COURSE DESCRIPTION

The award-winning Career Choices series is a unique semester or yearlong classroom-based comprehensive guidance course. When taught with fidelity to its scope and sequence, your students will develop the motivation to succeed in high school, post-secondary education or training, and the workforce. This institute provides the information and strategies for you to efficiently and effectively launch a new course or enhance the course you already have. Upon completion of the institute, participants select the classroom pacing guide for their Career Choices series course that will ensure every student develops their own 10-year Plan.

The Career Choices series course is the ‘Get Focused’ portion of the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program model developed at Santa Barbara City College. The curriculum meets the Freshman Transition Standards, which originated at The George Washington University. This course is a scalable, cost-efficient program that ensures students will graduate with a carefully considered career path through the development of their online 10-year Plan.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. At the conclusion of this Institute, participants will:
2. Have an overview of the curriculum.
3. Be able to implement a standards-based, freshman course that promotes high school completion and post-secondary matriculation.
4. Have the tools to develop a comprehensive lesson pacing plan for their course.
5. Practice instructional strategies that engage learners.
6. Be familiar with course assessment and grading options.
7. Understand the management systems of My10yearPlan.com®.
8. Experience the online 10-year Plan process using My10yearPlan.com® and be able to orient all school personnel on its use.

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS INSTITUTE?

• Instructors implementing the Career Choices series in their schools
• Counseling department chairs who will be implementing the school-wide Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program
• Administrators responsible for completion rates
• District personnel responsible for the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Extend the reach of your district’s Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program by implementing Building a Bridge to Your Future, a unique middle school bridge curriculum co-authored by Mindy Bingham, creator of the award-winning Career Choices series, and Dr. Karen Miles, Executive Director of Get Focused Stay Focused.

Building a Bridge to Your Future prepares students for the transition to high school so they enter with the skills, attitudes, and emotional resiliency that will propel them to graduate, matriculate to post-secondary education or training, and then successfully enter the workforce. This institute provides critical foundational information about a course that does three important things to ready students for high school with the skills and mindset to succeed:

• Prepare students to engage in a rigorous career exploration, decision-making, and planning process in high school.
• Raise the self-efficacy of students so they believe they can be successful in high school and beyond.
• Introduce students to the 10-year Plan process and get them enthused about becoming long-range planners as they enter high school.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. At the conclusion of this Institute, participants will be prepared to help students:
2. Develop the skills of a self-directed learner
3. Understand the traits and skills of a resilient personality
4. Practice strategies for creating a growth mindset
5. Discover what motivates them so they stay focused on their education over the long term
6. Master online tools to take advantage of new ways of learning about topics of their choosing
7. Practice online research using free, open-source U.S. Department of Labor websites so help is always readily available—no matter where they are on their career trajectory
8. Understand employability skills and traits so once they get a job, they keep it; these skills are applicable not only to success in the workforce but also throughout their educational journey

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS INSTITUTE?

• Instructors implementing the Building a Bridge to Your Future curriculum in their middle schools
• Middle school administrators
• High school administrators introducing the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program to their middle school partners
• District personnel responsible for the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This institute is designed for experienced Career Choices series instructors hoping to take their programs to a new level. You'll learn strategies that will strengthen not only your course but also your school-wide Get Focused…Stay Focused!® implementation. You’ll be exposed to teacher-tested tips to revive, enhance, and assess your Career Choices series classroom along with instructional ideas that will help you energize your course and avoid common pitfalls when integrating technology. You’ll be exposed to a variety of new resources that will make your course more engaging and productive.

For example, you’ll go deeper into My10yearPlan.com® and learn about new functions and reports. You’ll review the new Online Class Agendas, along with new technology integration class sessions. You’ll learn how the unique Skills-Based Education Plan will ensure your students have the skills to be competitive in the workforce. You’ll discover the My10yearPlan.com® mobile app and learn about academic coaching strategies using the 10-year Plan Summary Page. You'll come away with a better understanding of the myriad opportunities for helping your students become career and college ready—not just as freshmen, but throughout high school and into college.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the conclusion of this Institute, educators will be prepared to:

1. Utilize a myriad of new tools to enhance and upgrade their course.
2. Adapt tips and best practices shared by some of our master teachers.
3. Work with students who must take the course as an independent study course.
4. Promote the importance of and strategies for distributive guidance.
5. Use the online 10-year Plan to motivate students to higher achievement through academic coaching, advising, and counseling.
6. Help other faculty access My10yearPlan.com® to assist in the advisory and academic coaching functions on campus.
7. Strategize and deliver the necessary “buy-in” activities in order to organize campus or district personnel for support and implementation of the school-wide program.
8. Present information at parent or community meetings on the use of the 10-year Plan to help students transition successfully to post-secondary education/training and the workforce as self-sufficient adults.
9. Embrace the scope and sequence of the Follow-Up Modules in order to effectively integrate them into academic courses.

