Hi, I’m Bill.
Hi Bill, Robert.
Nice to meet you.
Hey, congratulations on being the Teacher
of the Year.
Thank you very much, appreciate it.
So what kind of things do you teach?
I teach family and consumer sciences and leadership.
At my high school at Mount Vernon High School,
we have a food lab,
where we teach our cooking classes
and it’s full all the time,
we can’t even keep up with the demand.
Oh really, wow.
I have to admit; you’ve got a very entry
level student here.
Awesome.
That’s what we deal with every day.
Most of our kids have never done any of this
either
and it’s something that anybody can learn
how to do.
Excellent.
What we’re going to do today is,
we’re going to use the legs, the wings
and the thighs for barbecue chicken, oven
baked.
We start with the whole chicken because it
is cheaper to buy a whole chicken,
cut it into pieces yourself and you can get
a lot more out of it.
What we’re going to do next is season the
chicken,
get it on the pan and then to the oven to
cook.
So, to season it we’ve got some black pepper,
we’ve got salt, cinnamon, and allspice
and some ground mustard.
So we’ve got everything.
So we’ve got, except that one.
Let’s not do too much.
That’s okay.
That’s okay, you just got some extra salt.
I like mine salty.
That’s totally fine.
Doesn’t that smell good?
Mmm, yeah!
And then we’re just kind of evenly sprinkle
the spices onto the chicken.
Feels like a chef thing to do.
Absolutely.
The kids really get enthusiastic about doing
things like this.
We’ll let those cook for a little while,
we’ll baste them with some sauce later.
Which courses do people take in the different
grades?
In our Beginning Foods class
anybody ninth through twelfth grade can take
that class.
I also teach a Life After High School class
for Seniors.
Oh great.
I think we’re going to take a minute to
baste some sauce on our chicken.
I like sauce.
Me too.
I think the more the better.
Tell me about Life After High School.
We always start with career preparation.
We talk about filling out applications,
how to be professional and to put your best
foot forward,
writing resumes and cover letters.
I teach them interview skills,
and then we kind of transition from that to
like,
well let’s assume that you got the job,
now you’re going to have a paycheck.
So we talk about how to balance a budget
so that you’re meeting your life goals with
what your budget is.
Oh, that’s fantastic!
I think students are thirsty for knowledge
and love in equal parts.
So I ask myself every day
“Is what I’m doing today going to make
students feel welcomed and loved?”
Because teaching is hard, but growing up is
harder.
Well I think it’s time to check on our chicken.
That’s really good.
And I see it in my kids, the pride that they
have of knowing
that they put the time and effort and work
into this.
Hey, thanks for coming.
It’s pretty inspiring to hear what you do.
This is a first for me.
I might surprise my family and show them I
know how to do it.
That was fantastic!
That’s awesome.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
