CAREER DAY – MAKING IT MANAGEABLE AND MEANINGFUL Carrie Jackson Tiffany Ward Swansboro Middle School

WHY DO A CAREER DAY? Students begin exploration of career options Community involvement Staff connections/involvement High school course planning ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors/NC Essential Standards covered

DIFFERENT FORMS OF CAREER DAY Career Fair  Students rotate around booths  Interest-driven Career Day Speakers  Assembly with guest speakers  Fewer career options Career Showcase/Expo  Students participate in activities  Heavy focus on trades Career Day “Conference”  Multiple presenters/multiple “sessions”  Students choose sessions  Random sessions are assigned to fill spaces

“CONFERENCE” STYLE CAREER DAY Held on Early Release Day Only career activities are done on this day Students attend three career day sessions Send out a schedule of the dayschedule Contact your cafeteria/office staff/other essential personnel – whole school participation!! Students are integrated (no division between 6 th, 7 th, and 8 th grade) Teachers allowed to rotate among sessions, as long as a staff member is in a room with students and a presenter

PRESENTER INFORMATION Letters mailed, ed, and hand delivered Forms sent home with every student Staff members who had previous careers invited to present Get one (or more if interest is there) of your teachers to present on teaching Staff members provide us with at least one person we can contact about presenting Presenters RSVP on a GoogleDocRSVP GoogleDoc used to keep track of presenter data

PRESENTER INFORMATION, CONT. Presenters committed are contacted week prior to event Nametags createdNametags Student tour guides are available morning of Presenters given a “talking points” sheettalking points Presenters stay in same room – students rotate to them Hand-written thank you cards mailed to presenters

STUDENTS CHOOSE SESSIONS Once presenters are secured, students take a Career Day SurveySurvey For our Career Day, students picked three sessions  Sessions that weren’t full were then filled so that session numbers were balanced  Took a LONG time – we learned from our mistake! For our 2014 & 2015 Career Day, students picked their top choice and one alternate  We hand scheduled all 800 students  Instead of having to shift and move students, students were placed by first choice and then assigned two random sessions – MUCH easier  Only took two hours

STUDENTS CHOOSE SESSIONS, CONT. Nametags were created for every student through a mail merge Nametags given to Advisory teachers the day before Career Day Students checked their nametags for duplicate sessions and hand- wrote room numbers  Students hand-wrote versus being printed so conversation took place about where rooms were located on our campus Morning of, students received their nametags and wore them Staff could view nametags to help students navigate and ensure they were in the correct session(s) and not with their friends!

CAREER DAY ACTIVITIES We are a 1:1 campus except for 6 th grade  Activities were created with this in mind 6 th Grade completed worksheets  RIASEC worksheet created by counselorsworksheet  Goal setting worksheetworksheet 7 th Grade created CFNC accounts and took the Career KeyCFNC  Completed on their individual computers  If they finished early, they explored careers listed under their Holland code 8 th Grade explored chosen career explored  Used OOH and CFNC to research a career they were interested in  Worksheet was completed on Edmodo

PRE/POST SURVEYS For the Career Day we conducted a pre-survey to determine careers of interest  Students were disappointed when careers they chose were not present at Career Day  Students and staff provided feedback on a post-survey after Career Day Used data from the post-survey in school year to make adjustments to Career Day Post-survey used again for Career DayPost-survey  Staff members also completed a post-survey Staff  Results will be used for next year’s Career Day  Ideas we are taking from it  Labeled hallways  Sessions on college information

TIMELINE One to two months before:  Invite presenters, make deadline a month before Career Day date  Send home Career Day letter with students One week before:  Contact presenters again  Student news promotes Career Day  Send out schedule to all staff members for Career Day (time blocks, lunch schedule, advisory, etc.) Week of:  Make student schedules  Make student nametags  Make presenter nametags  Give staff a layout of who is presenting where (room #s) Day before:  Order refreshments  Students review nametags and room numbers  Tour Guides selected

TIMELINE, CONT. Day of:  Set up refreshment area  Students receive nametags  Welcome guest speakers  Guest speaker photo  Students complete Career Day activities  Students complete post-survey  School staff complete post-survey Day after:  Write and mail thank you letters  Analyze survey data

IMPLICATIONS OF CAREER DAY – WHAT NOW? Field trip  Planned for local community college for those students who selected a career requiring a two-year degree or trade certification Data on students’ outlook on Career Day 2014  Those who rated 1 or 2 were spoken to individually to see what concerns there were  Overall, on a scale from 1-5, students ranked Career Day being meaningful at a 3.8 Career Day Survey 2015  Our school has become “survey-heavy” so we are delaying our survey for the moment

CAREER DAY SUGGESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE Students create a Resume for their session speaker/ one resume pulled and student receives a prize for completing it Meet and Greet Breakfast; Invite 8 th graders to have breakfast with the presenters Student Thank You Notes to Last Presenter Game of Life Vendors/ Career Fair Style Employ, Enlist, and Enroll- A school moto for post high school options Headbands Game- Students guess the career Invite 21 st Century Speakers