There are two major projects that we work on in the resource room setting.  In the late fall, we work on the writing of children’s books.  Students work on this only in resource and only for part of the block. The requirements are that the story cannot be more than 100 words long.  They must add pictures to the story, hand drawn or imported from clipart.  The students do a rough draft and have it edited.  They then type their “book” on the computer and add the pictures.  We print the books and bring them down to Fairley School.  We then read them to students in the first and second grades.  The high school students pair up with the elementary students and read.  The high school students learn a bit about community service and a ton about how to create a book. 

Our spring project involves the garden in front of Fairley.  In the spring of 2000 the resource students planted a garden in front of Fairley to honor Dr. “O” (Joe Occhino) for his years of service to the district.  From that point on we now go out and do yearly maintenance on the garden.  We plant annuals.  We pull out weeds.  We cut back the overgrown bushes.  We spread mulch and fix anything else that needs to be fixed.  The Key Club generously donates the funds to pay for the annual costs.  The high school resource students go down and work with the second graders to “clean up” the garden.  The second graders study flowers in their curriculum.  We do it to show how important community involvement is. 

Both of these projects were developed to help students understand the importance of community service.  The students get to be involved in projects that help someone else.  Whether it is reading to younger students or helping beautify their community.