Dec 30, 2009

Students learn skills running holiday storeBy Jeanette DeForgeMassLive.com

Holyoke – If a customer walked into the Gingerbread Gift Shop and wasn’t sure what to buy his or her mother for Christmas, Keanna E. Ortiz was happy to help.

“I asked them how much they wanted to spend,” the eighth-grader said.

“I said, ‘Does your mom drink coffee? Does your mom like jewelry?,'” she said. “We have bath sets, too.”

Ortiz, 14, is one of a group of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who learned a variety of new skills this year while running a gift shop for fellow students at Dr. Marcella Kelly School.

In the past, teachers have donated the items for sale and ran the shop. This year the shop was taken over by students who attend a class for children with learning disabilities, said Lynn M. Potter, their teacher.

To make it a true learning experience, Potter designed job descriptions and students applied to be sales representatives, cashiers or wrappers. A fourth job was created after a boy said he would be interested in working security.

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