Classroom Management

FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY

Jennifer Dulecki | EDGP 287 | Hallmark Assignment

An Introduction:

My name is Jennifer Dulecki. I am a chef instructor at the Warren

Consolidated Career Prep Center (CPC). I have been in the food service industry
for over 20 years. I have not always worked at the high end trendy places, I have
had a well-rounded career. I have worked in fast food, little mom and pop diners,
new restaurants, established restaurants, high end restaurants, private clubs, and I
have also worked in catering businesses and have catered private parties. I have
plenty of industry and real life experiences that I am excited to impart to the up
and coming students.

I graduated from a local community college with my culinary degree and

my career has been even more exciting since then! I am currently attending a
university to learn all the ins and outs of teaching so I can make sure that I give my
students the best chance possible at an awesome future!

One of my goals, is to be an "intentional teacher." That is to say, I want to

be the teacher that the students remember, that has changed their life for the
better. I am confident that I can do this! I am a caring individual. I am skilled, and
I continue to hone my skills by still working within the restaurant industry to learn
new tips and tricks to stay fresh. I am enthusiastic! Cooking is not only my passion,
it's my life!

My Teaching Background:
I have never thought that I would be a teacher. I know that growing up, I
used to teach the local Sunday school class and absolutely loved it. I was a Sunday
school teacher for most of my youth, then when I was older I became a youth
leader.
In my jobs, as I grew into working age, I was a team trainer and then team
leader and my bosses kept training me and when I turned 18, they asked me to
take the "coveted" management job. They recognized some things in me that I

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don't feel that I recognized myself. I had a knack for training people, I was a hard
worker, and I managed well. They could count on me.
I feel that growing up I have been a leader to youth, and then had 5 of my
own (plus their friends in the house!), I was busy. But everything in me has always
had a passion for teaching, even if I didn't recognize it myself.
I actually fell into this job of teaching by accident. I am currently entering
my third year of teaching. I have loved almost every minute of it! Of course I have
obstinate students that make me try harder to reach them, but I enjoy it. The only
thing I would change, is the politics. (Doesnt everyone feel that way?)

My Classroom:
My specific Career Technical Education (CTE) program is Culinary Arts. We
are a multi-faceted, fast paced program that utilizes a state of the art commercial
kitchen and equipment to teach our students several different styles of cooking
and baking as well as several business forms.
We teach them how to run a business by having a special project where the
students are to create a culinary business complete with flyers, an order form and
business cards. They are to market it and actually bake or cook and sell their
product.
Another way that we teach them how to run a business is by having them
run our restaurant. We sell to the general public in this restaurant and hold the
licensing and certificates to do so. Our restaurant can hold approximately 70
guests. Here students learn professionalism, serving, menu planning, costing and
how a restaurant should run.
Our restaurant has a banquet area where once a month we have the
students plan and hold a buffet. These banquets can be teacher appreciation,
school official meetings, senior center luncheons, veterans day events and much
more. Students learn batch cooking, teamwork, and again professionalism from
our banquets.

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We also take catering orders so students can learn another facet of the
culinary industry. They can be anything from small parties to just a special
occasion cake or cupcakes. Some years we have had large cookie orders as well.
We also have a kiosk that sells to the over 1200 students we have daily in
our building. Our kiosk is located right outside of our restaurant, where students
learn professional behavior and money changing skills.
Another piece that we offer in our program is culinary competitions.
Students can compete in a dessert competition with other local high schools, or
they can compete in Skills USA. These competitions teach the students teamwork,
leadership, and also allow them to hone their culinary skills and learn deeper
concepts.
Our program does not only stop there. Students enrolling in our program
learn how to compete with the current job market today, by learning how to do job
searches as well as completing cover letters, resumes and thank you letters to
assist them in their future careers.
Our students are high school students, grades 10-12, so the ages range
anywhere from 15-18 years old. Here at the CPC we have a very diverse group of
students, in our classes there are different age levels, different skill levels and also
includes English Language Learners (ELL) students. We also follow the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) and have found ways to accommodate any and all
students that require accommodations.

How do we do all this? :

It takes a lot of time and effort. We have 2 culinary arts teachers and one
parapro and a large support team. We have leaders from the industry come out
and give us advice. We have supportive teachers, principal and counselor in our
Career Prep Center that help and support us to the best of their knowledge. We
have a mentor that not only supports us but supplies us with ideas. We utilize our
professional development to not only to keep up with the culinary industry, but to
teach us things such as inclusive discipline and mental health issues.

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This program takes a lot of planning on our part, we spend more than our
allotted prep time every day of every week. But we wouldnt change these aspects
of our program. We want students to have the best chance possible, not only in
our field, but in life.

Goals:
One of my goals is to have an effective learning environment, where all
students can learn and master the curriculum regardless of how they learn. We try
to cover all aspects and keep things interesting so that students can learn.
We try to make sure we are out there and ready as soon as the students
come in, sometimes we miss the mark, but we are working on improving this. This
allows the students to see us ready right away and not give them time to act out,
out of boredom.
This last year I felt that we spent so much time stopping the class over
disruptions, I would like to try to smoothly get past those points and work on not
stopping to not lose class time.
I would like to try to break up some of the longer assignments and do
something fun instead of the long, traditional assignments that we have done in
the past. Those particular assignments are not engaging enough and I feel loses the
students attention.
Those are the things I would like to work on this year. Once I maintain
these, then I feel that I can work further.

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REFERENCES:

Idea.ed.gov - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ... (n.d.). Retrieved

July 5, 2016, from http://idea.ed.gov/

Raft.net case-for-hands-on-learning February 2013.

Slavin, R. E. (2009). Educational psychology: Theory and practice. Boston:

Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. E. (2008). Reading to learn in

the content areas (7th ed.). United States: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

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