Earlier this year, Cravens Elementary School resource teacher Franca Tolliver brainstormed ideas with her fourth- and fifth- grade students and they created the Cravens Coffee Cart.
Students gather in the teachers’ lounge to fill the orders that were sent on Wednesday to put on the coffee cart and deliver to the participating teachers.
“They [Her students] are learning resource skills, life skills,” Tolliver said. “They created the menu, decided the prices, write the tickets themselves and collect the money.”
“No refunds,” said student Marcus Cisco, jokingly.
The Cravens cafeteria staff keep the sweetened and unsweetened tea and ice-filled in the teachers’ lounge for teachers to get throughout the day, but on Fridays, the teachers are served in their room by Tolliver’s students.
When all orders were filled, the students took turns pushing the cart and delivering drinks to teachers.
As students took the drinks into the classroom, teachers greeted the students. With a Ziplock bag filled with play money, the teachers counted out the cost of the drink, often adding a tip for the student who put it in his apron.
Students then put the money for the beverage into the class money box to count later.
“The teachers are really helpful and patient,” Tolliver said. “They have been really receptive to this and the students who are in their classrooms want to do it, too.”
Tolliver said her students who weren’t very verbally communicative are now passing out the drinks, making eye contact and requesting to take it to certain teachers.
“Their math skills have improved — adding and subtracting, learning money,” Tolliver said.
Currently, there are six boys who work for the Cravens Coffee Cart — Cisco, Walker Barnes, Carlos Handley, Noah Payne, Carson Williams and Brody Postlewaite.
