This year, ACHS teacher and Family Career and Community Leaders of America sponsor Caitlin O’Grady takes on the challenge of teaching classes in an untraditional format. Yet as a teacher who shares a class with another, she has the uncanny ability to keep things interesting.

O’Grady co-teaches Food and Fitness with Physical Education teacher Julia Weida. For this class, a group of about 50 students meet in one room and are taught by both O’Grady and Weida. However, for the remainder of the week, the group gets split in half. One half learns about foods by O’Grady for two days, while the other group learns about fitness by Weida. After Wednesday, the groups switch.

One of the most unique aspects of O’Grady’s class is the format in which she teaches. As a co-taught class, the curriculum isn’t as straightforward as core classes. For example, she doesn’t follow a textbook. Instead, she goes along with a book called 100 Days of Real Food: How We Did It, What We Learned and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love by Lisa Leake. By following this book, O’Grady guides students through cooking different healthy recipes, including beet chips, sweet potato fries, homemade applesauce, cauliflower pizza crust and eggplant manicotti. O’Grady also teaches students how to use healthy alternatives, for example using natural sweeteners like honey and syrup opposed to cancer-causing sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, and saccharin.

All in all, O’Grady teaches a class that is differs greatly from most others, and has applicable skills in everyday life. O’Grady keeps the class moving by constantly introducing new recipes and health tips.