We've got blisters on our fingers!! Students in my program have to cut out teacher-created checks, deposit slips, receipts, etc. while training in a mock bank. The volume of forms and challenges my students experience regarding fine motor skills make the trimming task tedious.
All of the students in my program are affected by developmental delays (Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury, etc).
The program serves nearly 70 high school students from the ages of 14-21. Students from three public high schools attend a transition program located at an off-campus facility, for half of a school day, that focuses on life and vocational skills. The goal is to have each student learn to live as independently as possible. My students role play in training centers to improve targeted skills. We have a mock restaurant w/ a full kitchen, grocery store, bank, bedroom, and laundromat. Once a skill is mastered in a mock environment the student practices generalizing the skill in community environments.
My Project
My students need a rotary paper trimmer that can be operated using gross motor skills. One of the responsibilities of our program's "employees" is to keep the banking forms counter top stocked for "customers." More times than not we spend a great deal of time cutting out the forms. This paper trimmer could reduce an hour long task to 10 minutes or less. Also, it will allow my students that experience challenges with fine motor skills to successfully complete a task they would normally find frustrating. Not to mention the measurement skills that can be incorporated into using the trimmer. Finally, my students are just going to think it's cool! It would create a job they ALL want to do instead of a "look down or away job" when weekly roles are being assigned.
My students learn best when training in community environments.
We can do quite a bit at my program, but not as much as we can do in an actual grocery store, bank, restaurant, etc. The more time we can save while working at our program gives the students more time to spend practicing skills in real-life environments!
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 Mr. Salanky and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.