Ideas Ideas Ideas........why Such Short Notice

[jfk]

hi guys,

i hope its ok to ask for some ideas. i have been given my subject which is eating out this morning. 4 days notice, i am so lucky.

the school would like me to come up with ideas about western foods and the eating out experience in my prospective country.

thinking of setting up a make shift restaurant on the scholl grounds and picking a country, Italy and talking about the foods eaten in that country.

i am from ireland so talking about irish stew and guiness isnt going to impress them.

this is my first teaching job so i want to do a great job. any ideas are very much appreciated.

thanks in advance.

[colspeed]

In my experience, 4 days is definitely NOT short notice. Try to get used to it!

Generally, they are more interested in burgers, fried chicken and pizza.

What I did last week, which worked quite well, was go through a recipe for crepe (or pancakes, whatever you want to call them) and then let the students make them. Taking lots of photos of the "flipping".

Good Luck

[tonititan]

If the kids are young and/or can't read well, maybe you could create some picture menus and have them pretend to order things? I remember doing that in my foreign language classes. While I completely love the idea of the Italian restaurant, do you think the school will be happy with that, or will they expect you to teach the vocabulary associated with more American/British foods? I know that Italy is obviously western, but I wonder if by "western" they are thinking burgers and fries, fish and chips. Did they give you any specifics about the kind of vocabulary to teach?

[tonititan]

Oh, and one other thing - If you set up a mock restaurant, you could have some of the students also role-play being the waiters. Maybe you could pick 5 or 10 items to put on your "menu," then make/print out paper versions of those foods. For example, a paper hamburger, hot dog, pizza slice, french fries, etc. One student could place and order. Depending on the level of the students, the main goal of this role could be saying the food vocabulary, or it could be more difficult, like ordering politely - "May I have a hamburger?" or "I would like the pizza please." Then, the student who is the waiter could go to a table full of the pictures of the food items and "fill the order" by putting them on a paper plate. He/she could bring the plate back to the student who ordered, and you could throw in some more language, "Here is your food," "thank you very much," "you're welcome," "do you need anything else?" etc. This could be done simultaneously with several pairs of students. Depending on your students, you could even make it into a race to see who can accurately "fill the order" the fastest.

[Sunbeam22]

I did the following with the third grade: One lesson they would make their own menu, the next one we role played going to a restaurant: four people eating at a time and two waiters. I brought real food and plates, cutlery etc...They learned how to order, how to eat with knife and fork and how to settle the bill...The rest of the class had to take notes. (I wrote all the important words on the bl board.) They had loads of fun ordering their 'own' food from pizza to noodles.

Good luck!!!

[tonititan]

I really like the idea of using real food, plates, etc. It makes the lesson more authentic, and obviously more fun. However, I think that the practicality of that depends on how many classes you have, and how many kids are in each class. If you have 4 or 5 classes of 30, well, I sure wouldn't want to spring for pizza and burgers for the whole class, and I doubt that most schools would do that either. And I don't really think it's "fair" to only let a few of the students eat while the others watch. That could cause some major headache.

I hadn't even thought of the settling the bill aspect, though! That's a great idea, especially since in much of the western world, it is done differently than in Thailand. This also gives you an opportunity to reinforce numbers in English.

[RubbaJohnny]

Your an ideal little toerag just as I was.

Very clever idea to get the fat falangs to do your homework then cut and paste.

10/10 for imagination

Effort jejune

Go OGLE a bit

Also there are many recipe sites here's one free for others search

[www.martinberasategui.com/"]http://www.martinberasategui.com/[/url]

This is one for one of the prooer restaurants in Euskadi which with nice animation may encourage other TV gourmands

Edited December 2, 2009 by Scott
direct link edited out/Scott

[tonititan]

Dude, what's your problem? The OP is a brand new teacher and he just wanted some ideas. I think your comment about the "fat falangs" is completely ridiculous and inappropriate. It has nothing to do with us helping the poor guy out. I for one am not fat, and I'm guessing that the other posters aren't either. Well, unless by "fat" you mean "helpful."

[PeaceBlondie]

KISS

Keep it simple.

[Scott]

This forum attempts to be more helpful and less critical of teachers. If you want to post here, I suggest you follow that advice.

[phetaroi]

What I did last week, which worked quite well, was go through a recipe for crepe (or pancakes, whatever you want to call them) and then let the students make them. Taking lots of photos of the "flipping".

Quite a few years ago, back in the States, our home economics teacher asked me to come and do some cooking demonstration of Thai food. I decided on satay, because I could have half the class working on the preparing the chicken and marinating it, the other half making the peanut sauce. All went pretty well until we put the satay into the broiler...I hadn't soaked the bamboo sticks...and up they went in flames!

[jfk]

What I did last week, which worked quite well, was go through a recipe for crepe (or pancakes, whatever you want to call them) and then let the students make them. Taking lots of photos of the "flipping".

Quite a few years ago, back in the States, our home economics teacher asked me to come and do some cooking demonstration of Thai food. I decided on satay, because I could have half the class working on the preparing the chicken and marinating it, the other half making the peanut sauce. All went pretty well until we put the satay into the broiler...I hadn't soaked the bamboo sticks...and up they went in flames!

thanks for your input guys. some info, 25 min sessions of 30 kids at a time. total number of students is 400.phew.

budget seems to be a problem, i wanted to really cook with them(the students) but now they want to cook.(the school)

the teacher last year did the words of foods and got the kids to order and be waiters etc. he was voted by the students as the worst one, so i want to do something really good to impress.

please forgive my keeness, i am sure it will wear off in time but for now i want to make a good impression.

keep your ideas coming please. i like the crepes one,might use that one.

thanks.

[tonititan]

I can understand why you want to do something different than the last guy. In my opinion, though, it's not necessarily just about the activity you design. It's about your delivery, enthusiasm, and ability to engage the students. I'm guessing that the students didn't like the teacher because he was boring, or unorganized, or mean. I don't think an activity has to be elaborate - kids seem to like just about anything as long as you make it exciting. A good teacher can take the most boring activity and make it seem like the most exciting thing ever. Good luck!

[PeaceBlondie]

The danger of making it elaborate is that it increases the chance of failure. KISS