Stories from the Vocside: Awesome!

She has become a very good worker in the workshop, but she doesn’t especially like to learn new jobs.  She is very good at disassembling items so I gave her a new job of disassembling jars.  The job consists of taking the lid off a jar and removing 3 different pieces and sorting them in the appropriate boxes.  When she came in and saw the new job she was not very happy.  It can take several days of trying to introduce a new job but today she learned the new job in 25 minutes.  We started hand over hand so she would learn the steps of the job.  We did this over and over until she learned each part.  After 25 minutes we had great success and she was independently disassembling the jars!

  

A gift to be thankful for

In this space between Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays when gifts play a greater or lesser role, I pause to be thankful for the gift of working daily in the Vocational Department with a very dedicated, talented group of people.  They bring to their efforts each day a level of investment, creativity, curiosity, humanity, and humor which shines through:  a gift that enriches lives.

New equipment for the Work Center

We recently purchased two rotary paper trimers, one for students to use in the Work Center for cutting student paychecks and other assignments, and one for use at our Faith Lutheran Church work site where students help out with various clerical tasks in the office.

More deliciousness coming soon!

The All School Thanksgiving Lunch was once again a great success.

 Coming soon:  our annual Holiday Lunch:

Vocside Stories: A Star at Big Y

Ed walks into Big Y, finds Lynn, his favorite cashier and begins helping customers with their groceries.  Ed's goal is to be an independent worker at Big Y.  He checks in with the Front End Manager to see when she needs him to assist in the bottle room and to be added to a time slot to shag carts in the parking lot.  When it is his turn to shag carriages, he dons the yellow safety jacket and heads to the parking lot.  Moving several carts together is tough work but Ed puts safety first.  His job doesn't stop there.  Ed also helps customers put groceries into their cars.  In a half hour, Ed has helped up to ten customers.  Then it is back to more bagging to finish off his day.  Ed likes the pace of the job.  It keeps him going and the time passes quickly.  More than that, Ed feels appreciated and enjoys assisting customers and "helping them get home as soon as they can".

Vocside Stories: Gunnar's Flowers

He started arranging and delivering flowers about 2 months ago.  At first we did the whole job together.  Now, Gunnar counts out the number of flower buckets needed and begins filling them.  Once Gunnar picks a flower color to use, he likes to stick with it for a while.  He learned to put a few of the same color in all of the buckets instead of in one bucket.  He likes to put his tag with his name and the white peonies into the completed arrangements, proud of what he has created.  Right from the start, Gunnar was a pro at using the elevator and getting a full flower cart through entry doorways.  That's hard to do!  Just ask Gunnar, who holds the door with one hand and pushes the cart with the other.  Gunnar is a popular student around the school.  He is stopped by staff many times to chat about his day and his beautiful bouquets.  If, by some chance, someone on Gunnar's delivery list is not in their office to receive their flowers, Gunnar wants to keep delivering until all the flowers are gone.  He likes to see an empty cart on his trek back to the vocational building.  Great job learning the flower job Gunnar!

Working hard as the Campus Florist

Working hard at Harvey & Lewis Opticians

Super Duper Shredder

Working hard delivering the Campus Mail

Working hard restocking the drinks coolers

Working hard in the Campus Work Center

Working hard at Harvey & Lewis Opticians

Working hard at McCarthy Concrete

Working hard at Big Y

Working hard at Walgreen's

Working hard at South Whitney Pizza

Annual RSS Thanksgiving Luncheon

New students have joined the Vocational Dept.

A  WELCOME to our two new students!

2013-2104 School Year

Hello to everyone.  We are off to a smooth start to the new school year.

The Vocational Department welcomed two new students on return from the break:  Kevin P and RJ.  Both are off to a great start.

Three students have increased hours of participation:  Jordan C (from 10 to 15 hours/week), Zac W (from 5 hours to 10 hours/week), and Scott P (from 5 to 10 hours/week).  Congratulations!

Programming for a number of students expanded beginning in the summer to include community work assignments: Alexis N (delivering shredding to the Puppy Center), Gunnar S (maintenance at the CT Fire Academy), Angela P (clerical tasks at Faith Lutheran Church), Omari J (maintenance at Faith Lutheran Church), and Ben R (maintenance at Harvey & Lewis Opticians/Hartford and pizza box making at South Whitney Pizza).

