Battle Ground culinary arts teachers cook up lessons

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In the age of distance learning, many teachers are finding new ways to teach children in many different subjects of curricula. It wasn’t long ago that culinary arts teachers in Battle Ground Public Schools prepared class with physical ingredients, ensuring each student had enough to make a dish. Now, the biggest concern is ensuring students have a good view of the food. 

Culinary arts classes are still happening in the district. The teachers for the Battle Ground and Prairie High School introduction to culinary arts classes have transformed classroom demonstrations on how to properly measure ingredients and knife skills into videos. 

“In converting my lesson plans to something more akin to an online cooking school, students are being very responsive and engaging more with the content,” Battle Ground High School teacher Gene Fritz said in a news release. “Online video lessons provide students greater flexibility in that they can watch the cooking demos when it’s most convenient for them."

As part of the Battle Ground Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, culinary arts classes in the district focus on teaching students tangible skills that will provide them with a variety of job and career opportunities. 

"Some kids are able to absorb the content rather quickly and work ahead, while other students can use the videos as a resource to go back and review previous lessons if they are struggling with a concept," Fritz said. “No matter what, our goal is to broaden access to the learning content and meet students where they are.”

Michelle Freed teaches foods and food sciences at Prairie High School and agrees that flexibility is beneficial to students. 

“Remote learning is providing my students with the opportunity to be more independent,” Freed said. “In addition to learning real-world cooking skills, students are also learning time management skills and building self-confidence.”

Freed mentioned that, while kids are not in her classroom doing hands on cooking, they are still developing strong relationships through remote learning and cooking demonstration videos. 

“I’m making cooking demonstration videos from my kitchen, so in a sense, students are being invited into my home,” Freed said. “While we’re missing some of the collaborative teamwork that comes with in-person cooking, students are gaining time with their families and bonding over meals that the students have prepared.”



Since they’re creating their own culinary dishes at home, students submit their assignments by creating videos or taking photos to document each step of the cooking process. Along with this, they write a reflection describing challenges they encountered while making a recipe and how they resolved potential problems. Teachers then provide feedback notes. Sometimes, the teachers rely on parent critiques to provide notes. “Parents often tell me they’re shocked that their kids can make something so good,” Freed said. “But even if a recipe doesn’t turn out quite right, it provides a learning experience and ultimately builds confidence.” 

“The partnerships between parents and teachers is so important,” Fritz said. “Our job is to be calm, communicative, and caring, and we all share the same goal of looking out for students and helping them prepare for the future.”

Culinary arts teachers aren’t the only ones doing what they can to provide hands-on experiences in a virtual environment. Floral teachers are sending flowers to the homes of students so they can still do flower arrangements. Forensic science teachers have been creating virtual “crime scenes” for students to investigate. 

Britt Pedlar teaches culinary arts at Prairie High School, and said a key element of his classes has always been taking students on field trips to local restaurants so they can see for themselves what it’s like to work in a busy kitchen. Pedlar hasn’t let the pandemic stop him from providing his students with these valuable insights and has pivoted to conducting virtual field trips to local food trucks and restaurants.

“Typically, I try to talk to a few workers to get a glimpse of their work,” Pedlar said. “My goal is to highlight the benefits, challenges and realities of each job so students get an accurate picture. Students are also quite receptive to hearing advice from these professionals, so I also try to get some sort of tip about food to pass on to students.”

You can experience one of Pedlar’s field trips online by visiting youtube.com/watch?v=GTp7VZEOgbM

“We’re doing everything we can to connect with students and create stability and a sense of normalcy wherever we can,” Fritz said. “We want to support our students as people, and that means doing whatever we can to build them up and prepare them for their futures.”