I have not written in the blog for a couple of months. I know that we have been very busy but the truth is that i forgot. We have had several big things going on since the last blog. Here is a brief summary of the events:
Day of the Dead lunch- We planned, cooked, and hosted the office staff and related services in our annual day of the dead lunch. The Gold Team was in charge and they did very well. The staff loved it and said that the food was excellent. The administration would like to get our group a food truck that we could take around to local businesses as a work basked business. I know it will take a lot of efforts to get off the ground but I would like to do it. We need a business for these students to practice and this would be a great training device. Spectrum Nights at Jersey Mike's - We contracted with a local sandwhich shop to do a fund raiser where our students could work at a real restaurant and take home a percentage of the sales from the night. It was a huge turnout because we marketed so heavily. We were able to make $300 for 3 hours of work. Great support and a great opportunity. Our Blue team was in charge of this one. Panther Pops - Our student store showed us that a food based store would get good support here at Spectrum. We decided to do an Italian Ice type store called Panther Pops. We went through every phase of development and marketing and did a soft opening that [paid for all of our expenses. We followed that up with a big Grand Opening at the winter concert and made almost $200 profit. We are now doing some promotional efforts to maintain this high level of success. Snack counter at the Winter Concert - For the second year in a row we ran a successful snack counter at the concert. We sell Pizza, Hot Dogs and such and took in over 1900 tickets. We were so busy but so much fun and the students worked hard in the high pressure environment. We were able to clear a profit of $460. All of these business ventures go to support school wide needs and a large percent go directly to the occupational track. All of these activites cap our "Foods" section of occupational preparation and a favorite unit of the students. All of the students got their food handlers permits and we put them to good use.
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This week we end the month of September. All in all I would say we had a nice start to this school year. We went on our first field trip to Wilkerson Farms, started Anatomy Academy, and had a hugely successful school store.
We have 4 field trips planned for October and 2 big events that we are getting ready for. One event is a "Day of the Dead" luncheon that we are planning for November 2nd. We are going to do the invitations, menus, cooking, serving, and hosting for the members of the office staff and related services. The other big event is a special night at a local restaurant. Jersey mike's in Orem is allowing us to advertise and host a Spectrum Night at their store. Our kids will work at the store and we will take home a percentage of the profits. Mark your calendars for Wednesday October 26th. We finished week 3 with the grand opening of our new school store. I wanted this version of the school store to be more like a real store so we added some food items, higher priced items, and clothing. We had a lot of excitement but not a lot of buying since our items are mostly in the $5 to $10 range and kids don't carry money to school. I think next week will bring some money and more sales. The sales that we got were for the spirit wear. We have 3 new logos and 2 new colors. We are selling t shirts, hoodies and polo shirts for our first offering and will be selling coats, women's style hoodies, and knit caps for the colder weather. We sold over 50 items in one day so we are off to a good spirit wear start. All of the proceeds will go back to the school to be used in school wide activities.
Spectrum Academy is new so it needs to build an identity. The logos and shirts help give an identity and solidifies our strength and longevity to future kids can see that we have a bright future and their school experience will be rich. We also want to build on events like the Autos for Autism and create a community presence. We are in negotiation with some local business to do some cross promotional events that will help us partner with businesses and create work opportunities for these students. We came back after the long holiday weekend with little trouble. Your students are getting very good at adapting to changes in schedules and staying even keeled. This is a great skill to learn and will help them often in later life. The A/B schedule is a hit and the students have no issues with the changing classes.
We have a filed trip tomorrow. I want to take some pictures, I will make sure it is OK to post the pictures before i do. The farm is our first chance to use our learned skills on workplace manners and safety. We are looking to learn things about the science and occupational units we are working on. In science, we are learning about biology. This week we are studying the reproduction in plants. The farm will give us loads to learn about plants and seeds. In Occupational Prep. we are exploring the idea of working in an agriculture related industry. We have travel journals ready with questions to ask the farmer about this industry as a career. We got off to a great start. The changes with the new school were easily adapted by each student. We should still see some small frustrations from time to time, but I am not anticipating too many problems.
This week we are starting our full schedule of study. We will ease into it but we will be on topic from here on out. Occupational Studies - We are going to explore the new culture of agriculture. The old farmer days are gone and tons on new and exciting careers are springing up in the field of agriculture. Since it is turning into harvest season, I thought it would be a great time to learn about this exciting field. Get it, farms have fields. We are planning on 4 field trips for this unit. We want to see a crop farm, an animal farm, a greenhouse, and a dairy. So plan on a few field trip emails in the next few weeks. Transition Planning - We are starting a unit on independent living. We are going to review and teach skills such as grocery store shopping, laundry, cleaning schedules for the house, and time management techniques. We are going to use a schedule and "to do" list so I will need your help in figuring out some night time/morning procedures or routines so that the kids can manage these themselves as much as possible. We will do some type of independent living unit each year of high school so this year is all about getting starting in the right direction. Science - We are going to start with a biology study the goes hand in hand with our agriculture unit. We will study animal and plant biology and save human biology for later. I will require a short science project/presentation on this unit but I will send a lot more info as we get closer to the due date. This is just a heads up about some homework that will come due in early October. Current Events - I fear that politics will work its way into our current events class. I am personally pretty non-partisan about politics so our study will be on the process rather then the current candidates. Once the election happens, we will focus on supporting the chosen leader rather then complaining about it. I want the kids to understand the purposes of government and be optimistic about how our country runs rather then fall into the habits of looking for failures in leadership. We will try to explore many more events other then politics so be prepared to have some good discussions with your student about topical issues. Even though school doesn't start for 2 and a half weeks, I am working everyday at getting our classroom and classes ready. The theme of this year is a build on from last year's theme "Building the perfect me"
Last year we used a super hero theme to identify that we have heroes in real life like artists, scientists, civil rights activist, teachers, inventors, and everyday people who decide to be heroic to someone else. We highlighted a person from history each week but what I taught the kids was that each person had a moment inn their life when they could have quit or taken the easy way out but they chose to sacrifice, persevere, or take on big challenges because they believed it was important. The idea was that each of us can be a hero if we are willing to take on challenges or sacrifice for better things or other people. This year is about taking those concepts and building a positive identity. Each of us needs an identity but that identity should be something we choose, something that we build. Personal identity includes personality and skills, but it should also include work ethics, charity and service, global or community consciousness, and things that we are passionate about. Each week we are going to add a layer to our personal identity by focusing on a personal goal. I want to build confidence and exposure to new things so that the students feel accomplished and empowered to do more. By the end of the year, each student should have self accomplishment skills. |
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December 2016
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