Teacher Training Registration Ends In Two Weeks!
The 20th Annual ProStart Teacher Training Institute takes place June 18-23, 2017. The week-long training provides
Florida ProStart instructors with the knowledge necessary to teach the ProStart curriculum. Each day’s learning is built around topics covered in the ProStart curriculum.
FOUR YEARS OF TRAINING
The ProStart Teacher Training Institute is divided into four years of participation. The content of each level has changed slightly. Year Four has all new content. Next year, Year Four will return to the baking and pastry week.
FIRST YEAR ATTENDEES focus on the Foodservice Industry, Culinary Techniques and Methodology, Food and Workplace Safety as well as Stocks, Sauces and Soups.
SECOND YEAR ATTENDEES take an in-depth look at Nutrition, Culinary Technique and Methodology, Customer Service, Food Procurement along with Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Fabrication
THIRD YEAR ATTENDEES continue their ProStart Teacher Training experience in Marketing, Cost Control, Desserts, Baked Goods, Global Cuisines and Ingredients with a strong emphasis on the art and craft of teaching in a culinary setting.
FOURTH YEAR ATTENDEES will experience a new program focused on the connection between Diet and Health and Wellness, Life Span Nutrition, Plant Based Cuisine, the use of Technology for Nutritional Analysis and the Science of Cooking.
Due to limited space, participants may attend only if they can stay for the entire week.
LOCATION
All classes will be held at Johnson & Wales University (JWU) North Miami campus, 1701 NE 127th Street, North Miami, Florida, 33181.
PROGRAM COST
The FRLAEF will cover the cost of all Florida ProStart instructors who will be teaching the ProStart curriculum during the 2017-2018 school year. Attendees will be responsible for their travel and some meals.
CLICK HERE to register! More information about the training is at the link.
Registration closes on Friday, April 14, 2017.
COMING SOON: New ProStart Edition
The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) is working on a new edition to Foundations of Restaurant Management & Culinary Arts. They expect the new edition to be available for purchase this summer. We will send out product details and pricing as soon as we receive them.
ServSafe Pass Rate Problems?
Several schools have contacted us recently expressing concern and frustration with their ServSafe pass rate. We have put some information together to help you become more familiar with how ServSafe testing works.
FOOD CODE ServSafe exam questions come from the FDA Food Code. As you will see at the link, the Food Code is a 768-page legal-type document. If your students tell you there was a question on the ServSafe exam they had never seen before, it is because ServSafe used the Food Code to develop the ServSafe exam question bank. The material included in the ServSafe Manager books “covers the most critical principals of food safety”, according to servsafe.com.
BEST PRACTICE: Don’t limit your teaching to the ServSafe Manager book. We have a Best Practice page that includes free videos, practice exams, foodsafety activities and exercises, and much more.
NEW EDITION ServSafe is expected to announce the release of a new ServSafe Manager Book edition soon. When this happens, ServSafe will provide a document that lists the changes between the 6th and 7th edition. They will also list any Food Code updates. We will send out these change documents to you when we receive them. We can expect ServSafe to begin testing on the new edition sometime after July.
APPEAL A QUESTION! Due to the continuing feedback from examinees regarding the ServSafe exam questions being vague, poorly written and/or intentionally misleading/tricky, ServSafe has provided us with the following mechanism to report this back to them.
CLICK HERE for the ServSafe Appeal Form. Be sure to always have these with you at your exams. Any time a student reports a bad question to you, have the examinee complete the form and then submit to ServSafe.
HII Profile: Matthew Thompson, Hagerty High School
Matthew Thompson is a ProStart teacher at Hagerty High School in Oviedo. He chose to complete his Hospitality Industry Internship (HII) at the Hard Rock Hotel front line.
BACKGROUND Thompson began his teaching career as a substitute in 2014 and accepted a position as a long-term sub in culinary at Hagerty High School in the spring of 2015. He spent over eight years in the hospitality industry working in restaurants and hotels while obtaining his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando. He always wanted to teach but it never seemed the right time to crossover until a few years ago.
AWARDS Since becoming the lead culinary teacher at Hagerty High School in the fall of 2015, he has been recognized as Rookie Teacher of the Year Teacher at Hagerty High School and Rookie High School Teacher of the Year for Seminole County for 2015-2016.
IN HIS OWN WORDS “The experiences I have accumulated during my time at the Hard Rock has proved invaluable in the classroom. I get to share first give hand with my students what I saw and did on a daily basis with regards to safety, sanitation, proper cooking temperatures, storage and prep work.My students are hearing about real world experiences in the industry as they happen and the response from them during class has been outstanding. My credibility as being an active chef in the industry only adds to the growth and excitement of our program, as enrollment has doubled from 180 students last year to nearly 350 students currently! We have had the opportunity to welcome another fantastic culinary teacher to our staff due to our rapid growth, and look forward to continued expansion over the next few years. With regards to my experience, I am going to be staying on at the Hard Rock over the summer when my schedule allows it, and look forward to relaying more life and restaurant experiences with my ProStart students.”
