Butter and Maple What More Do You Need?
This past week has been nuts, as a teacher I have been super busy planning and modifying based on maple season. Sap runs on warmer days with cooler nights, so we have been having a good last few days here in Erie county. When it is time to boil, its ALL hands on deck. Thus means modifying lessons in order to have the needed help to keep the maple process happening. I have learned to really like maple production, and all the students seem really interested in it as well.When I don't have students in the woods checking maple lines we are in the classroom doing other cool things. Something I learned about tapping trees is that being tall is an advantage. Me I am 5 feet 2 inches and at some points I felt as though my rips were stretching trying to teach the taps. I actually said that out loud while tapping trees, about stretching my ribs and still not being tall enough. Mr. Honeycutt laughed, which caused some students to fully realize that I am not average height.
When the sugar shack was not in production this past week, I was busy making butter and doing milk tasting in the classroom. Both really amazing things, but something that I didn't take into consider much is allergies. I never thought about butter allergies, dairy allergies, or diet restrictions. How can I better myself with these things? how can I keep students involved if they can't take part in tasting the final product?
Sounds like you're having a lot of fun, Britton! How are you ensuring students are learning through the process of syrup production? How do you keep lessons and learning as a focus with something so heavily hands on?
ReplyDeleteAllergies are a tough one. Much like accommodating our SPED students, we definitely need to make accommodations where reasonable. In my high school classroom, I sent home a consent form for permission to post students' pictures on our social media pages. In addition to the consent, that also had a spot for letting me know about allergies (because sometimes I wouldn't find out from the school or student until it was too late), and other things I should know about the student. If you know it advance, at least you can keep the student safe.
It's never fun to have students sit out of something, but in this case, I'd push you to go back to your objectives. Is the objective that they get to eat? If so, we probably need to rethink that, as eating doesn't necessarily mean learning. Can students still get something out of the activity without eating it? I sure hope so! That other involvement, though, means being really intentional throughout the activity about going back to your purpose and objectives to allow students to self-assess their own learning, even if they don't get to eat it.
If you're concerned that someone is left out because of potential hazards with eating the finished product, then wait. Rather than have the eating component as part of class, tell students they can come get their final product (in take home containers/bags) after school. Before all else fails, ask the student. Odds are good they have a good handle on how to manage their allergy. Ask what they would like their level of involvement to be. Keep in mind the power dynamic in how you structure your questions, and approach from a place of care and concern, but recognize that they know better than anyone what they need and what comfortable participation looks like.
I am not sure you can get a better answer than the one Becky provided!
ReplyDeleteBe sure to always think:
How can I safely help this student have an appropriate learning experience?
At our school, we are required to send in a list of ingredients and the names of students to our nurse and our assistant principal anytime we are doing a food lab or even just bringing food for students to eat to avoid questioning this. But definitely ask the students and warn them ahead of time. I can see how this would especially be hard for bee or pollen allergies or something of that nature. Either way, ask them.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that eating doesn't necessary mean learning. I do a feed ration "lab" where they have to use the Pearson square to balance a feed ration. The "feed" items I use are just m&ms, pretzels, and chex mix. They can still learn about balancing a feed ration by doing the written lab portion without having to eat the mix that they made.
I had a student one year who was allergic to tomatoes... and we were definitely planting tomatoes in our garden. She knew that she just had to stay away from them (I think the allergy was more from eating it than just touching it anyway). There was always something else for her to do anyway since we plant so much in our garden. I would just task that students with doing something else that's helpful. Even if it's small. And if they can still explain all of the steps of how to do something like tree tapping, then I'd give him or her the credit for understanding and "performing" this skill.