CCSD news: Safety buckets, 3-D maps, student stores

CHURCHILL COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOL

Students in Amy Nichols’ Practical Assessment Exploration Systems (PAES) lab classes have spent the last several weeks helping Churchill County School District assemble and update safety buckets that are distributed district-wide.

“This was a great first lesson of the year because it is real-world processing and production work with assembly lines,” Nichols said.

The idea of including the students in this project came from the district’s behavior specialist, Scott Harrington.

“After talking with the Director of Learning and Innovation, Kathryn Bervin-Mueller, I figured the emergency buckets were a good opportunity to give the students in the CCMS PAES lab some real-life, hands-on experience at work. Nichols looked at the project and agreed that it would be a perfect opportunity for her students because it is process and production, a skill they’re learning in the PAES lab,” Harrington said.

Bervin-Mueller, Harrington and Nichols did a practice run with one student that went well. So the next day, it was a full assembly line with students getting real-world experience in middle school.

“The CCMS students said that this looked like an important job, and they were excited to be part of it. We were thrilled to have their help and it was great to see their work ethic on display,” Bervin-Mueller said.

This is the fourth year CCMS has offered the PAES lab. The lab converts a classroom into a work development lab where students become employees and teachers become employers. This lab is used to assess a student’s competitive work potential and interest level while exploring various jobs, using real tools, and developing proper work behaviors. It consists of five units: business/marketing, computer technology, processing/production, consumer/service, and construction/industrial. There are 264 jobs.

The employees (students) follow work procedures to complete jobs as best as they can independently before they are assisted. The employees earn “money” as they complete their jobs. They also earn when they use proper work skills.

Every two weeks, the students receive a paycheck. The employees learn how taxes are taken out of their paychecks. They deposit their money into a check register and then have an opportunity to shop in the class store, save up for something larger, or a little of both. When they buy something, they must write a check and subtract the amount from their register.

The employees learn their interests and strengths that can help guide them into electives at the high school or onto a career pathway.

“We have this program at the high school and middle school and they are a microsample of what students can expect when they’re out in the world. Nichols and Sara McGowan have such a cool program going. It is really something special to see,” Harrington said.

NUMA

Students in Alissa Bailey's class explored physical maps by creating a 3-D map of Nevada. Students began this project by collaborating to put together the maps. Then, each student determined Nevada's landscape, including rivers, lakes, mountains, and valleys.

“This lesson is always one of my favorites because, by the end, students can determine how they can use physical maps over technology such as GPS,” Bailey said.

Student Ava Bailey said the project was fun and taught her where mountains, lakes, and rivers are. She had never really thought of the landscape of Nevada before this project.

Another student, Anakin Ross said, his favorite part was making the dough with his team. “We had to work together and make sure everyone had turns, so it was fair."

E.C. BEST

The Bulldog Store is back for another great year.

Tina Koenig and two other teachers are running the Bulldog Store this year.

Every Friday students can head to the gym to spend their bulldog bucks that they earned by doing something good. ECB will also continue Popcorn Friday where students can purchase popcorn for $0.50.

“This is a fun way to get the kids excited about coming to school and doing well. We love seeing their excitement when they smell the popcorn in the hallway or they come to the bulldog store to spend the bulldog bucks that they worked hard to earn,” teacher Christine Mori said.

LAHONTAN

This week Lahontan welcomed kindergarten students to school.

Students have already been working hard learning their letters, colors and numbers. One of the ways the Kindergarten teachers help teach students their colors is by focusing on one color each week.

Last week the color was red. Students in Rachel Gonzalez’s class learned to spell the word red, sing about it, and find it in their environment. Students concluded their first week by creating red tear art hearts as their art project.

The red hearts are now displayed in the hallway.

NORTHSIDE EARLY LEARNING CENTER

Pre-Kindergarten students had their first week of school last week. Students in Octavia Merritt and Montana Koplin’s class had lots of fun exploring all the different centers they will have access to this year. Students also enjoyed breakfast in the lunch room and played outside on the playground.

 “We had a wonderful first week and can’t wait to have a wonderful school year,” Merritt said.