The popularity of the Campus Florist program has resulted in an increase to 27 customers who receive new bouquets weekly and there is a waiting list of 7!  Currently students 3 days/week collect bouquets and deliver fresh arrangements after restocking (disassembling, sorting).  To accommodate the waiting list, service will expand to 4 days/week in November.  A recent purchase of additional silk blooms has doubled the available stock.  Sarah H and Gunnar S have joined the program with responsibilities for assembling and delivering new arrangements with the support of a coach.  Ben R has been picking up bouquets.


Programming for additional students has been expanded to include campus mobile assignments (non-bench/production):

Steve D, Shawn S and Joel T have assignments delivering/picking up bags of boxes at classrooms throughout the Main Building.  The commercial basket truck heading out or returning full weighs between 60 and 70 pounds.  Heavy work!  A particular shout out to Shawn S who has progressed to doing the pick-up independently.

Kevin P, new to voc at the beginning of September, has quickly become independent at preparing/delivering the student paychecks and also at delivering the staff mail.

Congratulations!

The Vocational Department Staff
wish all the best to all our
June 2013 Graduates!

Sean T
Maggie W
Chris C
Chris S
Kathleen B
Lashonda B
Justin L
Jeremy M
Max B

Rachael C
Obi E
Sean F

Ronnie M
Taylor P
Michael R                                     
Michael C
Eddy C
                                       

New from Science News for Kids

SMILE! 

Dimples boost your mileage

Trucks covered with tiny indentations, like those on golf balls, experience less friction

Voc Side Stories

"Hey Boss"  That is how he might get our attention while he is fast at work at Harvey and Lewis or South Whitney Pizza.  He hauls pizza boxes from the basement and sits at the booth to assemble them.  As his fingers fly he keeps up a steady stream of conversation about his favorite shows.  He is looking forward to earning his pizza for snack.  He still likes a good joke but he has learned how to present himself as a young man.  When he came into the office to tell his supervisor that he "had bad news...my last day is Friday", he explained that his family was moving and he would be attending a new program.  He concluded his conversation with a spontaneous hand shake and a big "Thank-you John".

We wish you all the best.  It has been a pleasure to watch you mature and blossom while you have attended the vocational program.    

In the short time that he worked at Shell, he became quite comfortable as evidenced by his interactions with customers and staff.  Although he worked in the mornings at Shell, he would always greet customers with "Good Afternoon Mam/Sir" and when I brought it to his attention that it was not afternoon, he quickly told me that he had always wanted to say this.  He really seemed to come out of his shell as he became experienced with his off grounds assignments.  He would report to Voc with eagerness to get to his work site.  While working at Shell, he would address Cameron (Shell employee) as "Hey Boss" and enjoyed offering Cameron tips on "good" Japanese anime.  It's funny that on his last day at Shell, he approached Cameron to say goodbye and proudly shook his hand but when he was approached by the owner of Shell, he just gave a quick "see ya later" as he walked out.  He will be missed greatly and I wish him continued success in his new program. 
 

Spring! Enjoy!

National Geographic for Kids: The Lion's Den

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/wild-detectives-kids/wd-ep9-lionsden/

Vocside stories

Ed began his Vocational venture working in the workshop, which he enjoyed immensely.  He was recently given the opportunity to work at the Children’s Museum in West Hartford, CT. He appeared nervous at first with working with the different animals. Ed is very serious about getting his work done and doing it correctly. On one occasion stand out to me in particular.  On this day, Ed seemed nervous when picking up the chinchillas to move them into the pet carrier.   When he would try to pick them up, they would scatter away. This made Ed jump back.  His response was “these little buggers are fast”.  This made both of us laugh.  Ed after several tries caught them so that he could continue cleaning the cage.  He then had to put the Chinchillas back into their cage.  While doing this he was talking to them and telling them to stay still.  Ed was successful at put the chinchillas back in their home.

Vocational Student's Family Honored

Rachel C and her parents, Harold and Donna were honored recently for their contributions to the Special Olympics programs.  Please the article below from the Saturday-Sunday March 23-24, 2013 edition of the Journal Inquirer.

Holyoke/Chicopee Citizen Advisory Board Annual Recognition Awards

Sean Tetrault was honored by the Holyoke/Chicopee Advisory Board recently at their 11th Annual Recognition Ceremony.  Congratulations Sean!

