. Regurgitated Alpha Bits: Baker's Dozen Times Seven

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Baker's Dozen Times Seven

After a few weeks of banging my head against the wall with Howard, I needed some feel-good stuff to happen.

Ask and ye shall receive!

Thanks to my take-charge, do-gooder teaching partner and some pretty awesome students, my wish was granted.

You see, my partner is one of the good guys. His message to our students is consistently positive and always sincere. Each year, he seeks out ways to allow our students to be of service to others; reinforcing the message that no matter how much we are struggling, there are always ways to we can help others who are struggling more.

AND, because he drags me along on his charitable adventures, when it's all said and done I look like this great teacher too!

Great-by-Association is more like it.

Well, my teammie contacted King Arthur Flour and arranged for them to come to our school and teach our students how to bake bread. After the lesson, the students were supplied with all the dry goods and a recipe, thanks to King Arthur Flour, to bake two loaves of bread at home that night.

One loaf was for our students to enjoy at home with their families. They were instructed to bring the other loaf back to school the next day so that it could be donated to needy families by way of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

The King Arthur Flour representative was fantastic with the kids, and they loved the lesson. We gave them their bags of dry goods and sent them home with good wishes for some successful baking.

As they marched off with their baking materials, we teachers said we'd be so proud if 30 or 40 of our 100 kids managed to bake bread by tomorrow. Many of them have little money, live in apartments with several other families, and have parents that work crazy long hours. Thirty or forty is a fine amount of participants.

Our little bakers awaited us the next morning with 83 loaves of freshly baked bread! Some baked baguettes, some braided theirs, some made half-moons, and others made simple loaves. Eighty-three loaves of bread! One parent fouled up her recipe so she went out and bought two loaves of bread with her own money so her son could experience the power of charity.

Have you ever baked bread from scratch? This was 83 families that sacrificed at least 4 hours of their night to make bread for some other needy family to eat.

It makes my heart swell with pride.

I am humbled.

It is a privilege to teach these children.

It is my honor to continue to learn from them.


6 comments:

Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas said...

I get so happy when I see your emails pop up in my inbox, I love reading your blog posts! But tonight you made me cry, how wonderful, thank you so much for sharing and thank you for teaching all these babies to give!
Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours!
~Fern
Fern Smith’s Classroom Ideas!

Edna Lee said...

Awwww Fern! Thank you for your kind words. I am touched you enjoy my little bloggy.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

KUStacey said...

What a wonderful idea! My little group this year needs something like this and you've inspired me to look into something similar in our area for the Christmas season. Thanks for the inspiration!
PS I just have to know...did Howard bake his bread? Ha ha!

Mrs. Gumby said...

Isn't the King Arthur bread program great? Our school has participated in it, too. I highly recommend it! By coincidence, I also blogged about the program just a few days ago.

http://gumbyteacher.blogspot.com/2011/11/bread.html

Go King Arthur Life Skills program! You Rock!

Anonymous said...

I haven't heard of this, but it sounds outstanding! Way to go! I'd certainly like to see my class/school do this project.

Alex T. Valencic said...

Holy cow, this is amazing! Do they offer this in the Midwest? I teach fourth grade in Illlinois, and I bet my students would love doing this! Especially with our school's current focus on health and nutrition. Hm... I wonder if there is a flour company nearby that would be willing to do something similar...

Teaching Fourth