This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
About My Students
My students are 9th through 12th graders and are hard workers. Our school specializes in the education of children with learning disorders such as Autism and ADHD, with over 70% of our students on an IEP. Most of our students also come from low-income households and receive both breakfast and lunch at school each day.
While much of our focus during the day is on the core academic areas, we also strive to develop social, emotional, coping and life skills in our students.
Our low student-to-teacher ratio allows students to build lasting, positive relationships with adults throughout the school and allows teachers to get to know what works best for our students as individuals.
We worked hard last year to develop a classroom family type of atmosphere in our room. We are learning to deal with what life gives us. This has helped us look on the bright side of various situations and make the best of what we have. Keeping our classroom procedures consistent and familiar has helped my students make this transition into high school much easier.
Having and running a coffee cart business will help my students develop personal life skills and job skills that they can transfer to future competitive employment positions. The coffee machine, coffee, creamers, and sweeteners will provide my students with real-life supplies. These supplies will be used to teach students how to make coffee and run the business using real hands-on materials. The cash box will help us have a place to gather cash collected and count out change. While working as a group, my students will continue to develop communication and teamwork skills. While interacting with teachers in the building, these skills will also be practiced as well as developing money counting skills while collecting cash and making change.
In Their Own Words
One thing we are trying to accomplish is learning how to communicate with others better. Another thing we would like to accomplish with this project is talking to other people at our school that we may not know. We can push the coffee cart to help us get a job in the future because it will help us learn how to stock shelves and push heavy carts safely. We will sell coffee to the teachers so we can learn to count money. We can learn how to make coffee and teach others how to make coffee. We will use those skills in the future for a job. We are trying to learn how to work together and work with others.
One group of three students (1 manager, 2 workers) is going to be in charge of making coffee. Another group of students (1 manager, 2 workers) is in charge of delivering coffee and collect the money. The last group of students (1 manager, 2 workers) is going to count the money, track the supplies and update our spreadsheets. One student will be the general manager in charge of talking with the managers to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing.
The proceeds from selling the coffee will go toward refilling the coffee supplies. This project will help us to learn to count money by having a cash register and to learn responsibility by running the cash register. It will help us be successful in the future when we have our own jobs, businesses, homes and cars.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Perry and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
