Prom and Pizza (..and other adventures)!

I apologize for my late post-- I know  EVERYONE has been waiting for it!  I want to start this post by saying thank you to everyone who has supported our classroom thus far in our many ventures.  We have had the opportunity to supply so many people with our hand-made candles, serve pizza to so many patrons, and watch as our GoFundMe account received unimaginable support.  This community (and beyond!) have certainly wrapped their arms around our classroom to provide us with the chance to really integrate community-based instruction and experiences into our curriculum. 

WE COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

I hope you all enjoy a look at our pizza fundraiser, prom shopping, and classroom happenings.  A BIG thank you to Fox's Pizza Den in Prattville for allowing us to come learn about the restaurant business and make some money for our prom and community-based experiences.

 Our fundraiser started off with the key to a good working experience: training.  Mr. Patrick at Fox's Pizza Den did a great job instructing the students in being a good employee at a restaurant.  Then, the students divided into groups.  We had several jobs available: a greeter (Sydney), one publicity person (Nicholas), one "Fox" (D'Shawn), five wait staff (Hope, Alissa, Jana, Trip, and Byron), and three bussers (Leah, Joey, and Sheron).  Our greeter opened the door with a smile and a "WELCOME TO FOX'S!"  Our publicity person and fox went outside to inform patrons about our event and hand out flyers.  Our wait staff ran food and checked on customers.  Our bussers refilled drinks and cleaned off tables. Half way through, they were able to switch and try out another job.   I was so impressed with everyone's positive attitude throughout the day!

Thank you again to everyone who came out to support our students as they learned this trade.  I think they would all make a great asset to any restaurant business!!

In addition to our Fox's Pizza Fundraiser, we also did a little prom shopping.  We were invited on a VIP shopping trip by Prattville Goodwill.  We had such a good time trying on prom attire and shopping for just the right accessories.  This trip was used as a community-based experience to teach about the importance of trying on clothes and ensuring that you have purchased everything you need.  Thank you so much to the sweet ladies at Goodwill for starting our day off right!

 In other news this week, we were also invited to an ice cream social with the therapeutic class that works with us each week.

Thanks for the treat!  It is always nice to get with our peers and socialize for a little bit.

As always on Friday, our students counted their money and were able to visit our classroom store.  Thanks, Sydney for doing a great job as banker this week!

 

Although I try to use this blog to focus on the transition activities we do in the classroom, sometimes we do fun stuff during academic activities as well-- Trip decided to act a little goofy while we were skip counting this week! 

 We also discussed the importance of being on time and learned how to call in late if you must.  We discussed scheduling and how long it takes to do certain daily activities (brushing teeth, getting dressed, etc.).  

We read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and discussed what a fable is and why the morals of fables are important.  We also continued our units on skip counting and division in our small group math.

We definitely earned our spring break this week.  Thank you again for all of the support!  Be on the look out for next week's lesson in the LESSONS section.  

Mrs. McKee

 

Positive Thinking

I have to start this week's post with the WSFA newscast about our classroom fundraiser with Fox's Pizza Den!  We are so excited.  Check it out  HERE!

Last week we began our five-week study on soft skills needed for employment.  Our study began with having a POSITIVE ATTITUDE.  Although we are relating this skill to employment, we are also encouraging students to ALWAYS have a positive attitude!

Here the students practice role playing a positive attitude.  The students were given different scenarios that might happen in the workplace and were told to react POSITIVELY!

We continued to use our positive attitude during our community-based instruction at Faith Rescue and Autauga Humane Society.  The students were happy to get to work.  We also had two students proudly represent us on the ROTC field trip at Maxwell Airforce Base!












We also had another big surprise: Austin Golson from the Ole Miss football team came for a visit and to throw the ball around during break!  We always love seeing a PHS almnus!

This week we are studying about being on time, telling time, and having a schedule.  Don't forget our fundraiser on Thursday at Fox's Pizza Den-- Let's celebrate with some pizza!

--Mrs. McKee

We're Still Working!!

I'm playing a bit of catch up after the time I spent early last week at the transition conference, but BOY! Did I learn a lot!  The conference was exciting and overwhelming, and I cannot wait to share everything I learned with you.  

I will recap some of the fun we had last week, and then follow up with some great new info I received at the conference.

Last week, we had our LAST week at our first community job site... Here is one of our groups at the humane society.

We had a VERY special visitor, Jerodis, Hope's brother, came for a visit.  We loved getting an opportunity to talk to him before he head to Denver to play with the Broncos!

We also will be working closely with Mrs. Ellzey's psychology class this semester.  We will be working with them to improve our social skills and practice social appropriateness with our peers.  We enjoyed meeting our new friends!

Our BIGGEST news of the week is that we will be participating in a fundraiser.  Fox's Pizza has invited us to be their servers for the day.  We would love for you to join us for a pizza celebration as we practice our food service skills!

Like I said before, I learned SO(OOOOOO) much at the Alabama Transition Conference, and I am so glad I was able to attend.  One topic several of the speakers focused on was teaching our students SOFT SKILLS for when they are employed.  These soft skills will set our students apart when applying for jobs.  SO, for the next five weeks we will be focusing on acquiring five of these desirable traits.  This week is WEEK ONE of the study.  I will be working on having a positive attitude.  We will be defining positive and negative attitudes, discuss why it is important, and do TONS of role playing on this topic.  I know it will be a great week!

As always, thank you for your continued support of our classroom.  I love to see that we have more readers every day!

Mrs. McKee

The Candle Business

Last week, our candle business took off!  Most of our candles were delivered on Friday, but we do have a few more to deliver. If you have not received yours, do not fret!  We will have it to you this week. 

In addition to kicking off our business, our students sold hot chocolate at break (due to the few COLD days we had)!  We also continued working at our assigned job site.  We will have one more week to work at our assigned site before switching. 

We also kicked off a new fundraiser.  We are hoping to send our juniors and seniors to prom and a nice dinner with a possible limo ride to our destination!  If you would like to donate to the cause, we would love for you to visit our Go Fund Me website:  http://funds.gofundme.com/index.php?route=fundmanager

 We also celebrated our funny guy's birthday...Happy birthday to Trip!  Here he is enjoying his favorite slice.

 Here are a few images of our candle business.  I was a LITTLE overwhelmed with the orders, so I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped.  There will be many more to follow.

Students have different jobs.  Some students are decorating the glass, others microwave the wax (microwave skills!), other students place the wicks in the holders (we did some homemade wick holders by taping pencils together...), and others choose scents for the candle and pour the wax and scents.

...Needless to say, we have a lot going on!  Stay tuned for more adventures.   In class this week, we will be celebrating Read Across America Week (and my favorite, Dr. Seuss) and what makes you, YOU.  We will also be finishing our study on dressing by going over zipping, buttoning, and tying. I hope everyone has a great start to their week! 

Mrs. McKee