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Course Descriptions

COMMUNITY CLASSES
 

HUMAN SERVICES 

The Human Service class focuses on skills needed to assist with other people in the community. Job sires include Jackson Early Childhood Center and the Great Start Readiness Program housed at Garfield Community School. Students are placed individually or in small groups in these classrooms. Depending on what age group the student is assigned, there may be nose wiping, diaper changing, and lots of hand washing. All classrooms involve some custodial work such as sanitizing tables and sweeping floors. Students may need to react quickly to emergency situations such as a child choking, vomiting, or getting hurt on the playground. Students will learn about the developmental stages of childhood and positive techniques for managing children’s behavior. Students interested in this course will have a trial day or two before starting the class. Once students are placed in this class, they must have a TB test and get clearance through the Michigan Department of Human Services. There can be no dangly jewelry, facial piercings, or visible tattoos. Students must wear appropriate, business casual clothing. 

DISTRICT SERVICES 

This course is designed to introduce basic clerical skills to students and to provide them with an opportunity to work in a warehouse/office.  Students learn various skills including: organizing, shredding, shred prep (removing staples/paperclips), utilizing the copy machine, labeling, reading order forms, laminating, recycling collection and other office related skills.  Work order forms for staff are received and completed promptly and efficiently.  The warehouse experience allows students to learn about labeling, organizing, sealing, stocking, and using hand tools. At the Transportation Department, students are cleaning the busses by wiping the seats, taking out the trash, and washing the windows. Students will go to either the LPS Wearhouse, LPS Board Office, or the Transportation Department. 

SCHOOL SUPPORTS 

In this class, students will head out to Cooper Elementary School or Frost Middle School to support the custodians with custodial tasks. Tasks include collecting trash from students in the lunchroom, wiping down tables, taking the trash to the dumpster, getting scuff marks off the floor, and supporting students in the lunchroom. Students will learn different products for sanitizing, they will learn how to wipe tables completely and accurately, and they will learn how to tie trash bags to take to the dumpster. Students will learn the importance of time management and learn how to follow a schedule.

RETAIL SERVICES

In this class, students commute to Meijer, Big Lots, and/or Motown Thrift to engage in a variety of activities related to working and/or shopping at a retail store.  The work day involves activities such as cleaning the employee break room, cleaning and straightening departments at Meijer, restocking items on shelves, removing extra hangers from the racks, and organizing clothing and shoes based on size. Students clean the display cases in different departments of the store. Students also work in the bottle return area, stock room, and often straighten merchandise on the shelves.  The equipment used ranges from spray bottles, dust brooms, cleaning clothes, window squeegees, and dusters.  Each student is rotated through each activity in order to provide the student with a variety of tasks and become more familiar with various retail-oriented services.

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES 

Interns at United Road will gain experience in one or more of these areas.

Truck Wash- Students will learn the gear needed to be worn and tools needed to clean car haulers. Students set up needed supplies, will scrub trucks with soap, rinse with a power-washer and learn how to clean the interior cab.

Mechanical - Students will learn the safety gear needed to be worn to remain safe. Jobs learned are slip-plating to decrease friction on lifts, greasing coils and straps, cleaning commonly used items such as jacks and general site maintenance. Students will assist certified mechanics with daily tasks needed for the upkeep of their fleet.

Data Entry- Students will learn the computer software used to compile service orders for inventory and billing purposes. 

 

APARTMENT LIVING

Students will get to go out to an apartment to learn about what it is like to live on their own. Students will have the opportunity to make grocery lists, go shopping for groceries, stock the fridge, use ingredients to make simple meals and snacks, and clean up after themselves. Students will learn to load and unload the dishwasher. Students will also experience household chores like sweeping the floor, vacuuming, wiping the tables, and dusting. Students will learn how to load the washer and dryer, fold clothes, put clothes in dressers and hang them up in the closet. Students will learn to make the bed and fold blankets. This course is designed to help students who are interested in living on their own or living with staff support. 

IN HOUSE CLASSES

FUNCTIONAL READING AND TECHNOLOGY

This course focuses on Technology skills and functional reading. During this course, students will be exposed to different topics about technology, incorporating reading into these topics. Students will explore answering and making phone calls, internet safety, typing, Google, Emails, and typing. Students will learn different community signs, reading calendars and schedules, job listings, and schedules in the community (movie theater, fitness centers, train station, bus station, airport, sports area... etc). 