BOLO–HII APPLICATION COMING IN JULY!
ProStart teachers have expressed interest in beginning their Hospitality Industry Internship (HII) in the summer. Due to our 
grant cycle, we are unable to begin the application process until July. So Be On the Lookout (BOLO) for the application link some time in July.
There will be no application deadline–we will take applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. We will continue to give HII awardees until March 2018 to finish their Internship.
HII GUIDELINES
To qualify for an HII, the instructor must teach the ProStart/HTMP curriculum during the 2017-2018 school year. If you are already employed at a restaurant or hotel, you MAY NOT use that site for your internship. The restaurant/hotel must also be a new work experience for you, not somewhere you have worked before or used as an HII internship location.
The HII provides the opportunity for Florida ProStart instructors to work in a foodservice establishment for at least 40 hours. At the completion of 40 work hours, the HII participant will complete a Work Activities Report and Restaurant/Hotel Confirmation Form. Once the required paperwork has been processed, the participant will receive a personal check for $600 from the FRLAEF. Work experience may begin once the applicant receives an award letter from the FRLAEF.
The application link will come by email. If you are unable to receive your school email during the summer and are interested in this opportunity, please send Amy Parker your personal email address.
ProStart Exam Changes
The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) has made a number of changes to the ProStart exam administration process.
Both the Level 1 and Level 2 exams are now available in Spanish. For online exams, an educator giving the exam in both English and Spanish will need to schedule 2 exams—one in each language.
Online exams now have to be closed out individually by the proctor. This will eliminate students accidentally closing their exam before they are finished. If the proctor doesn’t have time to close out each exam during the class, they will time out 24 hours from the launch. That means that students could return later in the day and finish their exams, if necessary.
Online exams have been re-designed to be easier to navigate, with clearer language and layout.
There are new roles for all educators. To avoid confusion on exam day, educators should visit the website now to ensure they have access with the right role.
The new roles are:
- ProStart Educator and Proctor: An educator from a confirmed ProStart program who teaches the class and administers exams.
- ProStart Educator: An educator from a confirmed ProStart program who teaches the class but will not administer the exams, due to school policy or preference.
- ProStart Proctor: The individual designated by the school to administer exams for the Educator in #2, above. Proctors do not teach the class but do administer exams.
- Current ProStart educators from confirmed programs will become “ProStart Educator and Proctor” automatically; the educator doesn’t need to do anything.
- Those who wish to change their role to that of an Educator (only) should login and revise their profile. It’s important in this case for them to ensure that a proctor also registers.
- NOTE that only Confirmed ProStart Programs have access to ProStart registration status. Educators from an inactive program will become Foundations Proctors and will not have access to the ProStart portions of the website.
- The Service Center is gearing up for Exam Season…but BOTTOM LINE: teachers should not wait for exam day to ensure they are registered, their students are registered and they are familiar with the exam administration system!
ProStart Students Intern at Sailfish Marina
ProStart students at Inlet Grove High School in Riviera Beach in Palm Beach County are interning with Sailfish Marina to get 
their hours.
They are working in the kitchen from expo to actual cooking and production.
These students have also taught a cooking class to a neighbor middle school in an effort to recruit students.
The ProStart teacher at Inlet Grove is Tammy Newman.
ProStart Marketing Piece Available
The FRLAEF has developed a marketing piece for ProStart that is designed to explain ProStart to parents and potential classroom mentors or sponsors.
These pieces are perfect for an Open House for your program or showcasing your program in the community. If you are interested, please let us know and we can send them to you. If possible, please give us two weeks lead time.
The piece is pictured at right. Clicking on the image opens it full size.
Interesting Links In the Food + Culinary World
- 1920’s Era Photo of George Washington University Kitchen
- Four Customer Service Lessons From a Stevie Award Winner
- Live Out Your Kitchen Dreams At this Miami Vacation Rental
- VIDEO: Baking Power vs. Baking Soda: What’s the Difference?
- SCIENCE! How To Reduce Sugar In Cookies & Bars
ProStart Video & Curriculum Resources
CLICK HERE to see almost 40 ProStart Videos. The videos range from making Mother Sauces to how to fabricate a sheep!
CLICK HERE for a dropbox full of ProStart curriculum resources from a former ProStart teacher in North Carolina.
Foodsafety Materials
Each Premier and Full ProStart program is eligible for free Foodsafety materials. To ensure you get the materials you need, you must notify us. Once we receive your ProStart Classification paperwork, you can order up to $350 of Foodsafety materials. Click here for the ServSafe price list. Email Amy Parker to place your order–you do not need to fill out the form. Requests are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
In case you missed it, CLICK HERE to see how FRLAEF has restructured Foodsafety Training material awards.
ProStart Scantrons
The FRLAEF will distribute over $30,000 worth of free ProStart Exam Scantrons to Premier and Full ProStart schools during the 2016-2017 school year. Once a school has turned in their ProStart Classification paperwork, email Amy Parker to let her know how many ProStart Exam Scantrons you need. Requests are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.