Rochester Culinary Teacher Whips Up Classroom Fun for Students

Classrooms around the world look entirely different than they did back in 2019. This academic year has shown many challenges, but teachers everywhere have faced them with grace and for that, we cannot thank them enough.

A teacher on the SouthCoast made his kitchen feel like a safe place to be for all of his students during this extremely difficult time. Mr. Andre Arsenault is a culinary teacher at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School in Rochester. He was nominated for this award not once, but twice, by the same parent.

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“I actually submitted this last month as well and it still is for the same reasoning: Many teachers can buy cookies, hats, gloves, and supplies. However, Chef A, as the students call him, makes his students feel safe, respected, and that they are not alone during the ordeal. He makes up for the lack of social interaction that these students have not had in the past year when they are in his kitchen. There is no price on that feeling for his kids. Chef A is more than just their teacher/chef. During this pandemic, he is also protective of his students. Chef A goes above and beyond to make sure that they are safe, healthy, and having the best learning experience in his kitchen possible. He provides mask breaks so the students can take a breather from being in a hot kitchen while he takes over that student’s task so they don't fall behind, when a student has a headache from wearing the PPE he makes them tea. He has made my daughter a hot pack from scratch when she got hurt. She says he is always taking care of everyone. Every student that I come in contact with that is in my daughters’ shop has nothing but wonderful things to say about Chef A, how caring, thoughtful, and is always in a good mood, which tells me that these kids feel cared about in his presence. Sometimes it’s not only what a teacher does for their students, it’s also important how they make them feel! I think Chef A deserves this nomination as a recognition of his hard work and devotion to his students.”

Congratulations to Mr. Arsenault, aka “Chef A,” for being Fun 107's SouthCoast Teacher of the Month for April of 2021. As the winner of this month’s award, Mr. Arsenault will receive a gift card for $100 to Amazon so he can continue to make this classroom a fun place to learn. A special thank you to our sponsor Spindle City Auto Glass for helping to make this classroom even better.

Michael and Maddie wish to share this video with Mr. Arsenault:

If your child’s teacher is one of those amazing human beings that goes above and beyond for their students and deserves some recognition this year, nominate him or her for the SouthCoast Teacher of the Month award HERE. They may be as lucky as Mr. Arsenault.