• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Program Teaches Students Vocational and Life Skills

Posted on: Thursday, 27 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

The Student Enterprises Program, a new vocational and life skills program at Wells High School, offered educational services to special needs students in September.

The program, staffed with one teacher and three educational technicians and located in the school's former wood-working area, is designed to help students learn independent living and job skills.

A unique feature of the program is its service requirement. In addition to academic study, student participants must spend time providing services within the high school, including photocopying and collating documents; offering a "plant service" to help maintain the many plants throughout the building; baking; catering; and making items to sell at events such as the recent Wells Farmers Market held in late September at Wells Town Hall.

According to the program's instructor, Linda Cluff, donations from the sale help to sustain and enhance the value of the program for these and future students.

Cluff noted that additional support is needed for these students, who have more academic, cognitive and medical needs then other special needs students at the high school. These students attend classes, including art, music appreciation and chorus, and are involved in school sponsored events, including homecoming activities.

On Wednesdays, the group regularly goes on community field trips, which may involve shopping for baking supplies at Hannaford's or at Wells Super Food Market, or purchasing tropical fish for the classroom's aquarium. Students also participate in recordkeeping and prepare quarterly reports for the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District's superintendent's office and the bank.

Cluff said the group uses fake currency as part of their incentive program to help them become familiar with making monetary transactions with real currency. And, plans are for participants to spend time at area businesses doing job shadowing.

Cluff and her staff spent a great deal of time this past summer preparing the new classroom.

"I am highly impressed with the physical setting for our Student Enterprises program," said Kenneth Spinney, II, the district's new director of special services. "It is spacious and improvements are being made each day. My hope is this program can be the model for life skills programming in York County. Linda Cluff, along with her educational technicians, have worked extremely hard setting up this program working with some of our most challenged learners. I'm very proud of their efforts."

Cluff, a veteran special education teacher, hired in June, said the life skills program was the idea of former special services director George Bergevine. She credits the early success of the program to her staff's abilities. Barbara Provencher has an associates degree in accounting and helps students with enterprise bookkeeping. Technician Tim Roche brings knowledge of current events and weather forecasting to the class and Judi Dion and Cheryl Silva present cooking and crafts skills to the students on a daily basis.

Cluff said that high school students involved in community service for high school credit often visit her room to interact with the students. She also acknowledged the school committee for their support of the Student Enterprises program.

Source: Portland Press Herald

More News in this Category