You know that saying: “There’s a lesson to be learned in everything.”, well, it’s true! If you’re a teacher, there are many tedious little tasks you do on a daily basis, and it takes a lot of time out of your day when you do them by yourself. Now obviously there are certain things you have to do because it is your job and that is what you are trained to do.

There are definitely some things here or there that you can receive help for though, and guess what, these are perfect opportunities to have your students work on vocational skills. I bet if you asked the front desk or another department if they needed help with anything, they could give you a list of things for your students to do as well. What’s that other saying? “Kill two birds with one stone.”; make your job a little bit easier while teaching your students vocational skills!

Strategies & Differentiation

While some activities might seem like a simple task, we came to discover they weren’t as easy as they looked.  Depending on the student and how much support they needed, it was helpful to…

• Explain each step or write the steps on the board
• Explain the purpose of the activity (what’s the end result?)
• Go over do’s & don’ts, safety rules, hygiene rules
• Model each step
• Guided practice
• In some cases, break the activity into different jobs according to student level (eg. One student does the cutting, one student does the folding, one student does the sorting…etc)
• In some cases, the activity was an assembly line with multiple steps for each student to complete

Here are some of the tasks I’ve had students help me with.

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Prepping Resources (Task Cards, Adapted Books…etc)

If you’re a special educator, you know that this takes up a lot of your time.  Instead of taking it home each night or doing it over the weekend, have your students help! Laminating, cutting and sticking on velcro is such an easy and perfect task for most students.  Depending on what you are prepping, here are the jobs I distribute:

1. Laminating
2. Cutting (With scissors, cutting board, or corner cutter)
3. Velcro
4. Binding

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AD: Daily independent living and career vocation interest questions with visuals/real images with coordinating interest survey worksheets to keep track of answers/interests and extended discussion ideas.

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Staff & Student Emergency Forms

 

I broke this activity into 3 different jobs.

1. Cutting the forms (there were 3 per page) using a paper trimmer.
2. Put the sticker pictures & names in the correct spots
3. Alphabetize the cards

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Classroom Emergency Booklets

 

This one was definitely one of the “harder than it looks” activities.  I broke this up into 8 different jobs.

1. Printing on different colored pages
2. Laminating the pages
3. Cutting the laminated pages
4. Picking up the lamination scraps
5. Sorting out the cut pages
6. Assembling the pages in the right order
7. Lining up the pages at the correct spot, folding at the top, and stapling.
8. Distributing to each classroom/building and informing each teacher/staff where to place the booklet

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New Student/Beginning of the Year Packets

 

This activity was split up into 3 jobs.

1. Several different assembly lines to put together a few different packets (Tip: If the packet needs to stay in a specific order, don’t forget to explain if the next paper is going on top or under the last page they grabbed)
2. Staple packets
3. Insert multiple different packets into one envelope

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Homecoming Dance/Staff Party/Etc Invitations

 

I distribute this activity into 4 jobs.  We have multiple events throughout the year that we send invitations to staff or students.

1. Fold invitation
2. Insert invitations into an envelope
3. Address labels
4. Distribute invitations to each classroom to go home in backpacks, or staff mailboxes

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AD: Vocation Life Skills Word Wall with vocabulary words with visuals! Age appropriate for older students focused on careers, occupations, and job skill vocabulary.

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Job Developing Packets

Each year we have job developers go out to past job sites to renew our contract or prospective job sites, and we give them a folder filled with information about our off-campus jobs as well as a school calendar.  This activity can be 1 or 2 steps.

1. Assembly line to put together packet
2. Insert packet into a folder

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Halloween Treat Baggies

 

During Halloween, we have the younger grades come by each classroom and “Trick or Treat”.  To save money and be a little unique, instead of giving out candy, one year we decided to give out bags of goldfish.

1. I gave each student their own packing station providing them with gloves, a bowl of goldfish, a box of zip locks, and a serving spoon.
2. We went over hygiene rules (wear gloves, discard dropped golf fish, don’t eat the goldfish) and rules for minimizing wasted product (take your time scooping, scoop gently, don’t overfill the bags).
3. Students were able to work on their fine motor skills of opening and shutting Ziploc bags.

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Distributing Uniforms

Each year we order job coaching polos for staff to wear at our off-campus jobs.  This activity was broken down into 5 jobs.

1. Taking orders (go to each staff to ask for their size and write down on a clipboard)
2. When the orders arrive, sorting the shirts by size. (I put sticky note visuals out on a table so that students knew where to sort each size)
3. Putting a staff’s name (with a sticky note) on the front according to what they ordered.
4. Sorting the orders by staff location (by classroom)
5. Distributing the orders to the correct room and staff

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Valentine’s Treat Bag

For Valentine’s, we made little sweet tea treat bags to give out to staff, and the student’s had a fun time assembling the packages!

1. I gave each student their own packing station providing them with gloves, a bowl of sugar cubes, a box of zip locks, and a box of tea bags. (For students that had a hard time doing several steps, I gave them one item to concentrate on putting in the bag and formed an assembly line)
2. We went over hygiene rules (wear gloves, discard dropped sugar/tea, don’t eat the sugar) and rules for minimizing wasted product.
3. Students were able to work on their fine motor skills of opening and shutting Ziploc bags.
4. Cutting the tag using a cutting board or scissors
5. Folding the tag in half
6. Stapling the tag onto the finished bags (with assistance if needed)
7. Counting and passing out to staff in each classroom.

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Set Up/Breakdown for School Dances/Functions

We host many events at our school that require tables, chairs and table settings to be set up.  This is the perfect opportunity to practice and also incorporate team work.

1. Bringing out correct number of supplies and placing in correct place
2. Setting up/folding tables
3. Setting up/folding chairs
4. Ironing or steaming table cloths before putting them out
5. Tables cloths (making sure cloth is centered
6. Center pieces
7. Breakdown of tables/chairs
8. Washing table cloths
9. Folding table cloths

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Snack/Coffee Cart

Here’s a great student business that works on many different skills!

1. Checking inventory
2. Stocking products
3. Social skills with asking staff what they would like to order
4. Money math adding up price of products (use calculator if needed)

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Stocking staff lounge or teacher workroom

1. Check inventory/noting what needs to be replaced
2. Order supplies (or put in order with someone who is in charge of ordering supplies)
3. Receiving packages/opening packages
4. Restocking items in their place

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Assembling/Installing Purchases

If you have a stand-up desk or small shelf you ordered for the classroom and need to assemble, this is a great way for students to practice reading instructions and fine motor skills!

*Be sure to be mindful of what is safe/appropriate for your students to assist with when working with tools.

1. Reading instructions
2. Assisting with handing the teacher the correct supplies (screws, hammer, nails…etc)
3. Assisting with holding parts together while teacher screws pieces together or vice versa, having student help with screwing in pieces.

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