Pan dulce on a rainy day

So far this rainy day in Yucatán has been very agreeable. I woke up, made my coffee (in a new mini-French press brought to me by my friend Kate all the way from PA), listened to NPR streaming live on the Web (a godsend), and got to work a little bit early. I am now more than halfway done with my teaching hours today and it´s only 10:30 am. The students in my lowest group actually worked hard today in class doing peer revisions on an assignment I had given them to observe other students cooking in the kitchen and write down what they see, noticing any safety hazards, interesting techniques, good teamwork, etc. Then another student brought me a pan dulce that she had made in Bakery class yesterday. Pan dulce is a traditional Mexican baked good - it´s bread that´s a little bit sweet with a subtle layer of cocoa (or vanilla) icing on top.

An hour later...
Just had another hour of class during which I did a fun activity with my 2nd year Gastronomy students. I gave them a budget of $40 US and, splitting them into groups of three, had them plan a day´s worth of meals for a family of 4 (two parents, two kids, and a dog). I gave each group a Weis supermarket circular (my friend Kate brought those too!) and had them plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner for $40 or less.
They seemed to really enjoy the activity and it was fun to watch them pore over the circulars. It was also a good opportunity to teach them certain symbols and phrases, for example: 2/$7 = "2 for 7 dollars" and "buy one get one free." Authentic materials, or realia, can certainly make a teacher´s job easier because they are so rich with information and language in context. Thanks, Kate, for the awesome materials!