A Career Countdown....3, 2, 1!

Yesterday I had a PLC (professional learning community) meeting with the school counselors in my county, and the topic for our discussion was "Career Ideas".  I LOVE the Career domain in the ASCA National Model and have always spent a lot of time doing career activities with my students.  After hearing all of the great ideas my fellow counselors and I shared with each other,  I was excited to keep the collaboration going in the school counselor blogging world.  So, here are some of my top resources that I have used or will soon be using with my students:

3.  Songs/Books
"Career Bazillions" YouTube Video

 I cannot tell you how AMAZING this music video is to use in classroom guidance, in small groups, or even on the morning announcements for schoolwide use.  My co-counselor and I used it as an intro "hook" for every grade level when we presented our career lessons to K-5 this year.  I originally thought I would just use it for the lower grade levels, but it got such a great response that we ended up using it for everyone.  The older students thought it was just as funny as the younger students did!

I didn't know about the book When I Grow Up by Charise Harper (thanks Cynthia Dunn!), but it immediately reminded me of the Bazillions video and could be used in the same lesson or on its own.  I personally love the idea of having real kids' faces included in the illustrations and think it captures the students' attention in a meaningful way.


Other awesome career books I would recommend are:  When I Grow Up by Weird Al Yankovic, Maybe You Should Fly a Jet by Dr. Seuss and A Hat for Ivan by Max Lucado.   I am especially excited about A Hat for Ivan because I had never heard of it before until yesterday (thanks Sara Foster!), and the lesson ideas that were shared to go with it are adorable.  It will be on my classroom guidance calendar next year, for sure!!!
 


Finally, I like to do career research with my older students (see more on that below) and the series Careers for Kids Who Like..... (fill in Science, the Arts, Reading, etc...) is a fantastic supplement to any online research that students may do in a computer lab/classroom.




2.  Interest Inventories
There are tons of interest inventories out there that students can use to be directed toward specific career clusters that fit their likes and dislikes.  One of my favorites is the ever popular PAWS in JOBLAND,
which is FREE and can be accessed through the College Foundation of NC website at cfnc.org.  It offers an A-Z Job Search, a Job Finder Interest Inventory, quizzes, and lets you explore different career clusters in Jobland.  Also, you can choose to have sound on or off during the activities, allowing you to include younger students or less fluent readers (2nd-3rd) who may not be able to use these activities otherwise.

Another website I really like is Drive of Your Life.  It is intended for middle school students so I typically use it with fifth graders later in the year. Students do have to create a log-in and it is a longer activity, so it is a good site to use if you can partner with your media specialist or technology teacher to offer extension activities after your career lessons.  Students LOVE creating their vehicles as they answer interest inventory questions.  Then, they get to drive along the highway in their car and exit at different ramps to learn about particular jobs that might fit their interests. It almost reminds me of a video game, which certainly appeals to this age group. 

1.  Career Videos/Websites
One of the exciting things about the Internet is that is opens up an entire world that was previously unavailable for our students.  Students who only know about the jobs of doctor, police officer, and firefighter can quickly be exposed to a wealth of occupations, as long as they have access to a computer and the Internet. Along that line, there are some fantastic websites that have libraries of career videos and other information that students can access for career research.

Knowitall.org has an excellent Career and Technology Education section, which includes "Career Aisle" videos for elementary, middle, and high school students.  There are 16 different career clusters that contain videos on specific careers within the cluster. 


Virgina Career VIEW also has some awesome resources such as Career Town games, a Kids Search job database, and much more! I  used the Kids Search job database this year in my third grade lessons to connect school subjects to future careers. My students were assigned a specific school subject and did research (both with books such as the Careers for Kids Who Like series and online resources) to find names of careers that connected to those subjects.  The Career VIEW website was a  huge help in focusing the students on appropriate careers.

There will be more career posts in my future, but I hope these top resources will be a good start in helping to plan career lessons and interventions.  Happy Counseling!
                                                     Angela