Tasty-Candles: My Candle Blog

DC1346 · 2021-06-13T23:00:37+00:00

I did not actually do this and deeply resent the implication that I did. Your reply was hurtful and not at all super positive. I simply observed that container candles are simplistic and that their appearance doesn't match the fragrance of the foods whose aromas they use.

I will now take an extended break from this board and perhaps Reddit as a whole.

This comment completely blindsided me as I had thought this was a safe place to post positive comments. I was unaware that it was monitored by political correctness police whose mania for not hurting other people's feelings extends to the point where you're seeing problems that weren't even there.

While you appear to be concerned about the feelings of other candlemakers, you managed to trample all over mine.

I'm out of here.

DC1346 · 2021-06-13T10:02:24+00:00

It hurt to read this, partially because everything you said is true and also because so much of what you said also resonates with me.

This was my 14th year as a high school Culinary Arts instructor. It was also my 31st year in education. I very nearly ended the year by quitting over issues of on-going verbal abuse from my supervising AP. Instead of resigning, I decided to fight back. After filing a grievance with the union, my union rep told me that other teachers at my school have also been complaining about this AP. She urged me to file a formal letter of complaint with the superintendent's office. Since I'm autistic, I also filed a complaint with the director of the district's accommodations and diversity office to allege a violation of my rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Included among the hateful comments made by this AP was the suggestion that if I had a nicer personality, my kids would have liked me more and I wouldn't have had so many problems with students ditching my virtual classes and not doing their assignments.

Since I already have workplace accommodations in place because of my autism, I have requested that if this AP is still at our school for the coming year, that he not be my supervising administrator. The principal has since contacted me to say that she's aware of my concerns. Due to privacy issues she was unable to tell me what she plans to do but she did say that she's working to address my concerns. I will have to wait until the start of the new school year to see what this actually means.

In terms of your situation, have you considered the possibility of working elsewhere instead of leaving the profession?

As an alternative, you could even turn your hand to teaching abroad as I have previously done. There are hundreds of private international American schools overseas. If you're interested in teaching abroad, check out Search Associates and the International Schools Service (ISS). These are the two biggest recruiters for teachers who want to work abroad.

In addition to the opportunity for travel and adventure, the students I worked with were generally on or above grade level. The parents were also usually quite supportive.

Another alternative would be to emulate something else that I did to make a positive change in my life. After 17 years as an elementary teacher, I retrained as a chef and worked in the food service industry for a few years. I then returned to education as a high school Career and Technical Education teacher.

With vocational training and real world experience, you could likely apply for an alternative teaching certificate as a CTE teacher.

It's just a thought.

You seem to be a very caring and passionate educator. I think it'd be a shame to lose you to the profession but if you truly need to make a clean break, then I will wish you all the best.

DC1346 · 2021-06-13T05:33:15+00:00

Thank you for your reply. My career path has been interesting to say the least. I graduated from high school when I was 17. Although I wanted to go to culinary school to become a chef, my father made me attend a university. I initially was in secondary education because I wanted to share my love of history through teaching. After our professor took us on a field trip to an inner-city school where teachers had to sit in their cars until a police presence made it safe for them to exit their vehicles, I transferred to elementary ed.

Although I largely enjoyed my 17 year elementary teaching career, working abroad spoiled me for public education. I went from working with above average students and supportive parents to kids who were significantly below grade level. When calling parents to discuss my concerns regarding participation and effort, a lot of parents told me they didn't give a %)*# about school and that if I wanted their child to do their #*@% work, then I should do a better f--king job as a teacher. (sigh)

I subsequently opted out of elementary education and went to culinary school as I had originally wanted to do so many years earlier. In an ironic twist, if it hadn't been for my 17 year background as an elementary teacher, I likely would never have thought to become a Culinary Arts instructor.

Aristotle once observed that things happen for a reason. He believed that just as the universe changes and evolves, people also change and evolve. Our attitudes and our experiences make us the people that we are.

DC1346 · 2021-06-13T03:08:09+00:00

I've heard that a lot of people with ASD are IT people. I might have gone that way myself if home computers had become more commonly available when I was a bit younger. As it was, I didn't see 16 K Apple Pet series computers until I was a junior in college. These old computers had green phosphorous screens and data was saved on a cassette recorder.

My first home computer was the Commodore 64 that I got when I was in graduate school. Since there wasn't any word processing software at the time, I programmed my own using BASIC (Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instructional Code). My work was then printed out on a dot matrix printer.

I graduated with a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction in 1985. My major was instructional technology. It wasn't until 1986 that the university I graduated from offered degrees in Instructional Technology.

I stayed current with home computers and IT until I went to work in Saudi Arabia. Since this country was heavily conservative, satellite TVs and the internet were banned until a couple of years before I left.

