MIKAYLA KREUZBERGER
THE JOURNAL
WESTMINSTER — Evan Wooding stands in his West-Oak High School “T-Warriors” classroom and carefully writes down the room numbers for his daily newspaper delivery.
After loading his cart full of that day’s edition of The Journal, he looks at his friends, classmates Victoria Dees and David Fisher, and peer tutor Levi Neave, and asks, “Are you ready to go?”
As they walk through the halls of their high school, they’re greeted by smiling faces and early morning greetings from teachers and students alike.
They stop by “F-Troop” teacher Bonita Jones’ classroom and hand her a stack of newspapers, and then they visit several other classrooms on the first floor,
knocking politely and entering quietly, before they make their way to the second floor to make more deliveries.
“T-Warriors” teacher JoAnn Decossas said her students have been delivering local newspapers to classrooms for several years — currently The Journal and The Westminster News — through Newspapers in Education, a national program that delivers newspapers to schools.
“Teachers love when my kids come into their classrooms to deliver the newspaper,” Decossas said. “They’ve told me it’s a joy to see their faces.”
Decossas has taught students with moderate and severe/profound intellectual and physical disabilities at West-Oak High for 11 years.
“We’ve worked hard to build our program, and our newspaper delivery service is just one of many reasons I love my job,” she said.
In her classroom, she pointed to several high school “peer tutors” helping her students decorate Christmas cards.
“We have peer tutors come in all day, every day. Any student can become a peer tutor in Mrs. Jones’ or my class. You can sign up for it as an elective, and most of our peer tutors sign up more than once,” she said, further mentioning that several peer tutors have gone on to receive college degrees in special education because of their experiences at West-Oak.
Neave, a 16-year-old junior, said this is his first semester as a peer tutor in Decossas’ class.
“I had an open class this semester and I wanted to try it out,” Neave said. “I’ve enjoyed it. When Evan (Wooding) came here earlier this year, he kind of latched on to me. I like delivering newspapers with him.”
Wooding is 15 years old and well over 6 feet tall; he said he goes to weightlifting class every other day with peer tutor Garrett Mason, 17.
“I take Evan to our class and we work out together,” Mason said.
Wooding put his arm around Mason’s shoulder and told him it was time for weightlifting, at which point they promptly left for class.
Decossas said the faculty and staff also work to include her students in activities outside the classroom, too.
“Several of my students cheered with our varsity cheerleading team at home football games this year. Keri Sutton, a peer tutor, spent time with the girls working on cheers during class,” she said.
Fisher, 16, said he plays the base drum for the marching band.
“The girls love me,” he said about wearing his uniform and marching on the football field.
Additionally, Decossas said most of her students attend West-Oak’s prom and there have been several students who have been elected to homecoming court.
“Peer tutors and other students fight over which one of our students they get to take to prom. It’s always a big deal; our kids love it,” she said.
Principal Kurt Kreuzberger said because of his students’ desire to build a relationship with the T-Warriors and F-Troop classes, he knows that West-Oak’s biggest attribute is its student body.
“The students in those classes are taken care of by the student body. They’re accepted and incorporated into the school just like any other student,” Kreuzberger said. “These programs, like peer tutoring and the newspaper delivery, translate later in the school day when kids come up and talk to them in the halls and during lunch.”
He mentioned another popular program that faculty, staff and students enjoy is Jones’ F-Troop café.
Jones, a teacher at West-Oak since 1991, and aides Cindy Thibodeaux, Jenny Driver, Rashaad Jackson and Arian Calhoun work with their F-Troop students every day to provide tasty treats for teachers and students.
“In addition to working on math and reading skills in the classroom, we use the café as a way to build students’ social and academic skills,” Jones said. “They make milkshakes, gourmet pretzels, and coffee … we bake and decorate cakes for teachers and make sandwiches for athletes before their games. It involves a lot of interaction and it’s a great way to bring the F-Troop into contact with teachers and students.”
Briana Coker, 18, made a mudslide milkshake for The Journal.
“I really like working in the café,” she said as she gave Jones a hug.
Jones said the goal for her students is to get them ready for the real world.
“By the time they graduate, our hope is that they are capable to work in the community. The café prepares them for work, and they also visit jobs in the area to find out what they like and dislike,” Jones said.
Other notable job skills that F-Troop students learn include sewing ripped athletic uniforms, landscaping in the school’s courtyard, at nursing homes and at Chau Ram County Park, among others.
“We do a lot in our community,” Jones said. “We like to let the community know we’re here.”
For information about Decossas’ T-Warriors class and Jones’ F-Troop class, call West-Oak, (864) 886-4530.
No comments:
Post a Comment