I’m all about finding efficient ways to deliver Personal Social, Academic and Career mini messages to my students. One of the easiest ways to really make an impact for my middle school students this year was to make presentation slides for our school screen. The screen is used for announcements so I decided I had some important things to announce too! Every week, I feature an institution “continuing education” (ACADEMIC DOMAIN), a career with a positive long term growth rate prediction (CAREER DOMAIN) and a Jump Start Character Education Lesson (PERSOANL/SOCIAL DOMAIN) which is a theme that is built upon daily for the course of the week. Here is my Career Domain slide…
Love how the kids used last weeks featured career in Classroom Guidance discussion this week on how tobacco companies market their products! Making connections!!
No need to point out that I am a “mitten – smitten” girl in every way – so I feature schools and careers here in Michigan. Here is a sample of my Academic Domain slides…
You can see how I have kind of tweaked it since an earlier slide…
To begin with, I found when I came in for Classroom Guidance lessons that kids weren’t even reading the announcements! A little positive behavior intervention (I ask questions at each guidance lesson that pertain to the info I have on one of the slides and reward kids who are attuned with a quick, simple snack size candy bar) and we are making some serious progress. These mini messages have been a spring board to some 1-2 minute conversations over the past 6 weeks with my 5th -8th graders and it is totally to their benefit that we can discuss what GPA and ACT have to do with your choices for the future – compare costs, size, and highlight special features of different institutions while discussing what degrees and programs or licenses are available. We can also talk about a job’s growth rate, education and training or pay scale. The results and pay offs are not too shabby for 3-4 minutes discussion a week.
As for our Jump Start Lessons, we host a theme each week and break it down like so…Here is a sample of a week’s worth of Character Education from my Personal and Social Domain…
Monday – Overview
Tuesday – Rationale
Wednesday – Role Models
Thursday – Beyond School
Friday: What would you do? – A 3-4 line skit with an open ended reflection question
Hope this can inspire you to think of ways you can deliver those Academic, Career, Personal Social components of your Comprehensive Program in new ways that are “mini” but “mighty” !
* Michigan Career Information I use comes from a free Department of Energy Labor and Economic Growth Publication on Michigan’s Hot 50 Jobs – chart
* Michigan Academic information I use comes from a sheet our high school counselor gave me on Michigan College Minimum Requirements “Colleges in Michigan: GPA &ACT Tiers
* Jump Start Lessons are from a MARCO Publication called “180 Daily Guidance Lessons to Jump Start Your Day” by Shannon Trice Black, M.Ed., LPC
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