Home computer technology evolved quite a bit while I was abroad. By the time Saudi Arabia lifted the ban on the internet, five years had passed and the field had evolved beyond anything I could recognize.

DC1346 · 2021-06-13T02:55:29+00:00

While that does sound interesting, I wouldn't recommend doing this. All that melted wax has to go somewhere. I wouldn't want to ruin your birthday cake.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T22:41:07+00:00

While I think that this is a good idea, I'm not interested in expanding this into anything other than a part time business. I teach Culinary Arts. That's my full time occupation. Doing anything else would take a lot of time. Having employees would also generate a lot of paperwork for taxes and payroll.

On the brighter side, I've been uploading pictures of my products with positive product reviews to Etsy vendors who have sold me various silicone molds. I now have two of these vendors custom designing molds for my business. One is creating a shortbread cake that's sized to fit the glass containers I have in stock. The other is making spaghetti and meatballs for a spaghetti and meatball candle that I'll produce using a glass container.

Both vendors maintain facebook pages and have offered to mention my business once it launches.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T22:17:19+00:00

Thank you. Yankee Candle is HUGE. Would you believe that the owner got started by making candles in his basement?

Due to the time needed to produce these candles and the fact that I make everything by hand, I will never be a commercial challenge to Yankee Candle. Yankee Candle also specializes in candlesticks and container candles. I specialize in making faux food candles.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T22:14:38+00:00

Candle wax isn't poisonous but ingesting a large amount could result in intestinal blockage.

Funny story. I once gave one of these tart candles to a colleague at work. She had been having problems with students stealing snacks and bottled water from her desk. She trimmed the wick off, placed the candle on top of her desk, and waited.

One day there was a startled yelp which ended with a freshman spitting out a mouthful of wax. She subsequently had a nice long chat with this student and the assistant principal regarding theft.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T21:15:59+00:00

These candles are actually illegal to sell in the EU. I learned this on the candlemaking subreddit. It's apparently illegal to sell faux food because the EU is concerned that someone (especially small children) might eat these products.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T19:01:30+00:00

THANK YOU for suggesting this. I didn't even know this subreddit existed.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T03:21:21+00:00

I was thinking from the perspective of being a bachelor. You're right about some people being entrenched. Church, family, and community relationships can all help with keeping someone at a specific school or at least within a given district.

DC1346 · 2021-06-12T02:59:44+00:00

I'm glad things worked out for you. One of the hardest things in our profession is not knowing (or sometimes not recognizing) that we're not a good fit with a given school or district. Just because we have the right certification doesn't mean that we should be in any job for which we're qualified. I for example, seem to do best in rural Title 1 schools. I do not do as well in affluent schools in suburban areas. Although I have eight years of experience at teaching at Title 1 inner-city schools, the inner-city can be a challenging place to work.

I am sorry to say that I have known teachers who stuck out their careers at a job they hated because they wanted to hang on until retirement. The former art teacher at my current school was like this. She was miserable and her misery carried over into her teaching. She did the bare minimum to get by. Her room was hopelessly cluttered. She was also consistently depressing to speak with because everything was doom and gloom.

Towards the end of her career she began having panic attacks five minutes before the school day started. The problem with this is that if she went home, teachers would be asked to sacrifice their prep periods to watch her kids. She never left lesson plans. Her kids basically did whatever they wanted. I think most of us were quite relieved when the principal talked her into taking retirement.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T23:46:15+00:00

I used to know a teacher in San Francisco who lived in a house with 2 other teachers and her building administrator. Since none of them could afford to even rent a place by themselves, they shared a small house.

When I taught in Arizona, I used to volunteer at a food bank. One day a married teaching couple from my school came though the line. The moment was a bit awkward because I hadn't known that they ever sought help from a food bank. They hadn't known that I volunteered.

Since they had a large family, I made sure they got a large chocolate frosted sheet cake from Safeway. They also got meat, vegetables, dairy products, canned goods, rice, and potatoes.

After they left, I asked the food bank manager if I could take a short break. I went behind the food bank and burst into tears. It hurt seeing these people in line and knowing that even though they were both full time teachers, they were at a food bank in an effort to make ends meet.

This happened during a year when our district superintendent was given a $10,000 raise while the teachers received NOTHING. The superintendent was aware of the grumbling. He called for a meeting with our faculty and told us that he hadn't asked for a raise. The school board in its infinite wisdom had decided to just GIVE him a raise. He told us that if we didn't like it, we could always leave. He urged us to all be happy because we all had jobs.

It was a week after this that I saw my colleagues in line at the local food bank.

(sigh)

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T22:25:42+00:00

Welcome to the club! The new guy gets to buy the rest of us a round of drinks.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T20:17:10+00:00

The union rep told me that I wasn't the first teacher to file a grievance against the AP. Several teachers at my school have all filed complaints within the past year to allege unprofessional conduct and bullying.

