Food Network and Teaching

Okay so I may be falling off the deep end but hear me out before you think I am nuts....

Why do I keep finding myself thinking about teaching while watching the food network?

Chopped - If you aren't familiar with the show, there are four chefs given a basket of mystery ingredients that seem completely unrelated.  Next they are given an amount of time in which they have to make something spectacular (with additional items from the pantry available) and then face the judges.  Someone is eliminated after each round until the last chef wins $10,000.

Chopped Teaching - We are given a seemingly unrelated curriculum (the basket of ingredients) and tasked with whipping up spectacular teaching plans (use of a workroom and co-workers is acceptable) and then present to the judges (the class, the parents, administrators).

As in both cases you start with the same basic ingredients but every chef and every teacher has a different vision and creates a different masterpiece.  We can and do take what we are given and find different ways to make things better.

Food Network Star - twice in a row this show has made me think about teaching.  With each challenge each contestant sees things differently.  No one shines every time because they are .... learning.  They are trying new foods, new dishes, new techniques.  They did a little montage with the contestants and they talked about falling and getting back up, trying new things, not getting down when things didn't work out.  Besides life that sure sounds like school and becoming teachers.

Remember when you are given that ingredient you have never seen and aren't sure what to do with, be creative rather than afraid.