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS INSTITUTE?

• High school instructors who have taught the Career Choices series course for at least one year
• Instructional leaders responsible for the Career Choices series course
• District personnel responsible for the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This institute will delve into how to implement the award-winning Get Focused...Stay Focused!® (GFSF) program over all four years of high school for EVERY student. When every student has an online 10-year Plan that is updated yearly and used across the campus for academic coaching and counseling by all personnel, you will launch your students into post-secondary success.

Using the 10-Step Plan developed by The George Washington University’s Freshman Transition Initiative and adapted for the Get Focused…Stay Focused!® program, you will learn a step-by-step process that will help you plan, implement, and sustain a GFSF program on your campus. In addition, you will learn how college credit is being awarded for the 9th grade, semester-long ‘Get Focused’ course, and you will be exposed to best practice strategies and resources so your implementation of the Get Focused...Stay Focused!® (GFSF) program or Freshman Transition Initiative can be quick and cost-efficient. This roadmap will help you develop a program that will increase graduation rates (both high school and college), ensure ALL students are college- and career-ready, and provide students with the skills and attitudes to enter the workforce and build a self-sufficient life.

This institute is designed to provide administrators with the tools to successfully implement a GFSF program to improve academic achievement, high school graduation, and college completion. Participants will apply that framework as they develop a plan to transform their school culture into a collaborative learning community focused on results. Using the online 10-Step Plan tool and workbook, participating administrators will leave with their own written strategic plan that includes goals, activities, timelines, responsibilities, costs, funding sources, and evidence.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. At the conclusion of this Institute, participants will be able to:
2. Identify concepts of a college and career readiness program using the Get Focused…Stay Focused! and Freshman Transition program model.
3. Use the online 10-Step Plan for Implementing a Freshman Transition/Get Focused…Stay Focused! Program to create a comprehensive plan for implementing a Freshman Transition course and, by year two, a school-wide initiative.
4. Strategize and deliver the necessary “buy-in” activities in order to organize campus or district personnel for support and implementation of the school-wide program.
5. Complete the work in the 10-Step Plan notebook provided, developing their unique plan for their school or district.

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS INSTITUTE?

• High school or middle school principals and assistant principals
• Superintendents
• District administrators responsible for school improvement

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This institute is designed for instructors from secondary schools, colleges, and post-secondary training programs who want to incorporate more technology into their Career Choices series course. It is also for administrators who want to provide professional development to ensure its campus-wide use for academic coaching and counseling. This institute provides foundational information, tips, and strategies to successfully launch your course from the first day with a primary focus on My10yearPlan.com®.

My10yearPlan.com® is more than just an electronic rendering of the planning process outlined in the Career Choices series. It is a comprehensive, internet-based system delivering 98 exercises, activities, and surveys that interact with the learner, facilitating a decision-making process that culminates in the development of a personalized 10-year Plan that is not only quantitative, but more important, meaningful. My10yearPlan.com® enhances the Career Choices series experience, giving the computer a role that reaches beyond that of “tool” to something more akin to coach, counselor, or mentor. The system gently guides and prompts the student through an in-depth decision-making process. The end result is an online career and skills-based education plan.

In this institute, you’ll not only learn how to access the power of My10yearPlan.com® for your own interactions with students, but also how to equip staff and academic instructors with techniques for using My10yearPlan.com® to personalize their work with students in academic coaching and advising situations. As you learn strategies for the planning, training, and coordination of academic teams, you will also prepare for presenting this information to other stakeholders such as parents, local employers, or community groups. You’ll also learn about the reporting systems that allow you to provide more personalized services through the analysis of students' future educational and career goals.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. At the conclusion of this institute, participants will be able to:
2. Manage and support the My10yearPlan.com® program on campus.
3. Share the My10yearPlan.com® process and why it is important for student success with the whole campus.
4. Provide professional development to the whole school on how My10yearPlan.com® is used for academic coaching and advising.
5. Work with your principal or dean to create a plan for campus-wide use of My10yearPlan.com®.
6. Run reports to identify students’ career interests for career pathway recruitment, mentorships, scholarship opportunities, and more.

WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS INSTITUTE?

From High Schools

• Career Choices/Get Focused lead teachers
• School Site Executives for My10yearPlan.com®
• Career Center professionals
• School Counselors
• Principals and Vice Principals

From Post-Secondary

• Teams adopting/reviewing the Career Choices and Changes curriculum
• Career Center professionals
• College Counselors