A couple of dozen Reagan High School students are now published authors. The Reagan High School Cookbook is filled with more than 30 recipes created and illustrated by Alternative Learning Environment (ALE) students. There are recipes for fan-favorite Hot Cheetos with cheese and Hawaiian Pizza with a scratch-made crust.
Sophomore Rowan Bates is responsible for the book’s Hawaiian Pizza recipe. This project fed her family and grew her confidence. She suggests if you are going to make her recipe, make sure you have all the ingredients before you start.
But the book doesn’t just have food recipes in it. There are also recipes for kindness, laughter, Reagan Rattlers and Teacher Denise Caywood.
The recipe for Mrs. Caywood is as follows.
2 cups of Smiles
1 cup of Niceness
1 cup of Happiness
2 cups of Love
Pour the ingredients into a bowl.
Mix together.
Enjoy your happiness.
Caywood, Reagan’s ALE Reading and English teacher, has spearheaded this project for the past few years. She was nearly brought to tears when she learned a student focused their recipe on her.
“It’s wild to see that. This isn’t about me; I prompted them very little along the way so they really could show off their work. We dedicated this book to the students. Because they really teach us so much,” said Caywood. “There are no words that can express how proud you are when you see something like this. I am super proud of them. I am proud of them every day.”
Christian Gonzalez is a Structured Learning Environment Teacher at Reagan; his students are also featured in the cookbook. Seeing this project through to completion is why he teaches.
“We are often told the experiences for these kids can be hard. But seeing that book, that gets me out of bed-- that is what these students are capable of, and we get to experience that with them. That’s what gets me out of bed every day. That’s why I am having fun.”
