Class Recipe Project Teachers' Corner Home Page

My Students Learned English Through Cooking Christine Rhodes from Australia        Christine Rhodes is an ESL and literacy instructor at Mount Isa Institute of Tafe in Mount Isa, Australia Photo from Christine Rhodes The recipe writing project has achieved many goals, as well as uplifting the interest level in the class. Let me introduce myself. I have lived in Mt Isa (Northwest Queensland) for the last 14 years. I am Australian, but have lived 10 years in New Zealand. I have five children who are nearly all grown up. My youngest is 15, and I have one daughter living in Cambodia. I am a teacher of literacy specializing in the Migrant Area, and I really enjoy the students. They all bring the special flavour of their homes into the class. I have been a teacher for about 30 years—mostly in the Primary Education in the State System, and only recently—the last three to four years—have I worked at TAFE with adults. I have really found my niche. I thoroughly enjoy meeting the students and learning about their culture. I have visited some of their countries. Let me tell you about our class recipe project I found the TOPICS page on the Virtual ILC and thought it was a wonderful idea as the students love cooking and I find it a good way to affirm their own identity and their own culture in the eyes of the other students. The icing on the cake for me was to use this information to further their English skills, plus for them to learn how to use the Internet and e-mail. The recipe writing project has achieved many goals, as well as uplifting the interest level in the class. It has stretched the student's knowledge and expertise. I have had to learn on a steep learning curve as well in the area of technology*, but I have been pleasantly surprised at the results. The students love seeing themselves in photos. I am really impressed with the different new ways that are available to the students of today. Thank you for your encouragement. Editors' note: Christina learned amazingly quickly to use technology, producing and e-mailing to us all of the photos used in this project. She also did an excellent job of helping her students use e-mail to send us their work and conferene with us as they created this project. Please take a look at the Class Recipe Project! Contact Christine: christine.rhodes@det.qld.gov.au Return to: Teachers' Corner | Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine - ©1997-2008 - Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics.mag@gmail.com