My students need real life experience to practice money skills and other life skills applications that would come with the coffee cart responsibility.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Kohler's classroom raised $261
This project is fully funded
My Students
My students are amazing, caring, creative individuals who overcome odds daily as high school students. There are three types of Special Day Classes at Oakland High School: TACLE Classroom, a Special Day Classroom and Moderate Special Day Class. These students have many different types of disabilities which alter their ability to work and live independently. Regardless of the stigma around students with disabilities, we believe we teach the coolest kids on campus.
My brilliant students spend each day with me as I teach them life skills to prepare them for the world outside of high school.
I can't tell who is learning more- my students or myself.
My Project
This project is created to supplement our initial funds to get our coffee cart rolling.
I am requesting supplies to launch a coffee cart program — the Wildcat Coffee Cart — that will allow me and my collaborators to design and implement a coffee cart curriculum to support our students' development of essential life kills.
The focus students for this project include students whose educational areas of need include communication, social skills, functional academics (such as using money), and vocational skills. Several of our students use AAC devices to express their desires and needs. These devices include both high-tech devices programmed with AAC software as well as low-tech devices that contain picture supports for communication.
Our students will make and sell coffee and snacks to faculty, staff, and administrators at our school in order to practice their functional, vocational, and communication skills in a real world setting. The Wildcat Coffee Cart will provide spontaneous and natural opportunities for students significantly impacted by intellectual disabilities and/or autism to interact with, and contribute to, their school community while improving their communication skills, increasing comfort with using their AAC systems, building confidence and ability to engage in monetary = transactions, and developing vocational skills including customer service and proper food handling and preparation.
The profits from our coffee cart program will be used to support the community-based instruction program at Oakland High School, including community outings and projects that promote greater inclusion and integration of students with disabilities into the Oakland High School community. The costs of the community-based instruction program typically include transportation, materials, docent or entrance fees, etc. The district provides a very small amount of funding for community based instruction, but supplemental funds generated by the Wildcat Coffee Cart would expand our possibilities.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Kohler and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
