High+School

Hi Everyone! Is anyone reading this?? I've included my review of the AKCIS plans for 9th graders. My MAJOR concern is the time it takes to provide all of these lessons along with the fact that a computer will be required to facilitate them. My understanding is that, if adopted, the lessons/activities will be mandated. At this time, I meet with all students in the classroom twice (once as an introduction to high school, etc. and once for the AKCIS). Most of these lessons/activities require at least an hour in the computer lab. If we adopted the BASIC AKCIS plan, another classroom visit would be required in the computer lab (making that three classroom visits/year). What are your thoughts???

9th Grade Career Development Plan Review by Lisa Geraghty☺

I have reviewed the activities recommended by AKCIS in the “Total Components” and “Basic Components” plan for 9th graders. Below is a summary along with my concerns and suggestions:

TOTAL COMPONENT AKCIS PLAN • Seven Lessons/Activities o Update AKCIS Portfolio (create portfolio if needed) o High School Course Plan o Matching Dreams to Reality (a bit confusing and laborious) o Where in the World am I Going? o Cluster Exploration o Getting Involved With School and Community o Update Reflections • In my estimation, the time needed to complete all of these lessons/activities is approximately 5 hours per student/classroom (counselors would need approx. 60 hours in the classroom to facilitate these lessons/activities). • AKCIS activities require a computer (students at LHS will have to go to a computer lab) which will be logistically difficult to arrange. • Time taken from other subjects. Students would need time taken from other subjects which is often difficult due to curriculum requirements in other classes.

BASIC AKCIS PLAN • Four Lessons/Activities o Update AKCIS Portfolio (or create a portfolio) o High School Course Plan o SKILLS o Cluster Exploration • In my estimation, the time needed to complete these lessons/activities is approximately 2-3 hours in the classroom in addition to reviewing high school course plan individually. • This would require classroom visits to be scheduled with all students at least twice/year. The high school course plan could possibly take place during parent/student planning at the middle school – this would require that all students have a portfolio and extra time to complete.

Due to time and computer access restraints, the BASIC plan is the most viable. I hope to see some optional career activities being provided in advisories (some ideas for that are listed below).

Optional Career Lessons/Activities that could be facilitated in advisories • Career Guest Speakers • One Week Job videos • Thinking and Learning Style Preference Survey (from AKSCA) o Self-awareness activity regarding style, characteristics & values • True Values o Self-awareness activity regarding values, work style • What is a Career Cluster? (from AKCSCA) • Worksheets that precede some AKCIS activities (i.e. SKILLS, personal goal list, getting involved in school & community, and reflections).

Lisa 3-30-09 Check out this website http://www.realgame.com/usa.html. There are career focused activities for grades K-12. This program was recommended to me by Rebecca Dedmond of The Freshman Transition Initiative. I am looking through the activities recommended by the folks from AKCIS (I like the timeline and the fact that it's progressive and we won't be repeating activities at different grade levels).

Hi guys, I have added the highs school career plan from AKCIS, but I am not finding the career goal paragraph- would that just be a short writing assignment for kids to do or is there a form/activity for it? And I couldn't find Mapping My Exploration- do I need to open a portfolio for myself in order to see it? If you look at what we have done it follows AKCIS; there are always plenty of more activities to do. We didn't want to overwhelm teachers, but wanted them to cover the basics. We still need to pick specific activities for each grade level. Paula

Joni-My feedback is that in looking through AKCIS, it is very thorough, but I didn't see a short summary and I think it would be a good idea, so I am posting one here. If we can pull a minimum number of activities for each grade level, there would still be hundreds more to choose from and plenty of flexibility for every school. ~Carol

[|Draft 4+2 Plan.xls]

[|CarolHenry] Hi Tony, Joni, Lisa and Jeanne,

I like akcis also and it is very under-utilized now. Joni's idea of a counselor in-service for more akcis training is great. One of my concerns is that Hutch isn't on the committee and we won't get buy-in from a strong career oriented HS. -Carol

Tony Strange

I like the transition piece.

Joni Simpson I have spent the last two days working with AKCIS JR and AKCIS SR. Take a look at JR. Look in the Resources for teachers and counselors on the right side. Under that button is a very complete plan for junior high. If you follow the plan and incorporate the activities that are on the left hand side of the homepage (activities and lessons are under each button) it will take you right to where we want students to be when they enter high school. For the transition meeting at eighth grade it would be nice for each student to either have started and electronic portfolio or have a hard copy of My High School Course Plan (Under My Career Plan--Planning for High School), A Career Goal paragraph--based on the work they have done 6-8th grade, and a Mapping My Exploration (AKCIS-My Portfolio-My Career Plan--Actions and Reflections). If those things were done it would be a great springboard into high school and could be supported with further activities in AKCIS that would support the completion of a great career portfolio. I am going to break those activities down across grade levels this afternoon or tomorrow. Please give me feedback on this idea!!!

Joni Simpson To build the career portfolio in AKCIS at 9th grade a portfolio would have to be created in AKCIS then under the "My Portfolio" button are several buttons, under "My Career Plan" there are several more buttons, "Self Knowledge, Research and Goals, etc." Under each of those buttons are "Activities". The blue activities could be used in 9th grade, the turquoise in 10th grade, and the pink in 11th and 12th grade. By the time all the activities were finished they would have a complete career portfolio. There are also an abundance of activities under the Tools for Counselors and Teachers. If you scroll down to Practical Learning Activities there are 600 lessons that support career lessons.

Change the name from 4+2 to: Personal Learning Plan Learning & Earning Plan Career Plan Any other ideas? Personal Plan for Success (PPS) Personal Education & Career Plans

Joni Simpson I talked with Don Levine at the state department, he is the AKCIS guru and he said that he and Marcia Olson have been working on a scope and sequence for AKCIS and that he would share their work with us. I thought I would get it yesterday but so far I haven't. I will upload that as soon as it comes. The more I look at AKCIS and then peruse other programs the more I like the lessons, the flow, and the end product of AKCIS. I also like the checklists that MatSu has with their program, Lisa.

Lisa Geraghty Thanks for all of the information, Joni. Isn't AKCIS just fabulous? I have put together a packet along with a checklist with instrutions for various career and self-exploration activities in the 9th grade. Most of it involves AKCIS activities but I've also included some lessons from AKSCA Implementation Tools. I will send you a copy via e-mail or through Wiki if I can remember how to do it! Do we have a plan for turning in drafts to Peggy on Friday?

The 9th grade check list includes mandatory lessons (in italics) and other assessments and lessons that would be helpful if time permits. I have a hard copy packet of instructions, worksheets, and a copy of my ppt presentation that I use with freshman that includes "create a portfolio", "reality check", and "IDEAS".