Gulf Shores City Schools exceptional students regularly take part in hands-on activities to prepare for post-secondary education jobs.

At Gulf Shores Middle School, Kesley Canan's class hosts a biweekly "coffee cart" where students work to create coffees ordered by teachers. The students later hand out the coffees and interact with school staff members.

All middle school students regularly take turns participating in coffee deliveries. Landon Haley, Merci Sabogal and Finn Sabine worked on the coffees when Canan spoke with Gulf Coast Media.

"Merci loves making and prepping the coffee," Canan said. "The second she sees our cart she yells 'coffee!'."

The middle school class had much to say on how much they enjoyed this program. Millie Conner loves to call out "special delivery" as she passes out coffees, though she did not participate the day GCM was present. Haley said he enjoys making the coffee and "passing it around."

"I like walking around while doing school," he said.

These activities carry over to the special education classes at the high school level as teacher Misty Balster implements "as many job skills" as she can in daily lessons.

A daily task among the high school class is cleaning the cafeteria and helping to prepare 60 lunch packs for students.

Lela Booth, Brodie Wright, Connor Dickerson and Gina Robinett all worked to prepare the cafeteria for the day. Dickerson's favorite activities include "cleaning tables and the microwave" alongside Wright. Robinett, who was named the high school's prom queen this year, enjoys packing the lunches and Booth enjoys folding cleaning rags after they have been washed.

"It's mainly to look at strengths and weaknesses so that when we look at post-secondary options and jobs after high school, we know what they're good at and what they're not good at," Balster said on the job skill activities.

Balster plans to implement more programs that work with job skill training and practice. Another program she has in place partners her exceptional students with AP English students as they work together to write a book of poetry and prose.