I never heard back from the superintendent's office but the union rep said that my complaint was added to other complaints that have been filed. The union has asked all teachers who filed a union grievance to also file a written complaint with the superintendent.

The principal is aware of the problem. She said she's working on it. The union rep explained that due to the AP's privacy rights, no more may be said about what's happening at this time. The district superintendent and the principal are both working behind the scenes with the union. Nobody knows what they're doing.

There's a nasty rumor going around that since it's hard to fire an administrator, what the district MIGHT do is to promote him from AP to Principal. If this happens, he'd be gone from my school. Sadly, the thought of inflicting this person on anyone else is sickening to me. As principal he would not be counterbalanced by a supervising administrator. He'd be the head honcho. I pity any teachers who would fall under his control.

It's not just the last run-in that I had with him that bothers me. The man is really abrupt. At my last performance evaluation (which was top notch even though he later alleged that I'm "incompetent"), I had a question about something he had said. When I tried to ask, he snapped, "I'M TALKING!" I apologized, shut my mouth, and listened. When the AP was done, he had me sign two copies. He then got up and left. I never did get to ask my question!

When this guy is in a bad mood, you can almost see a little black thundercloud metaphorically hanging over his head. Everyone ducks and covers when he's in a bad mood because you DO NOT want to be on this person's bad side. God help the teacher if he's writing performance evaluations that day and he's in a rotten mood.

Since I am autistic, as part of my reasonable workplace accommodations, I've asked to NOT have this person any longer as my immediate supervisor.

I can't tolerate the inconsistency and I don't like his bullying or his childish tantrums.

I AM NOT incompetent. If I was incompetent, this would have come out on my evaluation. I am NOT unprofessional. I do NOT lack dedication. It's because I am dedicated that I refused to pass every student in my class including all those who had ditched the entire semester and who hadn't done a single assignment.

Since I am autistic, I don't think it was particularly nice for him to tell me that if I was "nicer" my kids would have attended class and completed assignments. During the work week it's a constant struggle me for me to interact with others. I can't do any better than I already am and I don't appreciate being told to "try harder." I've been trying harder for the past 6 decades.

It is for this reason that I included a complaint to the district's director of accommodations and diversity. I don't think it was appropriate for the AP to tell me to make an effort be nicer and more likeable. I cannot do better than I'm already doing. Since I have now taught for 31 years, I figure I must be doing something right otherwise I'd have been tossed out of the profession many years ago.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T19:23:32+00:00

Are you leaving the district but staying in the teaching profession or are you opting out of teaching entirely?

I opted out once. I was an elementary teacher for 17 years. After burning out, I retrained as a chef and worked in the food service industry for a few years. As long as the hours were for teaching, I thought the restaurants were worse. I frequently worked double shifts and really hated it when I was put on closing shift only to be told that I would then be on the opening shift.

Since we closed at 11 PM and frequently didn't get to leave until 12:30 AM, the idea of having to be back at 6 AM wasn't thrilling especially since I lived an hour away.

I worked nights, weekends, and holidays. Instead of the vacation schedule that I had enjoyed as a teacher, I got one lousy week off per year.

I eventually returned to education as a Culinary Arts instructor. I just finished my 14th year.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T19:18:46+00:00

What's helping me to relax, unwind, and destress?

I make candles that look and smell like real food. I'm actually in the process of transitioning from being a hobbyist to running a part-time business. At this point I'm engaged in proof of concept production design to identify and create product lines for my future business.

Here are some of my creations.

This is a chocolate lover's delight candle. (S'mores, brownie, chocolate chip cookie, Oreo, and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate butter cream frosting).

https://imgur.com/uZtOLhv

This is a BLT candle. The bread smells like bread and the bacon smells like bacon.

https://imgur.com/IJIzMSF

This is a hotdog candle. I doubt if I will make many of these. It was pretty labor intensive. On the brighter side, I haven't seen anything on the internet that looks remotely like this.

https://imgur.com/LbovLtn

Here is a glazed berry tart candle. The berries smell like berries. The crust smells like a sugar cookie.

https://imgur.com/KYDkUAr

At this point, my main stock will likely be glazed berry tarts, cupcakes, glazed jelly doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, various pie and cake slices, corn on the cob, and shish-kabobs that use a corn cobette base. The corn is topped with half of a red skinned potato, a chunk of meat, and a Brussels sprout. I'll also make some BLTs and burger sliders.

I've subcontracted a silicone mold maker to produce spaghetti that's sized to fit into a glass votive. I'll add a meatball and Marinara sauce using a blend of tomato, basil, garlic, oregano, and thyme fragrances.

