Often when a person has their first job, it is an entry-level position which require minimal experience and education/training. As a person spends time in that position, they may be able to move up to another position based upon their new experience/education/training levels. We call this a “career pathway.” This 7th grade Discovering Learning Pathways lesson leads students through an exploration of the pathway for a student-chosen career.

Students use Google Docs to create a collage that communicates their self-knowledge and a vision for their future.

I can identify post secondary options of entering the workforce, completing an adult apprenticeship, military service, technical college, four year college public, four year college private. (review from 7th grade-discovering pathways)
I can explore district pathway maps.
I can explore careers of interest that require a high school diploma, technical college certificate, degree, and/or 4 year college

In this lesson, you will explore your interests and personality by creating a BioPoem. First, take a few minutes to update your XELLO account photo and banner as you have done in the past.

In this lesson, you will explore how your favorite courses in school can lead you to future career choices. You will also update your Xello account to reflect three careers related to your course interests.

Learn how to explore how school, extracurriculars, and leisure activities help build skills. Also learn to identify skills needed for various occupations and investigate options related to your own skills.

Today, you will be completing the Matchmaker Assessment and saving at least three careers that interest you.

Learning Targets:

I can investigate central, secondary, and other aspects of the career match assessment and how they relate to careers.
I can reflect on my own career assessment results.
I can explore what makes me interested in certain careers.

Learning Targets:

I can explore ways to make my transition to high school easier and more successful.
I can identify questions and concerns I have about transitioning to high school
I can explore clubs, activities, and other resources to help handle the transition to high school.

I can complete my ILP/4 year plan including information I have explored in previous ACP lessons including: academic and personal strengths, Career Clusters and Courses of interest, personal data analysis, and goal setting.

I can identify situations where I may need or want to advocate for myself or others.
I can explore effective advocacy skills and behaviors, such as leadership, confidence, and communication.
I can explore ways I can advocate for myself in school, the community, at home and in a career.

I can explain the impact of personal branding on my academic future, personal life and career.
I can begin to create my personal brand via the creation of a vision board.

Networking is defined as “the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts,” and can be a powerful job search strategy. Making connections can not only help you find out about job opportunities, but may also connect you to people who can help you get the job. You can use relationships you already have to network, such as friends and family. However, it is also important to find other opportunities to network, and this can take place through your involvement in extracurricular or community activities, by volunteering in your community, or simply through the people that you know!

In this lesson, you will assess how your current work (school) demands affect family life, free time, etc., identify the work demands of a career of interest, and explore strategies for maintaining a healthy life-work balance now and in the future.  You will also identify strategies to manage time and stress when balancing the demands of your current responsibilities and future career.

Welcome back to Xello! Throughout your academic and career planning process, you’ve had the opportunity to use a variety of resources to explore how your skills, talents, and interests align with careers. As you enter the second half of your high school experience, there will be coursework, extra curricular, volunteer, and work-based learning experiences to help you gain valuable career readiness traits that are important to starting a successful career journey.  Today we will update your experiences in the “About Me” section of your Xello profile, and explore key personality traits that are essential for career success.

In this interactive lesson, you will learn about job projections and outlook, factors that impact job demand, such as changes in technology, demographics, business practices or production methods, consumer preferences, and workplace restructuring, and explore the importance of reviewing your career plan based upon the demand for the career that interests you!

Workplace skills that are not specific to one career are often called soft skills or transferable skills. These are the skills that you would need to navigate most workplaces.  In this lesson, you will begin by recording your current use of transferable skills in your part-time job, volunteer, extra curricular, hobbies, and/or classroom activities and will identify the importance of these skills in your future career. Once you’ve reflected upon your current use of a few key transferable skills, you will then update the skills included in your About Me profile.

Even if you’re not sure you’ll be heading to a technical college or four-year college or university your first year after high school, you never know where your future career will  take  you.  It  may be later in your career that you decide that additional education is necessary to advance you in your field.  So why not start thinking about potential schools that  would make a good fit for you?  In this activity, you’ll explore schools in Xello to help you identify factors that you feel are important in your postsecondary education goals, saving at least 3 schools and identifying the factors that influenced your selections. 

In this Xello interactive lesson, you’ll explore your feelings about post-secondary education and will rank the factors that are most important to you when selecting technical or 4-year colleges/universities that are a good fit for you.  You will rank these factors and will compare how the colleges that you have saved in your profile stack up to what you feel is most important.