HER Feature

Students build confidence, skills through lemonade sales

Shortly after starting her first teaching job out of college, Megan Rogers felt she could do something more for her special education students at Lakeside Middle School, and began researching ways that she could impact their lives.

Rogers got together with the other specialists working with special education students at Lakeside Middle School, paraprofessionals Courtney Buckelew, Andrea Parks, occupational therapists Amber Bates and Molly Westerman, and speech pathologist Lisa Wilson, to devise a plan for what is now “Thirsty Thursday.”

“We were trying to think before we started school about how we could make a bigger impact and introduce a daily or weekly thing for the students to do that is more of a functional activity or a job. We thought about cooking but decided that was too difficult to do that every day or every week,” Rogers said

“The speech pathologist, occupational therapist, and I decided that having jobs would be wonderful in middle school because the high school does jobs where they cook food and give it to teachers. We thought we could have the same impact on our teachers and it would be something that the students could take part in and enjoy. So we decided lemonade would work best for us.”

On Wednesday, each student in the class chooses the job they want to do that week. It ranges from making the lemonade and cutting lemons, to readying the cups, lids, and straws. Each week, students are encouraged to try different jobs to challenge themselves. Rogers has broken up the tasks leading up to “Thirsty Thursday” into different stations that work almost like an assembly line.

“I like to put the lids on the cups and get the lemonade ready. We rotate jobs so everybody can do everything (but) … the best job is cutting the lemons and getting out the lemon juice. It pays $1.25,” said student Skyler Downen, 11.

Every job comes with pay, as it would if the students were in the workforce. The teachers and students sat down together early on in the year to determine what would qualify as fair compensation. Throughout the year, they see which jobs take the most effort and then extend raises for those positions.

Rogers makes sure her students are able to keep up with their earnings on a monthly basis by tracking them on a poster board. At the end of the month, the students are allowed to spend their money during a group activity. For the time being, Rogers and the other teachers working with the special education students will host the activities on campus, but Rogers said she hopes to be able to take them to an actual restaurant in the near future.

“We’re just trying to have monthly projects. Whether it be eating out or actually going to a movie. We wanted to start with having our projects here so they feel comfortable with how it goes. That way, when we go out in the real world, they are able to understand that concept,” she said.

Each Thursday, two students from the class will load up their rolling lemonade stand, crank up the tunes, and deliver lemonade to teachers throughout the school. They average about 25 lemonades each week. Since the program began, Rogers said she has seen marked improvements from every student in her classroom.

“I’ve been able to see how they are able to communicate better with us than they were able to in the beginning. Where they might have started with pointing to what they wanted, now some of them are able to verbalize which jobs they would like to do,” she said.

Each student in the class seems to thoroughly enjoy completing their given tasks, no matter which job they are assigned. It not only gives them the opportunity to feel a sense of accomplishment and work on problem-solving skills but also helps build up their self-confidence.

“I like Thirsty Thursday because it is kind of fun but it takes a lot of hard work. I really like helping. I always want to help my teachers and friends. I just really like to deliver (the lemonade) because it is fun. You need a lot of confidence to do this. It helps me feel happy and safe. I have learned how to be a role model and a hard worker,” said Jasmiria Kendrick.

Kendrick said Thirsty Thursday has been a great way for her, as a new student, to meet friendly people throughout the middle school. She has even taken some of the skills she has learned by participating in the activity home so she can better help her parents with chores around the house.

Rogers says one of the most surprising as-

pects to come from the entire experience is the fact that her students are taking the reins and improving upon the method she and other teachers in the classroom set up. As the entire activity is fairly new and a learn-asyou-go process, the students have found ways to expedite their prep time and better serve their customers.

“They have come up with ideas that actually allow us to operate even better. They are getting to see their ideas come to life in ways I didn’t know were possible,” Rogers said.

“They come up with new ideas to solve problems we encounter. Each week, I’ll see someone doing something new or some things that I thought would be difficult are not. It’s not just one thing that has surprised me but how they shine each week no matter what they do.”