab, MyBCommLab or MyMISLab, please take a few minutes to complete the following survey to share your experience with Pearson so they can continue to improve their products, service, and support. To access the instructor survey, please copy and paste this URL into a new browser window: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3LQVZZT

Please also pass along the following message to the students you taught this semester with MyManagementLab, MyMarketingLab, MyIBLab, MyBIZLab, MyBCommLab or MyMISLab so they can help Pearson improve the student experience.  To access the student survey, please copy and paste this URL into a new browser window: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3LCD29H

I Always Get Nervous

I just put in the last of my grades.  They were for the sales course which is a totally hands-on class where the students go through a process to ultimately sell a product for real dollars that earns them a seat in a limo and dinner in Indianapolis if their team hits its profit target.  They did $15,000 in glassware sales and generated $6,000 for our student run restaurant -- not bad for 10 sales teams, each with 5-6 members on each team.  I had already entered grades for the HR class, the independent study classes that students take to be an undergraduate TA for me in HR and sales class (that I explained at the last Summit), and my University Honors Program course (which is only open to the best and the brightest at Purdue and a realy joy to teach).

I do not know why, but I always get butterflies when posting grades.  I know that grades are the currency of higher education for students.  And all grades do not mean the same to all students.  Some students will literally come unglued if they do not get an A; you know those kids because they tell you so at the beginning of the semester.  Some kids will take a D, no problem, because they are just filling in their bingo sheet to get the sheepskin (showing my age) and pursue the career that awaits them upon graduation.  There are a million other reasons to be sure and somehow I am sensitive to each one.

Perhaps it is because I was high strung myself and achievement oriented and typically the top student in my class for all the degrees I took as an undergraduate and graduate student.  Of course, those were the days that grades were not posted online like today on Blackboard so students know their grades all along the way.  I used to be on pins and needles for over a week waiting for my grades to arrive in in the mail to see if my final grades matched those I had calculated on my own.  Speaking of seeing grades online, even my son can get daily feedback on his grades in middle school by going online which is insane because there were no computers other than calculators when I was in middle school.  

Maybe I am nervouse because I care.  Maybe I want the students to be like me when I was a student and dedicated to earning an A and disappointed when many fall short of the mark.  Who knows, all I can says is that I am always nervous when posting grades because of what they mean now and will mean later in the life of each and every student.  Anyone else feel the same?

What's the Point?

We are winding down the academic year here at Purdue. Students are busy trying to do their semester long projects in the three days they have before it is due but somehow always get done to the satisfaction of the professor.  By the way, if it is possible for students to complete your semester long project by starting on it three days before it is due your project needs an overhaul and the subjet of a future blog post.


Students are also preparing for finals.  Don't get me wrong, final exams are fine to give to students as long as they are not comprehensive.  What is the point, really?  Every single student who takes a comprehensive final dreads it and those who give it do it so mindlessly because they had to do it when they were a student so we should perpetuate our ignorance of how the brain works when it comes to teaching and learning and give one, too.  Not me, of course.


To be clear, I am talking about the kind of comprehensive exam where the instructor spent 10 to 15 weeks giving presentations to students, having them do independent projects, read dozens of chapters from the required text, and other assigned readings, videos, and forth and then assigned readings from book, and then testing them over the whole thing.  And then giving the kids no clue as to what will be on the test, those smug bastards.

Based on what is known about the brain and the research that has been done on learning there is no good case for a final exam that is comprehensive due to the simple fact that the students cram all the materials into their short term memory to be remembered long enough to take the exam and then dump it the minute they walk out the door.  Largely because the professor has not taught the students on how to remember the wheat from the chaff using techniques found in the recent book Moonwalking with Einstein or Why Student's Don't Like School.  So I ask again, "what is the point?"

Faculty should do their best to chunk their course materials and test regularly throughout the term or semester to increase the probability of students retaining the information so that there is actually no need for a comprehensive final.  There should also be reflections performed by students during the term or semester on what they have learned to increase the probability of them retaining it in long term memory.  The bottom line in my book of teaching based on books on teaching and research is that if you have to give a comprehensive final you are not the high quality teacher that you would like to think yourself to be and should seek higher ground.

I have not given a final comprehensive exam ever here at Purdue.  I have no plans to do so in the future.  I have no intention of repeating the mistakes of stupid professors past.