Developing the Skills and Motivation Necessary to
Succeed in High School, College, and the Workforce
Career Exploration Infused with Social and Emotional Skill-Building
Dr. Karen Miles introduces the course. Learn more about the 24 videos available to enhance the student experience.
Building a Bridge to Your Future was designed to bridge the transition from
middle school to high school so students enter with the skills, attitudes, and
emotional resiliency that will propel them to graduate and matriculate to post-secondary education or training and then successfully enter the workforce. When
you adopt this curriculum, you will do three important things:
Prepare students to engage in a rigorous career exploration,
decision-making, and planning process in high school.
Raise the self-efficacy of students so they believe that they can be
successful in high school and beyond.
Introduce students to the 10-year Plan process and get them
enthused about becoming long-range planners as they enter high
school.
This course will be of particular interest to high schools and districts that have adopted the award-winning Get Focused...Stay Focused!® program.
As the early adolescent begins to understand the importance of having a long-range
plan, they will come to appreciate that a meaningful and carefully-researched career
and education path puts them in control of their future lives.
The variety of career exploration activities introduce students to sophisticated
concepts such as:
Research techniques using the free, open-source U.S. Department of Labor
websites so, no matter where they are in their career trajectory, help is
always readily available.
Employability skills and traits so once they get a job, they keep it; these skills
are applicable not only to success in the workforce but also throughout their
educational journey.
One of the 24 videos available to enhance instruction
The list of video options:
What Will Your Life Look Like in 10 Years' Time?
My Lifestyle Choices
Making a Career Choice
Why Do I Need a 10 Year Plan?
Challenges and Emotional Rewards
Our Brains: How They Change and Our Abilities Grow
Brainpower vs Growth Mindset
The Real You
Vision + Energy = Success
Positive Self-Talk
Turning Negative Thoughts into Positive Ones
Turning Your Behaviors in a Positive Direction
Career Research: Your Most Important Research Project
A Positive or Negative Outlook?
Staying Motivated for a Long-Term Cherished Goal
What Are You Passionate About?
Your Attitude: A Key Factor to Overcoming Obstacles
Using Higher-Order Thinking Skills to Get What You Want
Career Research: Matching Skills and Traits
Employability Skills You Have
Self-Directed Learners: A Highly Prized Skill in Today's Workplace
The Virtual Job Shadow
Getting Ready for High School
Checkpoint: What Are My Next Steps?
Too many middle school students believe that they will not be successful in high
school. This curriculum was designed to address those fears by helping students
understand more about their attitudes, self-concept, self-motivation, and self-management. Woven throughout this career exploration course are important
activities for social and emotional development. Because they are learned in the
context of planning for their future, these concepts have more meaning, and
students are more likely to embrace and practice what is learned.
For instance, the course material helps students:
Develop the skills of a self-directed learner
Understand the traits and skills of a resilient personality
Practice strategies for creating a growth mindset
Discover what motivates them so they stay focused on their education over the long term.
Study 21st century learning mediums that will help them take advantage of the new ways of mastering topics of their choosing.
Two more mini-lectures to support teacher presentations:
This coursework provide students time to reflect and grow — increasing their self-efficacy as successful students — and gives the teacher an opportunity to validate
their improved readiness to engage in career exploration and decision-making.
Understanding how they think about learning and life gives young people important
insights into their next steps as they transition to high school. They’ll see how what
they learn in this course can help them be successful in their future academic life
and work life.
A comprehensive instructor’s guide provides detailed activity-by-activity presentation ideas, sample lesson and pacing guides, and planning and implementation strategies.
Online Professional Development available 24/7
We’ve made it efficient and easy to implement this curriculum. From our online
Quick Start Study Guide—an eCourse of instructional videos designed for self-
directed learners—to the online Getting Started webinar series, instructors will
have the background and confidence to deliver a life-changing course.
