By Gina Morton
DANVILLE -- A newly implemented business program at the Danville Middle School helps students practice communication skills for future employment through role-playing.
Teacher Jennifer Mohr and her students have opened a business called the Ironmen Java Wagon, where two times a month students serve coffee, tea and refreshments to faculty members.
The students learn skills they will be able to use in future job opportunities and life situations.
These skills include banking, money exchange, cashier work, determining product price, estimating profit earned, taking inventory, duplicating recipes, creating shopping lists, typing, delivering and tallying order forms, creating a delivery timetable and practicing customer service skills.
"The students can practice communication in the classroom and then do role-playing," Mohr said. "In a real setting, they sometimes freeze up. This puts the life skills to practice."
For the Java Wagon, students determine a menu and teachers fill out order forms noting their preferred times of delivery.
The students tally the order forms, create a delivery schedule and make a shopping list, Mohr said. The youths then go to the grocery store to purchase the items they need and prepare the baked goods.
On delivery day, students wear a uniform and deliver the products. Customer service skills are practiced, and an inventory of the business is kept.
Students said they enjoy preparing the food and delivering the goodies to teachers throughout the building. Brandon Hixson, 12, said he has helped with the Java Wagon twice and enjoys the process.
"We take it out and go around and give out coffee," the sixth-grader said. "The hardest part is pushing on tops of the coffee."
As Mohr's students pushed the cart through the school's hallways, she and the youths practiced what should be said and how much each teacher owed for purchases.
"One dollar, please," eighth-grader Mike Rine said to one teacher as he delivered coffee and a Rice Krispies treat.
Helping Mohr's class are Glenna Rynda's students, who join in the delivery of the food.
Mohr said coffee was donated by Green Mountain, and brewing equipment was provided at a discounted rate by Atlantique Equipment, of Danville.
