Todd Kazenske

In culinary arts we see that most students are tactile learners. By offering extra practice hours we can help those students that struggle to become more confident in their skills and assist them in developing skills beneficial to them in the industry. It's not always the book smart student that makes the best cook, but one that is eager to learn and practices his/her craft.

I use power points only as a guiding tool for my lecture or demonstration. I relate to my students by giving them real world situations that I've experienced throughout my career. I teach them that they will have choices for their career in hospitality and that not all avenues are for everyone.

In the culinary profession it is very important that instructors have years of experience in their field of expertise. How valuable are instructors with little to know industry experience? What do they offer to their students if they can't share real world experience? How do non experienced instructors teach the reality of the industry if they haven't done it themselves?

Our school has made constant curriculum changes throughout the years causing much stress to faculty and students. At times we don't have the proper tools or information, including textbooks for our students. What is the best way to deal with these stressful situations?

We have multiple managers in our department and during meetings they make decisions without knowing all the facts or being on the same page. This is very concerning to faculty. How can managers avoid confusion when creating a meeting agenda?

I recently instructed a student that cannot hear but requires sign langauge help in the classroom. Our school has given two instructors to assist during class with delivering sign langauage and the student is wonderful and succeeded in the class very well. This shows that students with disabilities can be successful.

It's overall easy to motivate students who want to learn and have a passion for the field they have chosen. What tools do you use to motivate those who are uncertain about the career path they've chosen? We have many students who feel culinary is an easy profession and cooking has to be fun so they enroll. Their passion and desire to work hard are not there. The food ntwork portrays cooking as fun, glamorous,easy and you can amke a lot of money. All these are far from the truth for most culinarians. What can we do for these students?

As mentioned about students leaving their personal belongings in a seperate area. Can this be affective with cell phones? Has it been proven that students can learn better without the interruptions of a cell phone or feeling that every minute they need to check a text message. How can we tkae this current generation of student and make them feel comfortable without their cell phones for a class session?

Using all these practices are wonderful suggestions of how things should be done in theory in a perfect world of student who want to learn. How do you direct your presentation when you have a classroom full of immature students who feel their disruptive behavior is acceptable. Is there an exercise available to make them understand the importance of qaining a quality education other than telling them that this behavior would not be acceptable in the working world.

I'm currently involved in developing a presentation to potential investors in a new fast food concept. What key information should I present regarding our product/concept?