Stacey Stairs, a teacher at Sussex Regional High School, is a 2020 recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence. (Photo submitted by Stacey Stairs)
Teaching teenagers to operate a playschool with kids and how to cook is more challenging at Sussex Regional High School this year.
In a non-pandemic year, the playschool program happens in a specially-designed classroom.
Culinary technology and early childhood services teacher Stacey Stairs said 15 to 20 kids from the community take part and the students plan the snacks and the activities for them.
Stairs said her kitchen classroom is from the 1970s.
“So I refer to it as the classic homemakers training kitchen. It’s a U-shape. Some of our schools in our district have a more commercial kind of kitchens. They better prepare kids for working in a restaurant kind of situation,” Stairs said.
Stacey Stair’s classroom prior to the pandemic. (submitted)
Students do follow a curriculum, but Stairs adds in recipes her students want to make as well.
“So that they can become independent people that can follow a recipe and change it for whatever crowd they are serving. Know how to shop at a grocery store to get a better price and be able to read labels and price stickers,” Stairs said.
Stairs said even the most disciplined students are finding this school year challenging.
“Some are still working their part-time jobs, quite a few hours. They really have a lot to balance. To try to work and come to school and do their homework at school or homework at home. They are taking on a lot,” Stairs said.
Stairs is a 2020 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence.
She said she finds it “very overwhelming”.
“I have said I feel like a fraud because if you accumulate twenty years of anyone’s career, you are going to come up with some good things, great thing but, people have told I am a deserving recipient and to just accept it,” Stairs said.
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