Inquiry 2022 - Year 9 Food Tech - Trying to get engagement

 I have Year 9 Food Tech classes again this year. This means that I see 3 Year 9 classes over the year in a rotation. I personally find the. change over between rotations part way through the year difficult as I have just got to know one set of students for 12 weeks then it changes to another group. If I find it difficult as an adult, the students must find it even more so.

We are two weeks into our new rotation and the first practical cooking lesson on Wednesday did not go so well. They were not listening to me trying to explain the techniques they need to use and I was getting extremely frustrated with them. I did warn them in advance that I am a little more strict in the kitchen for two reasons, safety and the fact that it is not my room so I feel especially conscious of how we treat it. Luckily on Wednesday, the HOD Technology, the lovely Mrs Heka, came through just as I was at the point of glueing them to the ceiling. We settled and got on and completed our practical session. 

This needs to improve, so on our single period on Friday, where we would normally do the theory work for the practical use (recipe evaluation etc), I decided to focus on mindset and buy in instead,

I showed the students the list of practicals that we were going to do during the whole rotation and I got them to vote on what they wanted to make next Wednesday. Burgers came out on top by a MILE. We then looked at the recipe and talked about what all the codes for the measurements meant and what tools and equipment they would need to use. I am hoping that this will give them a little more confidence going into the kitchen next week, they know what they are going to make and what all the recipe elements are. I also found a Gordon Ramsay video of him making burgers and a video on how to make the burger sauce we are going to make. Watching the videos was great as they were commenting on things that they liked and wanted to include in theirs next week,

Here is the class website with all the overall planning  and here is the planning for burgers in particular.

I am hoping this gives them some buy in and engagement for the next practical session as they will be going in having made choices and have prior knowledge they can refer back to.