HORTICULTURE/LANDSCAPING

The Horticulture curriculum focuses on basic skills required to assist with greenhouse tasks, floral arranging, and related crafts.  Students learn fundamental skills used with plants such as: spraying and watering plants, dead heading, weeding, taking cuttings, transplanting, and plant arrangements.  Students actively participate in the micro-business of selling student created floral arrangements in the school store.  Through the winter months, students begin the process of growing plants for spring.  The focus is on transplanting and taking cuttings of plants, biological insect control, arranging plants by color, and learning the light and water needs of each plant.  Students participate in planting flowers around the building, spreading mulch, picking weeds, raking leaves, and shoveling snow. Students may be exposed to mowing the lawn using a push mower or using a weed whacker. Students may be working outdoors at different times throughout the school year.  

CULINARY ARTS

The culinary arts class introduces students to the skills needed to follow recipes, identify ingredients, measure and weigh quantities and prepare food, including but not limited to, main dishes, soups, salads, appetizers, and desserts.  Students will learn how to safely use commercial grade kitchen equipment in an environment that mirrors a kitchen one would encounter in a restaurant setting.  The students follow all sanitizing and hygiene routines for working with food and all ServSafe regulations and guidelines are practiced in the classroom.  Students learn safe food handling techniques and how to work as a team in a fast paced environment.  Additionally, students are introduced to the concepts of healthy eating as a lifestyle.

SCHOOL STORE/FINANCIAL LITERACY

Students in this class run the school store, the Tiger's Den, at Garfield Community School.  The students are responsible for bagging and organizing merchandise for sale.  The class keeps inventory, prices items, looks for new products to sell, and with assistance, determines profit.  Each student will have an assigned job in the school store and will rotate jobs every few weeks.  The students will also participate in shopping at Meijer to find items to sell in the school store.  Students will be exposed to the concept of micro-business and will demonstrate an understanding of activities they can participate in to earn an income.  School store jobs include running the cash register, selling school spirit attire, greeter, selling coffee, and selling various food/non-food items. Financial Literacy includes counting money, using the dollar up method, making change, and reading receipts. 

UNIVERSAL LIFE SKILLS

The purpose of this class is to teach students how to be an active member of a household as well as the necessary skills in order to find, obtain, and keep a job. Life Skills is one of the in-house classes at the Skill Center. Students will attend for a 55 minute period. During that time, students will participate in one of the following lessons.  

The students will be assigned a checklist with tasks related to one of the following. 

  • Laundry Skills (using washer/dryers, folding, sorting, etc.) 

  • Functional Mathematics Skills(money skills, numerical identification/order, counting skills, etc.) 

  • Functional Reading Skills (survival signs, letter identification/order, recipes, calendar, stocking, etc.) 

  •  Cooking skills (measurements, filling shakers, silverware rolling/sorting, food prep, etc.) 

  • Fine Motor/ Sorting/ Sequencing Skills 

Students will be provided with weekly lessons that will address necessary skills to be successful at work and home.  

  • Employability Skills (job exploration, interviews, following a to-do list, etc.)

  • Household chores (sweeping, cleaning tables/chairs, vacuuming, etc.) 

  • Knowledge of Strengths/Goals  

  • Social Skills/ Soft Skills   

Students will cook in class two times a week. On one of the days, the students will prepare a food item to enjoy. On a different day, students will prepare a beverage. 

Shopping/ Budgeting Lessons:

Each week, the students will work on developing a shopping list of the ingredients for the following week’s recipes. Students will use chrome books to find the items on the Meijer website and calculate how much money is required to buy them.  

MICROBUSINESS: SKILLFUL DESIGN 

Students take donated or commissioned furniture and transform them into new and beautiful pieces. Money earned goes back into funding our supplies and adds to our school activity fund. 

Kids Coalition Against Hunger: Our students label food bags for this organization to help with the local and global food crisis. Food packages are given to local food pantries, the Red Cross and are shipped to global areas of need such as Poland, Yemen and Haiti.