Vocside Stories

She reports to voc after lunch on Mondays for Community Experience.  We talk to each other using a communication device that says hello, tells her where we will visit and what to expect on CE.  Then we are off to the van.  She independently uses her communication device to request to "turn off" the radio and to go back to class after we have completed our trip (or sometimes even if we haven't completed our trip!).  Using her devise in the stores to talk about items to buy, how to pay and what will happen next helps her participate and complete Community Experience.  Sometimes, she buys her orange juice for her lunches at school.  Once back on campus, toting her grocery bag with her orange juice, she will bee line back to class to finish her school day.

New from Science News for Kids

Flower power

Electric field around flowers may help bees find nutritious blooms

Vocside Stories: A trip to the Puppy Center

He comes every Tuesday afternoon with excitement on his face.  He can’t wait to get to the closet door and begin hauling each bag of shredded paper out of the closet.  He needs to be reminded that we only need 6, as the van won’t hold any more than that.  He then begins dragging them out of the building.  Through his excitement he doesn’t notice or care that he catches the bag on the corner of shelving causing a tear.  He drags 2 at a time to the van and tosses them inside.  As it gets full, he pushes them in farther and closes the hatch quickly to keep them in.  He enjoys his ride to Puppy Center getting more and more excited with each passing mile.  Once there, his enthusiasm in removing the bags from the van is just as great as putting them in.  He grabs each one out of the van and slams the hatch shut.  He carries them to the storage room and tosses them inside, struggling to get them far enough into the room as the bags are quite heavy.  Then back into the van for a special treat for doing such a good job.  He favorite place to go is McDonald's.  

 He orders using a pecs system and then waits, not always so patiently for his hamburger and fries. After receiving his food he will go sit at a booth and lay his napkin out on the table and dump his fries on top.  He eats with great gusto until all is gone.  While riding back to school in the van, he has a look of contentment that any one of us can understand.

New from Science News for Kids

Oldest bird is new mom

At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

- See more at: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/02/at-62-albatross-hatches-a-healthy-chick/#sthash.OQyXKUd3.dpuf

Oldest bird is new mom

At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

- See more at: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/02/at-62-albatross-hatches-a-healthy-chick/#sthash.OQyXKUd3.dpuf

Oldest bird is new mom

At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

- See more at: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/02/at-62-albatross-hatches-a-healthy-chick/#sthash.OQyXKUd3.dpuf

Oldest bird is new mom

At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

- See more at: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/02/at-62-albatross-hatches-a-healthy-chick/#sthash.OQyXKUd3.dpuf

Oldest Bird is new mom
At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

Oldest bird is new mom

At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

- See more at: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/02/at-62-albatross-hatches-a-healthy-chick/#sthash.OQyXKUd3.dpuf

FOR KIDS: Oldest bird is new mom

At 62, albatross hatches a healthy chick

- See more at: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348631/description/FOR_KIDSOldest_bird_is_new_mom#sthash.4UHLxWM5.dpuf

Update on Youth group Leader

Sean had his first meeting as the Springfield Easter Seals Youth Meeting facilitator on Presidents Day February 11.    He had to be there for training and set up from 3:30-5:30 and the meeting was from 5:30-7:30.  The president of Easter Seals and Sean's boss for this job (Colleen), both said he did a great job leading  the meeting.  There was a very strong turn out of young adults from ages 15-24.

Congratulations Sean!

Voc Student Appointed to Position of Youth Group Leader

Sean has been notified by Easter Seals that he has been accepted for the position of Youth Group meeting facilitator for the Springfield Easter Seals meetings.  He was formally interviewed by Easter Seals for this position 3 weeks ago.  He wore a suit for the interview and thought he did very well.  The first meeting is Monday 2/18/2013 at Center for Human Development office located at 332 Birnie Ave., Springfield, Ma. 01107 at5:30-7:30 pm.  Sean will arrive at 4:45  for some training.  There will be 1 meeting each month from February thru June.  Sean invites as many young adults as possible to attend including students from River Street School.  This will be a great experience for Sean. Congratulations!

Sean has been extensively involved with Partners for Youth with Disabilities (PYDS) and in particular the Making Healthy Connections Program. This is his second year serving as a peer group leader and he was chosen to serve as a delegate for the I Am Norm Youth Summit in Long Beach, CA this past November.  Sean has also served as a MA Youth Leader for Easter Seals and was selected to be a delegate at the MA Youth Leadership Forum.