Techniques September 2012 - 14

Q&A

An Interview with Lois Lewis, National FACS Teacher of the Year
ACTE: Being named the 2012 National Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year is a huge honor. How does it feel? LL: It feels fantastic! Unbelievable! Very humbling, too! ACTE: You entered the program “Healthy Initiatives” for the Teacher of the Year Award. What was your inspiration in creating the program? LL: “Healthy Initiatives” is a program focused on promoting healthy lifestyles and combating obesity in children by offering healthier choices, modeling positive behaviors, providing opportunities to learn new skills, and broadening exposure to factual information. Grants have been obtained to provide fresh produce to all students, to make changes in the school store, to energize students to become more physically active, to provide equipment for cooking and to make a hands-on curriculum possible. My inspiration has come from a concern for making my lessons more engaging for students and teaching students to lead a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. ACTE: The award honors and recognizes a FACS teacher who uses “cutting edge methods, techniques and activities that give visibility to family and consumer sciences elementary and secondary education.” What are some of the innovative and creative methods you’ve used? LL: Students completed their own computer diet analyses to discover the nutrients and food groups lacking in their diets. They watched videos about portion sizes and then used food models to demonstrate “ChooseMyPlate.” They chose recipes and prepared menus to improve school lunches, entering the “Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge” associated with the “Chefs Move to Schools” program. This challenge required them to test and prepare the meals, survey students who ate the meals, analyze the nutritional content of the meals, standardize the recipes, and work with a chef on presentation, etc. Some students learned about where food comes from by participating in a field trip to a local gardener to harvest food. Others prepared a “Life Cycle of a Food” booklet showing raw ingredients in a food product; how the food is processed, transported, and sold; how it is used; and what happens to the packaging. By obtaining grants, produce was offered to elementary students, and high school students assisted with preparing it and teaching younger students about “eating their colors” and making healthy choices. The learning of the older students was reinforced when they re-taught younger students what they had learned. Students participated in a cookoff judged by Hospitality Minnesota chefs, produced a sustainability display and learned advanced cooking skills. Nutrition students conducted a clinical analysis of a special diet (diabetes, allergies, etc.) to understand how foods affect one’s health and how to eat properly within these restrictions. Technical college instructors invited students to come and cook for special occasions with college students enrolled in culinary arts. Finally, food labs and field trips helped students
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Photo courtesy of enstrom studio

Lois Lewis, a grade 7–12 family and consumer sciences (FACS) teacher at the Indus School in the South Koochiching/Rainy River School District in northern Minnesota, was awarded this prestigious honor by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) at its conference this past June.

techniques

September 2012

Techniques September 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Techniques September 2012