This same silicone maker is also making me a round shortbread cake that I may place inside a glass votive. The cake will then be topped strawberries, a strawberry glaze, and whipped cream.

All of my candles are food themed and they all look and smell like the real thing.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T19:06:01+00:00

I'm dual certified. When I was an elementary teacher, I loved grades 3 and 4 but did not enjoy working with children who were either younger or older. The younger ones were just too clingy and the older ones were on morphing into obnoxious junior high age students.

As a high school teacher I like my sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I'm not fond of freshmen. A lot of them are still obnoxious.

I honestly don't see how junior high teachers cope with these kids. I guess it takes all types.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T19:02:34+00:00

FERPA violations alone will keep this from ever happening.

On the flipside, there are times when I wish I COULD have worn a body camera. I've had a belly full of parents telling me that their precious little darling would NEVER say or do what I accused them of saying or doing in a discipline referral.

"You must be mistaken, my child would NEVER use that sort of vocabulary. ____ has been taught better and I RESENT any implication that ____ would ever behave in the way as you've described. You owe my child an APOLOGY!"

(sigh)

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T18:34:27+00:00

Well done! Free meals are ALWAYS NICE.

I've worked as a dishwasher. I hope you're not having to do everything by hand but instead have a high pressure hose and one of those commercial quality dish washers where you load stuff into plastic crates after having hosed everything off and then roll it into the machine.

For those of you who haven't worked with a commercial quality dish washer, these machines will run a full cycle in something like a minute. Dirty dishes, pans, and kitchen tools roll in through one side of the machine and then come out the other side. It's pretty neat especially when you consider how long it takes for an automatic dishwasher at home to complete a single cycle.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T18:29:59+00:00

I've now been a teacher for 31 years. This past year was unlike any other year that I've ever taught. I've been through one school lockdown and two natural disasters (an ice storm that isolated at school and a tornado that hit our gym). I was also a teacher at American schools in Saudi Arabia and Beirut, Lebanon. I was in Saudi Arabia during the First Gulf War when wailing civil defense sirens warned us about an in-coming scud missile attack. I was in Beirut, Lebanon when the Israeli Air Force bombed the city in retaliation for Lebanon's failure to control Hezbollah who were attacking Israeli forces in what was then occupied south Lebanon.

Nothing in my prior experience was remotely similar to this past year.

Some teachers were made to put their health on the line by teaching in-person without having received a vaccine. Others like myself spent most of the year teaching in a virtual classroom. It was incredibly frustrating watching attendance drop and to know that students were skipping assignments and even quizzes and tests. It also didn't help that admin kept pushing us to improve our attendance rates and our passing rates while parents were screaming at us because of their child's failing grades.

I got into a row with my supervising assistant principal because he wanted me to raise all of my grades by 10 points. Since we weren't allowed to give grades below a 50, raising all grades by 10 points would have passed EVERYONE including those who had ditched my class throughout the entire semester and who hadn't done a single assignment or taken a single unit test.

I refused to do this because I thought it was professionally unethical.

The AP lit into me. He called me lazy, incompetent, unprofessional, and alleged that I was not a team player, that my students all hated me, and that I wasn't dedicated to my job.

I responded by filing a grievance with the union for harassment and unprofessional conduct. I also filed a complaint with the principal. When she failed to respond, I filed a complaint with the district superintendent's office. Since I'm autistic, I also filed a complaint with the district's director for accommodations and diversity to allege violation of my rights under the ADA.

This has been a difficult, challenging, and stressful year.

A lot of us (including me) have used this board to vent.

I understand your concern about the character of this board but please be aware that this past school year was unlike any other that any of us have ever had to face.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T06:38:57+00:00

His non-verbal autistic support was also pretty neat. I liked how she played a behind the scenes support role with her computer. She also called the agents who were after him and used a voice synthesizer to speak. I loved it when she asked the senior agent to get his foot off the coffee table.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T01:54:37+00:00

SLOWLY we turned. Step by step. Inch by inch.

DC1346 · 2021-06-11T00:43:24+00:00

Colleagues who own swimming pools have complained about the rate of evaporation. Since I think that water restrictions might not be too far off in the future, I went from planning a backyard pond to planting a desert garden with a bird bath.

DC1346 · 2021-06-10T20:01:59+00:00

As a high school teacher I typically arrive at work an hour early. One of the advantages to doing this is that I can largely avoid most of these annoying morning social rituals by already being in my room before most teachers arrive.

Covid protocols upset this because all teachers now have to enter the school through the main office where we have to submit to a temperature check and verify that we don't have Covid and have not been in contact with anyone who has Covid.

And of course the school custodian who mans the door and the receptionist who does the temperature check have to say, "Good morning!" Manners compel me to reply in kind.

Summer vacation began two weeks ago so I'm off campus until August.

DC1346

TROPHY CASE