Thorne students learn real-world skills

The spirit of the Random Acts of Kindness program — celebrating community service, learning and charitable giving — lives on at Thorne Middle School in Middletown.

Top: Eighth-graders Tom Waller (l-r) and Anna Matuszak get experience using a paper-shredder during the ceremonial opening of The Lion’s RACK (Random Acts of Clothing Kindness) and the Vocational Room at Thorne Middle School in Middletown on Feb. 18. Left: Seventhgraders Val Pedretti (l-r) and John Speranza complete the task of pencil sharpening. The district is welcoming two new additions to the Port Monmouth school — The Lion’s RACK and the Vocational Room — designed to teach real-world life skills and civic responsibility to specialneeds students at Thorne.

“It’s a civics project to show how to be a good citizen,” said special-education teacher Sue Mosley. “It also gives them job skills that they may need later in life.”

PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff The classroom was officially unveiled on Thursday, Feb. 18, and students were already busy sorting clothing, shredding papers, sharpening pencils and sorting mail to be delivered to faculty throughout the school.

The Lion’s RACK, which stands for Random Acts of Clothing Kindness, serves as an inschool thrift store where students can go “shopping” for needed clothes at no cost to them.

“If the children don’t have the appropriate attire for graduation, like suits or dresses, then the kids can come in and shop with dignity, privacy and get whatever they need,” Mosley said. “It’s also a service project for my students who are able to do something nice for somebody else.”

The “store,” which is operated on a donation-only basis, will be student run by the multiple disabilities class and the alternative education program.

Eighth-grader Jordan Barrett sorts through a pile of clothes during the opening of The Lion’s RACK (Random Acts of Clothing Kindness) and the Vocational Room at Thorne Middle School in Middletown on Feb. 18. ERIC SUCAR staff Eighth-grader Jordan Barrett was hard at work last week, carefully folding clothes and placing them in piles on the table.

“I sorted between boys and girls, and now I’m sizing from 18 and up,” Barrett said. “I think it’s a good thing because a lot of people where we live right now need clothes, and this is a good way to give them clothes for when they graduate and stuff like that.”

In preparation for vocational programs at Middletown North and South high schools, special-needs students will also learn job training and life skills inside the Vocation Room during a 40-minute class period.

“As a teacher at the middle school, I feel my job is to prepare them for high school,” said Kristyn Corace. “A pre-vocational room here at Thorne is going to help them to gain access to some skills, be exposed … things like that.”

The classroom is modeled after

traditional office environment and involves pre-vocational tasks such as sorting mail, cleaning, keeping a daily notebook and making copies. Computers are also set up to teach pupils to apply for jobs online.

The teachers will assign responsibilities and act as the students’ bosses. If a student does not complete a particular job, they can be

fired.”

Corace explained that the assignments are not only beneficial for the student’s social and motor skills, but it will have a cross-curriculum benefit as well.

“We have paper shredders and we are actually shredding documents from child study teams around the district that have confidential information,” Corace said. “We are doing a job for them as well.”

One of the current projects includes sharpening pencils for the guidance department in preparation for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) exam for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, coming up in the spring.

“The students will be working at these jobs and staying on task for about 40 minutes every day,” Corace said. “That’s the appropriate time for a middle school student. When they move on to the high school, it will be extended for half a day in preparation for working full time after graduation.”

Both the school community and outside organizations were involved with the new additions. The Lowe’s home improvement store of Holmdel donated more than $500 worth of supplies for the programs.

Justin Stetka, business manager at Lowe’s on Route 35, said the store donated storage totes, hanging racks, closet supplies and other items to Thorne to help jump-start the pre-vocation classes.

“My position in the store is to do community events, fundraising and different programs,” Stetka said. “They [Corace and Mosley] approached me and gave me a letter with bullet points about what they needed and what they are doing.”

From there, he got a gigantic cart for the teachers and loaded it with whatever they needed.

“It’s a great program,” he said. “It’s a nobrainer for my company and I to get involved. We’re right up the road, and it’s a good cause.”

The Vocation Room and the Lion’s RACK was modeled after beloved Thorne teacher Kathleen Weinstein, who taught special education and started the Random Acts of Kindness program at the school. She was murdered in March 1996, but her legacy remains.

“She had a program called Random Acts of Kindness that we’ve had at the school for many, many years,” Mosley said. “That’s why we call it the Lion’s RACK … for random acts of kindness in her memory.”

For more information about the school and program, visit http://thornems.com.