Final+Middle+School+Workshop

__Overview of 7th Grade One Day Workshop__ The 7th grade workshop will focus on teaching students the "soft skills" that employers are seeking in employees. Additionally, this workshop will focus on helping students to think about what they want their future to look like, as well as developing self-knowledge in the areas of abilities, skills, personality, and interests and how these can relate to future careers. Students will learn how to research three careers of interest on the Internet that match their personality and skills. They will also determine how their personal values should play a role in what career they pursue. Finally, the 7th grade students will develop a personal budget to see how much things actually cost and how much money they will have to make in order to maintain their desired lifestyle.
 * FINAL MIDDLE SCHOOL CAREER WORKSHOP FOR** **JOHN F. KENNEDY MIDDLE SCHOOL**
 * 7th Grade One Day Career Workshop:**

Activities will include the following:
 * Participation in team building initiatives
 * Development of a "Dream Collage"
 * Completion of the self-assessment portions of DISCOVER to determine students' Holland Codes and print out matching careers
 * Research requirements for three careers of interest using O*NET (Must use careers from DISCOVER Program)
 * Work in small groups to create a personal budget where each group is given a set salary
 * Determine what values are most important to students in small groups using Values Card Sort
 * Attend lesson on work values such as respect, responsibility, honesty, professionalism, and customer service and complete corresponding activities
 * Students in the Chestnutt Hill School District develop a career portfolio beginning in elementary school, which they take with them from grade to grade, so they can continue adding career information until they graduate. All information from this career workshop will be saved in each student's portfolio


 * Click on Word Documents below for complete lesson plan for each activity, including goals, objectives, time allotted, and materials needed.





















Click on Word Document below to see how Career Workshop activities meet middle school career education mandates for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Because there are approximately 200 students in the 7th grade and 50 computers in the school's computer lab, the Counselors had to design a schedule that would permit all 200 students to use the lab to complete the DISCOVER Program. Please click on attached Word Document to see schedule for the day.





__Logistical Considerations for Career Workshop__
 * Please note that John F. Kennedy Middle School consists of 7th and 8th grade students. There are approximately 200 students in the 7th grade and 200 students in the 8th grade. There are far too many students to coordinate to have a meaningful one day event that will encompass the entire school; however, we counselors feel that it is critical that both grades receive some type of career program. We decided that in order to reach the entire middle school with career information it would be best to have separate all day workshops for each grade.

The 8th grade workshop will take place in the fall because if we have it during the first or second week of November, it will give us ample time to plan the event and the chances of having to cancel the event due to snow are less likely than if we had it in the spring. We also do not want the event too close to the holidays because it will be difficult to get employers to come and because we are worried that the students will not demonstrate their best behavior. We want students to behave respectfully or else employers will not want to return next year, as we plan to make this a yearly event. Additionally, at our school the 8th graders have to choose a career pathway during December and we counselors want to make sure they are prepared to make that decision. Students in 9th grade in our district are placed into Small Learning Communities where they take all core courses, but they also take electives that will give them the knowledge needed to succeed in a particular career pathway. Please note that students are not bound to a particular career, but are exposed to various careers within that career cluster or "pathway". Students may change their mind and switch career pathways at anytime. In order to graduate, students only need to complete the core courses (which are the same for each pathway) and a certain amount of credits in electives, which can be from any pathway. The 7th grade workshop will take place during the second half of the year at a time when it does not interefere with PSSA testing.

__Overview of 8th Grade One Day Workshop__ For the 8th grade students we counselors came up with a one day workshop that would expose them to jobs in five main career clusters, which are Arts, Humanities, & Communications; Healthcare, Mental Health, & Emergency Services; Engineering, Science, and Technology; Skilled Trades; and Business. We decided that the best way to expose students to careers is to have a career day where students would hear from professionals in their respective fields. These professionals would speak about their careers for 15-20 minutes and then spend the remaining portion of the hour engaging students in an activity that showcases what they do at work every day. The objective is to make this event more like a mini-career camp where students are actively engaged than just listening to speakers for hours on end.

