Tomorrow (Jan. 25, 2011), will be our first meeting of the new year (thanks to a snowstorm that left us out of school for an entire week) and I figure I should get them starting thinking about college and career planning early. This may seem a little premature because most of these kids are 7th graders who really don't see past the present day and time; they live for the moment and have a hard time seeing the correlation between present actions and future outcomes. I teach in Gwinnett County, Ga. which is a pretty affluent community. I see kids from elementary age to middle school age who come from well-to-do families already knowing what college they're planning on going to and what they want to major in. Why? Because mom and dad are college graduates and they probably have a big brother or sister who's currently attending some university somewhere. But unfortunately, for a lot of our African American and Hispanic males who come from families where there are no college graduates, no family trips to college games and homecoming, never even set foot on a college campus. I think most of these look at college as a pitstop to their all-expense paid trip to the NBA or NFL. They like to watch the games, they like to argue about it, and they can tell you how high Cam Newton will go in the draft, almost down to a science. But again, I don't think college is looked at as a conduit for future success and stability. So my goal in tomorrow's activity is to get their minds wrapped having a set plan for future success.
They're going to complete a little self assessment on http://www.nextsteps.org/ where they'll learn a little about their values, their personality traits, and which characteristics it takes to be successful in any career field. The assessment will align their strengths with possible career choices and they're going to pick about 5 of their top picks. After they pick their schools, they'll do a very basic research on them like tuition costs, population size, teacher-student ration, etc. I hoping they learn something. With a group so large, and with me being the only adult presence in the room, its kind of hard keeping them on task. But I guess if only one of them is listening and takes something from it, then I've done my job.
I rushed to type this because they're trying to kick me out the library now.
Now that's a great idea, Shakie. Keep up the great work and know that I am beyond proud of what you are doing with the fellas. That way, they won't have to run into me in the future.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome man. "Youngblood's can't spell but they can rock you in playstation" ~Mos Def
ReplyDeleteI think 7th grade is a great time and opportunity to talk about college. Children in the black/latino communities are exposed to so much more younger. The prison/government systems for starters. You're doing great work, proud to call you my brother.
Get out the library
JW