For many students, learning extends far beyond textbooks—and for Garland ISD special education teacher Merridith York, the most meaningful lessons happen through authentic, hands-on experiences.
Thanks to a TRTF Classroom Assistance Grant, York is expanding opportunities for her students to build the vocational and independent living skills they will use long after they leave the classroom. Her innovative campus-based work learning programs empower students to develop confidence, responsibility, and the practical skills needed for future employment and independent living.
Students participate in three engaging programs: the Coffee Cart, Helping Hands Campus Work Crew, and the Courtyard Garden. Each provides meaningful opportunities to practice transferable workplace skills while serving their school community.
El Coffee Cart allows students to strengthen customer service, money handling, order preparation, and professional communication skills while learning to adapt to the unique needs of each customer. Every interaction helps students build confidence in a real-world work environment.
Through the Helping Hands Campus Work Crew, students take on authentic workplace responsibilities, including delivering mail, organizing supplies, cleaning classrooms, offices, and the library, and completing laundry duties. These daily tasks reinforce teamwork, time management, task sequencing, and workplace expectations while instilling pride in a job well done.
Students also cultivate independence through the Courtyard Garden, where they plant, water, harvest, and maintain outdoor spaces. Caring for the garden teaches responsibility, perseverance, and problem-solving while providing a tangible connection between hard work and meaningful results.
Through these experiences, students strengthen self-advocacy by learning to identify their personal needs, utilize appropriate supports, and communicate their goals and accommodations in academic, vocational, and community settings.
By blending academic instruction with authentic vocational experiences, Merridith York is helping students develop the creativity, adaptability, confidence, and independence they need to succeed in the workplace and in everyday life. Her dedication exemplifies the innovative teaching celebrated through TRTF’s Classroom Assistance Grant Program and demonstrates the lasting impact educators can make when students are given opportunities to learn by doing.
