Welcome to what is the first of what I hope to be many future guest posts in a new series on my blog called: Borrowed Lessons. “Borrowed Lessons” are favorite lessons taught by other school counselors, here called our “Lesson Leaders.” It’s a great way to share resources without having to reinvent the wheel, and as I do a lot. . .”Borrow” a great idea from someone else to make it my own.
Our first Lesson Leader is Lacey Cherniss, a school counselor and at-risk coordinator in Pleasantville, Iowa and blogger for PCSD Counselor.
From Lacey:First, I have to say I am SO excited to be a guest blogger for Carol Miller The Middle School Counselor! As a first-year counselor, I began my year by exploring and reading what other school counselors around the country were sharing online by reading blogs, tweets, and perusing Pinterest pins- I couldn’t get enough of their good stuff! I quickly realized that my new profession was full of people with so many talents and gifts that they are graciously willing to share with one another. I have found a strong community of counselors, mostly with the help of Carol Miller, as she is who we can thank for the Facebook Group Caught in the Middle School Counselors which now has connected OVER 1,000 middle school counselors! This page is a TREMENDOUS wealth of information with very active members. When Carol asked if I would do a guest post on her blog, I was humbled and thrilled, yet, nervous.
As I pondered what to write my guest post about, I felt I wanted to give back to counselors who have given me so much. But, what could I give to counselors with so much experience and knowledge? I thought I would share a lesson that I have used in my previous job (where I would provide outreach and training to school counselors in Iowa on using topics related to college and career readiness). This lesson had great feedback, and I have used it in the classroom many times with lots of success.
ASCA Standards: CB1: Acquire Career Information; CB2: Identify Career Goals; PSA1: Acquire Self-Knowledge
Time Required: 2 45-minute lessons/ Used with 8th grade students
Objective: Students will understand how careers are categorized into clusters and identify which cluster their career goals align with
Procedures:
1. Ask students to draw a picture of whatever it is they want to be when they grow up (Do not write the occupation on the drawing, as the class will later guess what they drew)
2. Have students share their drawing with the group. Peers can guess what job the drawing is depicting.
3. Now comes the fun! Ask students to get into groups (build their own “clusters”) based on commonalities between jobs. For example, a carpenter and plumber both fix things in homes. Ask students to begin sorting themselves into clusters. This might take some time. For easier adaption, you can post signs with career clusters written on them around the room.
4. Once sorted, give student groups large pieces of paper. Ask them to give a name to their group, and draw or write a description of their grouping and share out to the class.
If you are interested in being a Lesson Leader as part of the Borrowed Lessons series, please contact me. In addition, we have a group of counselors participating in a lesson share on the ES and MS Counselor Facebook groups, so be sure to head on over.
Need more ideas? Join in the conversation:
