Work Skills Job Center

Discussion in 'Special Education Archives' started by Giggles1100, Oct 19, 2006.

  1. Giggles1100

    Giggles1100 Comrade

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    Oct 19, 2006

    Ok I am totally restructuring my classroom, I know 9 weeks intot eh school year and I changing it. But being a new teacher I have been following what the old teacher had in place and what the other developmental classes were doing. Well After a few weeks I found my class was the black sheep of the group, my autistic kids make noises so we wind up being kicked out on Movie day on Fridays the other classes, they push us out of the kitchen on cooking days so we do ours on another day because 1 of my autistics boys is OCD and eh gets in their way. Well from Day 1 I asked how come we donot work in teh community learning how to use the job skills I am teachign them in class, well 1 the previous teacher was teachign academic skills, my kids cannot master and do not need, like phonemic skills, my kids need job skills and living skills. So they told em we don't do that because we need to fill out all these forms etc. Well I went above the higher functioning developmental classes and went straight to the districts head of SPecial Ed and told ehr my concerns, I told her I wanted to get them 6 week jobs int eh community like going every Friday to a restraunt during movie time they kick us out of anyway and clean tables or wipe down the doors etc. and then maybe go someplace else the next 6 weeks and let them stock or sweep. Just once a week. The Special Ed lady thought that was great, so I mentioned one other thing, we do a craft fair in December, well I have had the kids working on things for it. I have had them beading bracelets and necklaces, and making the recipes in a jar to sell. I have found 2 of the boys love the beading, my 1 girls loves making the recipe jars and I have one boy who does nto liek to work in general, well I want to continue this throughout the year and let them have a store that we sell from once a month after Christmas so I am going to set up work centers so when they are finished with class and IEP work they can go work on their store goods, well I have a Sonic center, because we also stuff bags for Sonic,and a beading center and a recipe center but I really could use one more inexpensive craft or something they could make or sell, hopefully one my last boy might like to do. What is something maybe your class has made that we can do, I am short on money and got Mason jar donations and recipe donations from the teachers and parents, I figure once we sell them we will reinvest our money for more supplies, but what is something else maybe you and your class has doen or made that people love that we could do,t he SPecial Ed person went so far as to say maybe we could once a month not only sell to the school but maybe set up a shop in fron of Walmart or someplace to sell their wares.

    THis is not going over well with one of the other developmental classes, the higher functioning, because she should have been doing these things with her kids and now they are telling her she should do them and she is not one for change, so Ifigure if I can get soem good things and let her see how happy my kids are she will turn around and maybe join us in the spring.

    So basically my only question was, what is another job center I could include that my kids work and make something in, My goal is for them to have total ownership in one or two centers by the end of the year that they might work on at home in the summer.

    P.S. Forgive any and all typos, I have fast fingers that type bad and I cannot get spell check to work on this computer.
     
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  3. clarnet73

    clarnet73 Moderator

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    Oct 20, 2006

    Great ideas! I can't remember what age group you're working with, but I'm guessing high school? IT sounds like you're really trying hard to make them as independent as possible... awesome! :)

    I don't know if any of these ideas will work, but it's all I can think of off the top of my head (which is very tired because I need to go to sleep, but jsut HAD to check in tonight!)...

    Baby food jar candles (cut/tear tissue paper into squares, brush on to outside of jar with diluted glue, maybe w/ some glitter in it, let dry, tie ribbon on the top and add a tea light candle inside)

    Bookmarks? Greeting cards?
     
  4. ellen_a

    ellen_a Groupie

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    Oct 20, 2006

    Greeting cards popped into my head too--maybe some kind of rubber-stamping craft where a template is provided? I'm thinking of my students (middle school) though, and I know they would have had great difficulties making greeting cards that would be up to a selling standard, so I would understand if this isn't appropriate.

    Maybe candle making? The "sand" candles or rolled beeswax or if you're really adventurous melted wax poured into molds? Or maybe candle embellishment--buy cheap pillars and some slightly more expensive colored wax sheets, etc. and use punches to create embellishments for the tall pillars (I know I've seen this is in craft books).

    Soap making--melt the base, pour into mold, let cure? You could do the little soaps with things in them--might sell well--like the bag with the little gold fish in it so it looks like a carnival prize, etc.

    Candy making--that is REALLY easy if you can find the supplies cheap enough. Use some holiday molds, melt the chocolate discs, fill mold, let cool, pop out. If students have great fine motor, you can use colored chocolate to first paint a thin layer inside the mold, then back with whatever chocolate you like. I don't know the pricing on the chocolate discs but you might be able to find them cheap--I wonder if you could melt chocolate chips for a bargain (those are usually pretty cheap, i.e. at Aldi).

    For the future, I student taught in a life skills classroom that had a month-long functional bakery in it around Christmas team--the class made and sold a large volume of coffee cakes to their families, teachers, friends, etc. (large volume meaning well over 100 cakes). Doing online research you may also be able to find different teachers who have functional bakeries in their classrooms--this is one of the common "businesses" because it builds in so many different important skills. This classroom has since been closed, but Walter used to poston T-Net a lot and was a HUGE proponent of this type of classroom (http://www.smiling-with-hope.org/prodescribe.htm#curriculum).

    I'm rambling again. Sigh.
     
  5. Giggles1100

    Giggles1100 Comrade

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    Oct 20, 2006

    Thanks girls, We do a muffin sale every month in our department, so I am afraid I would step on toes if I went further with the bakign, but I will keep it in the back of my mind. I thought about making greeting cards, Ihave a ton of rubber stamps and do them myself, we coudl also make the coasters with the rubber stamping etc. But I need to wait until we have some money to invest in that. I saw the candle idea last night by using pillars and melting them some and embellishing them, I like that idea and that might work, I could go to Dollar Tree and get some and try it.

    I also thought about bookmarks, we could even have them laminated. Those are good ideas, I guess I just need to try a few out and see what works and go from there. If you think of anything else let me know, oh and yes I teach a High Scholl Life Skills class.
     
  6. short e

    short e Rookie

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    Dec 1, 2006

    Hi giggles. I have an idea for you if your students have adequate fine motor skills. In any craft store (Michaels, Jo-Ann's Fabrics) they have simple needlepoint plastic canvas in basic shapes. The holes are fairly large and instead of using the needlepoint stitch, my students just went up one hole with the needle, down the next hole going left to right to complete a row. When finished they make beautiful wall hangings or ornaments for Xmas trees (average size of shape is about 4 in x 4 in. Students would use different colored yarn to create patterns which tied into some student's academic goals. It is a really good activity for increasing attention to task and of course fine motor skills. It is also known to be a very relaxing, soothing activity. Hope that you can use this suggestion.
    Short e
     

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