Washington Family & Consumer Sciences Educators

Celebrate Taste Washington Day at your school on October 4th, 2017 

Past Taste Washington Days at Auburn School District and Moses Lake School District.
Photo Credit: Washington State Dairy Council 

What is Taste Washington Day?

Taste Washington Day is a day for school districts around the state celebrate Farm to School and local agriculture. On October 4^th, or a day in October they choose, nutrition services, school gardeners, teachers, administrators, and volunteers all over Washington serve school meals with local ingredients and do activities to learn about the farms that feed us.

Cafeterias across the state celebrate how farm to school looks in their district by featuring local products, highlighting farm names on the menu and salad bar, putting up posters about Washington agriculture, or hosting farmers in the cafeteria! School gardeners host classes or lunchtime in the garden, and teachers do food and agriculture related lessons in the classroom. Share your activities and promotion on social media with the #TasteWADay and #WAfarmtoschoolhashtags!

This celebration was cooked up by the Washington School Nutrition Association (WSNA) and the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) with support from Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Child Nutrition Services to promote locally grown food served in school meals. It’s a kick off for National Farm to School Month. 

How does Taste Washington Day work?

School district food services sign up with WSDA Farm to School to participate. They share information about any local menus, ingredients, or other the farm to school activities or they have planned for the day. Other activities sometimes include a Washington Apple Crunch at noon, farmer guest speakers, taste tests, FFA presentations, or visits to a school garden. Schools also get free templates and materials from WSDA for their promotions.

Farmers can also sign up to be a part of Taste Washington Day to offer to sell their products to schools and participate in school activities. WSDA Farm to School sends a list of farms that have signed up to schools, and helps with farm-direct purchases by matching farms and schools, finding farmers to speak at school events, or other logistics.  

How can I be a part of Taste Washington Day?

Food & Nutrition Services Directors: Sign your district up to participate. Celebrations look a bit different in each district, but yours may include:

• Special menus with local ingredients! WSNA offers four sample lunch menus that use Washington-grown ingredients in each item.
• Highlighting Washington grown foods already on your menu
• Buying a product from a specific local farm to feature on the menu
• Special spotlight on a district’s “Harvest of the Month” crop on Taste Washington Day
• Doing a Washington Apple Crunch at noon

Farmers: Get on the list of participating farms for Taste Washington Day. WSDA will share your information, product availability, and more with participating schools.

School gardeners: Let us know what activities you’ll be doing in the garden for TasteWashington Day! Share photos on social media to join the celebration. 

Teachers & educators: Feature a lesson on Washington agriculture, food, or nutrition. Let us know what you have planned!  Some farmers love to do classroom visits. 

Principals, superintendents, parents, communications offices: Find out what’s going on for Taste Washington Day in your classrooms, cafeteria, or garden. Support it and let the community know all about it! You may also be able to help guest educators, farmer visits or other activities. Not sure what’s happening in your district? Contact WSDA Farm to School to find out.

Check out WSDA’s Taste Washington Day webpage for more sample menus, recipes, promotion templates and other resources to help you get started! http://www.wafarmtoschool.org/Page/28/Taste-Washington-Day

Are you interested in joining a Washington statewide farm to school network? A group of schools, organizations, and agencies are launching a statewide farm to school network to coordinate promotions like Taste Washington Day, and celebrate and support your farm to school work year-round. Email WSDA to find out more and get involved in forming or joining the network.

For more information on Taste Washington Day, or to get help linking to your local school districts or farms, please contact Chris Iberle, WSDA Farm to School coordinator, atciberle@agr.wa.gov or 206-256-1874.

The Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession (CSTP) is excited to announce an opportunity for educators to pilot professional development materials for the Recruiting Washington Teachers Teaching Academy Curriculum.

CSTP has been working with teams of teachers to create online modules that provide professional development to teachers planning on teaching the Recruiting Washington Teachers curriculum (available from the PESB website)

We are seeking up to 50 educators to pilot the online modules that have been created. We are interested in educators from all over the state and from a variety of curriculum areas and levels. We will be running 3 rounds of the pilot, August, September and October.

Expectations of Pilot Participants:

1. Attend a 1 hour webinar prior to piloting the materials
2. Read relevant materials provided by CSTP prior to piloting the materials
3. Pilot up to 4 modules available online via Canvas Learning Management System)
4. Complete a Feedback Document after piloting each module and return promptly to CSTP
5. Complete a Final Evaluation at the end of the Pilot phase

CSTP will provide:

1. Direction and guidance for pilot participants via webinar, reading materials and email communication
2. Payment to pilot participants of $25 per module piloted (up to 4 total) after feedback is submitted and $25 for attending the live webinar.

If you are interested in participating in this Pilot, please register via this survey monkey link.

If you have questions, please contact Sarah Applegate or Nasue Nishida.

Attention all FACSE Teachers!
There are two Family Consumer Sciences/ Culinary job openings in Tacoma School District specifically at Mount Tahoma High School and Lincoln High School. See the link for details. Closing Date for application is July 9, 2017!

Click HERE for Details!

I have attached our Sugar High Galore description as well as the registration form for Bellingham Technical College’s Summer Educator Institute class. We need 12 to register by Friday, May 19 in order for it to run. If you are considering taking this class, please get your registration in as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or email.

We look forward to seeing you this summer!

Billie R. Baker

Program Office Coordinator

Bellingham Technical College

3028 Lindbergh Avenue

Bellingham, WA 98225

(Phone) 360-752-8447

bbaker@btc.edu

www.btc.edu

Sugar High Galore Registration Form 2017

BTC Pastry Arts Summer Institute 2017 Hilde

Call for Presentations

2017 Washington FCS Annual Conference

**** Registration Information Coming Soon ****

Share your best practices, classroom strategies, and program innovations in CTE by submitting a presentation proposal for the 2017 Annual Conference, Hotel RL Spokane at the Park in Spokane, Washington!  The dates are October 15-17, 2017 we’re looking for a variety of formats including lectures, hands-on labs, panels, interactive discussions, and classroom lesson plans. Topic could be motivating students to learn, clothing/textiles, health, culinary arts/foods, Food Science, Technology along with certifications. Share email with anyone you think would be a great speaker.

Submit by June 1, 2017…deadline

Speaker Form- https://goo.gl/forms/cvylaozFnXgSc9HK2

Vendor Form- https://goo.gl/forms/MkBrImXDC0i7JMg52

Sponsorship Form- https://goo.gl/forms/iNjQ39D0tKSuNwZy1

Jump$tart Washington (JSW) is a nonprofit coalition created to promote the need for financial education in Washington State. We provide teacher training seminars, special events for students and reach citizens throughout the state. Our members include individuals, public and private organizations, educators, and non-profit associations – each passionate about making change and advancing our goal to:

• Raise awareness for the need and importance of personal financial literacy
  
• Increase the use of financial education programs in school and homes
  
• Grow support for the coalition

Annual Program Grants – Deadline is June 30
JSW Program Grants fund projects that support development of personal finance skills of Washington residents, with emphasis on education for K-college youth. The current focus of grant awards is financial literacy that impacts high-needs populations and creates a best practice or tool that is replicable or scalable. Application deadline is Jun 30, 2017.