Because students have already begun the process of eliminating career choices based on gender and prestige, we want the students to attend a presentation in each career cluster. Because the presenters are preparing activities for the students, our desire is to keep the class sizes small with no more than 25 students per presentation (which is the number of students per homeroom). In order to achieve the smaller class size, we came up with four career speakers representing four different careers, for each of the five clusters. The counselors will need to find twenty volunteer speakers for the day and each student will see five speakers. While we are making each student attend a presentation in every career cluster, we are letting students decide which of the four speakers in each cluster interests them most and we are trying as much as possible to place students with their first or second job choice for each cluster. In this way we are promoting career exploration, but we are also ensuring that students get to listen to a career speaker that at least partially interests them. While we do not want students to eliminate careers this early on, we also want them to find the career workshop exciting and personally meaningful. We want to encourage our youth to continue researching careers on their own and give them the tools needed for this seemingly daunting task. Finally, one important aspect we considered when designing our Career Speakers Bureau was that a large percentage of our student population are African-American or Latino. We decided to invite as many African-American and Latino career speakers as possible because we felt that the students would be better able to relate to them. Additionally, we invited as many females and males in non-traditional jobs as possible to show students that they should not eliminate job choices based on gender-typing.

Additionally, we thought it would be fun to start the day off with a goal setting lesson and have the students design goal boxes as a way of scaling their progress toward their future goals. In this activity students decorate a shoebox or other type of box. During the lesson students will learn all about how to set short and long term goals. They will write out several short and long term goals for their future and place them inside their goal box. Every time they complete one of their goals, they will put a physical reminder of that goal completion into the box. For example, if a student wants to get straight As in school and they achieve that, they can put their report card in the box. We counselors also felt it would be fun to have all the 8th grade students participate in a Business Etiquette Luncheon over their lunch period to teach students table manners and basic business etiquette. Career Speakers will be invited to sit with the students during lunch as part of a mentoring program.

Activities will include the following:
 * Completion of Goal Setting lesson accompanied by Goal Shoebox Activity
 * Business Etiquette Mentoring Luncheon
 * Exposure to five career speakers representing five different career clusters, including career information and participation in career activity

__Career Speakers by Occupation & Career Cluster Along with Career Activity__ //__Arts, Humanities, & Communications__// Musical Theater Performer Students will perform acting and singing exercises and act out group skits. The speaker will also bring a model of the theater to show students as well as costumes, props, and head shots. The performer will also be bringing a DVD of a recent show to play for students.

Interior Designer Students will draw a sample room that includes furniture placement. They will pick out samples of paint and fabric swatches to go with their room decor. The interior designer will also show students pictures of his work.

News Anchor Students will be given several sample news stories and they will take turns practicing being a news anchor as another student videotapes their session.

Lawyer Students will engage in a mock trial. The lawyer will be the judge. One student will agree to represent the defendant. Another student will volunteer for the prosecution. The rest of the students will serve as the jurors. To save time the entire script will be written out already and students will read the parts. The jurors will have to deliberate and see who wins the case.

//__Healthcare, Mental Health, & Emergency Services__// Surgical Technician Students will participate in a hand washing exercise where they use special tablets to wash their hands to see how many germs are left. They will perform a relay race to see how quickly they can change into scrubs and wash their hands properly. Additionally, students will practice surgery by removing gummy worms from a dummy using surgical equipment.

Drug & Alcohol Counselor Students will participate in the "Beer Goggle Olympics". They will put on beer goggles that represent being impaired by alcohol and then try to engage in a few basic tasks like throwing a ball to another student or walking in a straight line. They will also design posters to educate young people about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and refusal skills.

FBI Agent Students will watch a video from an agent who works to catch child predators. They will learn how easy it is for a child predator to find a child's home by performing an exercise in which they search Google Maps to find an arial view of their house. They will view a student's MySpace page to see how easy it is for child predators to find out personal nformation on children. They will also perform a reverse look up with the white pages to find out an address or phone number.

Physical Therapist Students will view gruesome slides of physical injuries that need to be treated by a physical therapist. They will also practice wrapping each other's "injuries".

__//Engineering, Science, & Technology//__ Mechanical Engineer Students will design a bridge out of popsicle sticks.

Graphic Designer Students will design a spirit poster for the Kennedy Middle School Cougars sports teams.

Scientist Students will create a tornado in a bottle.

Computer Programmer Students will learn how to write computer code.

//__Skilled Trades__// Construction Worker Students will construct bird houses.

Spa Owner One student will volunteer to have a mini-makeover and students will take turns curling hair, applying makeup, and painting nails.

Chef Students will have the chance to make fondue and design various fancy garnishes.

Electrician Students will learn how to create a working circuit board.

//__Business Careers__// Accountant Students will learn how to do their personal taxes.

Banker/Investment Broker Students will learn about loans, credit, and personal money management. They will also play the stock game.

Marketing Students will develop a marketing plan for the Hershey Bears hockety team.

Administrative Assistant/Data Entry/Medical Biller & Coder (Consolidated School of Business) Students will participate in a hands-on exercise to learn relevant business skills. They will also learn about attending a business school.
 * We could not find a secretary able to attend, so we asked a business school instead.