A new coffee house helps special needs students learn life skills once a week. Every Friday morning at La Mesa Junior High School, the “Lobos Coffee House” is open, and students can be seen pushing coffee and pastry carts around the school distributing pastries and coffee to teachers and staff.
The coffee house gives students a chance to have practical experience using sign language, listening, counting money, socializing, and navigating.
Special education teachers Justine Agagon and Aubrie Fairbanks created the coffeehouse. It is the first of its kind in the William S. Hart Union School District.
The teachers designed the program as a type of project based learning. They found companies willing to donate food and coffee, including Starbucks and Panera Bread.
“I have never have seen a teacher go out and create a program where the teacher sought out big businesses and implemented a program like this,” said Andrea Feather, whose son is a student in Agagon’s class. “From what I know, there is no other program like this.”
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