Which fork?

STANWOOD - This is the second year 'Business Communications” has been offered at North Cedar High School.

The class is designed to help students with oral and written communication skills needed for business. The course also helps students acquire many of the 21st century skills they need.

In February, the student had an etiquette unit to teach them how to eat properly and how to communicate properly during a meal. When you walked in the classroom, student were met with places setup at a table with a tablecloth.

'I was surprised there were several different glasses for every type of beverage served during the meal,” junior Taylor Miller said.

At each spot there were four types of stemware for water, red wine, white wine and an after-dinner glass. The cutlery also was new to students because they had three forks, two spoons and two knives for the meal.

There were some jokes about the line from the movie 'Pretty Woman” about counting the tines on the fork to know if it is a fish fork, salad fork, dinner fork or dessert fork. The meal was prepared by Carla Green, the Business communication teacher and the Foods II class. She also served the students.

The meal started with an appetizer, which was a cheese puff pastry. The main course included chicken soup, a spinach salad and Cornish hens and green beans with an almond sliver in them. To top it all off for dessert, cheesecake was served.

'I enjoyed learning about proper etiquette and the different types of silverware there are and how to place the utensils on your plate to signal you are finished eating,” senior Jonalyn Reif said.

Senior Cole Meier was surprised at the small portions but later said, 'I learned that portions appeared small, but after four courses they add up and it becomes a big meal.”

The etiquette unit is the second unit. Students also learn how to communicate in a world of diversity through simulation exercises from IBM, Toyota, Jefferson Rabb Webb Design and other corporations.

In all the communications students will practice many different communication platforms such as Wikis, video conferencing and telepresence, blogs, podcasts and Skype. The next unit will place students in our community doing mock interviews and the last unit is format and layout of different business documents.