Gillis
has been a very busy place this school year. We have started new programs and
enhanced other existing programs.
The vocational program continues to give our students access to the latest in job research and training. In November students ran the Scholastic Book Fair. They sold more than $400.00 worth of books and came up with different ways to market the book fair for bigger profit next year. Students have gone to job fairs and will be hosting our 2nd Annual Career Fair on February 22, 2013. The program will be run by our students. The students are also creating a cookbook of their favorite foods that they have made in cooking class. They will be selling this cookbook and marketing it during the year. There are many field trips planned for the spring and even more speakers coming to share their knowledge and careers.
The Theatre of the Imagination has joined Gillis this year to teach a class once a week and hold monthly performances. The first play was wonderful and the students thoroughly enjoyed performing it in front of the entire school. There were no shy students that day! I would say that our students were very ready to be the center of attention.
The Music Therapy Program will be running at full steam during the Holiday season…our band will be playing at Armour Oaks in December. They are also collaborating with Theatre of the Imagination to perform a rendition of “The Christmas Carol”. The staff bell choir will perform at the Holiday program on Wednesday, Dec. 19th. In addition, we received a grant to purchase more instruments and sound equipment for music therapy…YEY!
Our teachers have been busy with creative ideas as well. There was a pirate day recently where the students learned all about pirates and then participated in a treasure hunt. Then there was the egg day where students learned about eggs and made different meals from eggs. Our creative teachers are doing so much that I could fill two more pages with creativity; however, I am out of room for this blog. I just want to say thank you to all of our teachers and staff who really take the time to help nurture our students. Our students always know that someone is on their side.
