The FISH! Philosophy brings teamwork to a classroom’s café

Tammy Stelmach has kids of all colors, sizes, shapes and backgrounds in her culinary arts program at the Monroe Career & Technical Institute, serving grades 9-12 in Bartonsville, PA. From poor kids who grew up in the Bronx, to farm kids who know how to milk cows, from students who are straight A honors students, to those who have special needs, she has used The FISH! Philosophy to help bring them together as a team on a daily basis to run a functioning café that serves the public.

“It is a really diverse group in my class, and in past years, the cliques would form based on the nationalities or incomes, or backgrounds,” Stelmach says. “But since introducing The FISH! Philosophy, they don’t go off in their groups. They work together as a team. It’s amazing to see.”

This is the first year Stelmach decided to bring The FISH! Philosophy to her students, beginning the year by showing the film, and then having a discussion of each of the four practices. And perhaps not by accident, this is the best group of students she’s ever had, she says.

At first, the students were a little skeptical of making it work, but now, Stelmach says, the students work together as a team because of the lessons they’ve learned from FISH!, and she doesn’t even have to do much instructing or directing when they are running the café – simply stands back and watches the magic at work.

“They really have learned to ‘Be There’ for each other.” One student who has some special needs and sometimes requires assistance is usually taken care of by his fellow students. “There will always be someone every day who will say ‘I’ll help him out today, Mrs. S.”

It is enough to bring a smile to Stelmach’s face. “I have such an awesome classroom this year.”