Schedule a career day for each week of the school year. Ask your students what they want to do when they grow up and then make a list. Delete the duplicate listings and place each career choice in a large jar. At the beginning of the week, select a slip of paper and invite someone who has that job to come and speak to the class about what he does and how he prepared for his career. Ask your guest speaker to talk about 10 to 15 minutes and bring tools or examples of what he does to the classroom. Allow the students to ask questions for 15 to 20 minutes. Have the students write a short report after each presentation.
Pair students with school volunteers, grandparents and parents willing to mentor students. The student and mentor work together to explore career plans and the kinds of classes and skills the student needs in her chosen career. The student can put together a collage of different people working in that field, such as a bank teller handling money and an accountant working on a ledger for someone who wants to work with money. The student can make a list of classes to take in junior high and high school and places in the community where she might work during the summer when she is older to gain experience in the field. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website (at bls.gov) also has reams of valuable career information she might explore.
Students can explore careers they might enjoy through various Internet sites, books and pamphlets and personal interviews. The material provides information students need to determine the kinds of activities someone in their chosen field would regularly do. For example, a teacher would make lesson plans, teach, talk to parents and students, grade papers and create lesson materials. Students can role-play the daily tasks in a small group of three or four students. This might help a student decide if he would really enjoy the job.
Each student can provide reasons why he chose his career option and present relevant information, such as the average salary, the kind of advanced education needed and workplace options. He might include information about how to get started in the profession and people who excel in it.
The school counselor may assist students by providing some skills assessment tests students can take that tell them what kinds of things they excel at. Skills assessments reveal whether a student has an aptitude for such activities as detail work, repetitive tasks, handling money and resources, problem solving or teaching. Exploring personality assessment identifies basic personality type, how well a student works with others, what kind of work environments are preferred and what jobs fit a student's personality best. Each student can meet privately with the school counselor to go over the results of the assessments and make plans for future activities.