Travis Stewart

In my role as the Culinary Arts teacher at École Sir John Franklin High School (ESJFHS) I teach around 300 students a year the basics of Cooking and Baking. My students are engaged in self-directed learning based on a series of modules. They decide what they would like to cook and bake based on the guidelines of the modules and in discussion with myself.

As a teacher I am working with about 75 other educators and around 700 students each day. Teamwork is perhaps the most important aspect of my day-to-day work, as it frames all aspects of my work. Over the course of the day I have students working on a variety of modules, each working at their own pace. This requires a lot of flexibility on my part and on the part of my students. At ESJFHS we have 85 minute classes where the students will either be doing module work (book work), or they will be cooking. In their time in the kitchen my students have to do their cooking and cleaning before the end of the class. This requires a tremendous amount of planning and hard work on their part to ensure that all of the work is done before it is time to go to their next class.