Mrs. Law's Lexington Junior High Blog

Trying to decide what you want to be when you grow up can be difficult. I would not expect a junior high student to know the precise career that will make them happy and fulfilled in the future.  The data on how many careers a person will hold in their lifetime is difficult to track, but most statistics indicate that on average you will have 7 different jobs in your adult working life.  It seems pretty clear to me that most of those adults never imagined changing jobs so many times and if they couldn’t predict what job they would want in their careers as adults it isn’t necessarily realistic to think that you will know exactly what you want to do when you are still in high school. You don’t know about fields that you haven’t been exposed to yet – how could you know if you’d like anthropology or astronomy when those are areas you haven’t studied.  That is why it is important to take opportunities to be curious, to explore, to learn, to ask questions, to observe and to...

Want to help your students explore opportunities for a successful future? From 7:00 to 9:00 PM on Tuesday,  November 15, 2016 ,  Defiance Senior High School  is hosting the twelfth annual  Engineering Evening . Students, parents, professionals, and the general public from the entire Northwest Ohio region (and beyond) are welcome to attend. Event URL:  http://web.defiancecityschools.org/users/manz/weblog/d6ef0/Engineering__Your_Future.html The sponsoring professional engineers society chose the  guest speaker .  Anne Zweibel , a structural engineer with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University, works for Hardesty & Hanover. Her topic is “ Notes from a Career in Bridge Design ." There will also be  engineering/technology professionals  from various specialties to discuss their areas of expertise. Further, college representatives  of engineering/technology training programs will also be in attendanc...

Ohio Means Jobs The Ohio Means Jobs website features a student section to engage students in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade to start thinking about their careers. If you go to the Ohio Means Jobs website you can take a guided tour on the site.  Every student at Lexington Junior High creates an account. This account remains active even after graduation, so they can save information and refer back to it in one place in the future. (There is even an adult version!) For example, if your student completes career interest inventories or other assessments, the information is all saved in the “backpack” on the site.  All of the information on the site is saved. So if you started using the site when you were in elementary or middle school it will still be there for you to access and reference when you are in high school. There are cool features on the site including the opportunity to create a budget including rent or house payment, grocery costs and utilities.  T...

Want to help your students explore opportunities for a successful future? From 7:00 to 9:00 PM on Tuesday,  November 15, 2016 ,  Defiance Senior High School  is hosting the twelfth annual  Engineering Evening . Students, parents, professionals, and the general public from the entire Northwest Ohio region (and beyond) are welcome to attend. Event URL:  http://web.defiancecityschools.org/users/manz/weblog/d6ef0/Engineering__Your_Future.html The sponsoring professional engineers society chose the  guest speaker .  Anne Zweibel , a structural engineer with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University, works for Hardesty & Hanover. Her topic is “ Notes from a Career in Bridge Design ." There will also be  engineering/technology professionals  from various specialties to discuss their areas of expertise. Further, college representatives  of engineering/technology training programs will also be in attendanc...

Careers Junior High is a great time to start exploring interests and learning about different careers. We will do a lot of activities with the students over these two years to explore different options available to them. Here are a couple of resources to get you started thinking about these things! www.bestcolleges.com This website has a lot of great resources on careers and different educational paths. www.ohiomeansjobs.com This is the website the students will become familiar with. It is FULL of real-world information! Have fun exploring!

Digital Footprint & College Admissions As a school community there has been a significant amount of time and emphasis encouraging students to be smart about your digital footprint - the information that you are posting and sharing through various social media outlets.  As a component of that we have often mentioned that the internet and social media can impact your college admissions or scholarship offerings.  Below are a few articles that speak to this: Do colleges look at prospective students’ social media? Colleges shift to using ‘big data’ – including social media– in admissions decisions How Social Media can Ruin Your Application College admissions: Social Media Tune Up Colleges are spying on applicants by quietly tracking them across the internet      (Please note that this article is not specific to social media, but rather how colleges are looking at your level of interest in their school based upon internet rela...

OHIO MEANS JOBS Greetings! We had some visitors in History classes the during the last week. Mr. Jim Sorenson and Marsha Devito spent some time with the 8th grade students to set up accounts with Ohio Means Jobs. Ohio Means Jobs is a great website, full of career and education resources for students (and adults!). The 8th graders will mulitple opportunities this school year to explore and become familiar with this tool. For you parents out there, there is an adult side of the website also. This is a great site to explore careers, evaluate your interests, research educational options, and so much more. This website takes things one step further. Every career interest is linked with an actual employer who is currently seeking someone to fill that job! Here are some quick instructions to get you started. https://jobseeker.ohiomeansjobs.monster.com/ You will see an icon for individuals and employers. Click on individuals.On this screen you will see options for college s...

Greetings Spring Breakers! I hope everyone is enjoying their SPRING BREAK! I am spending some time with family and relaxing. I have been hearing about many exciting vacations and look forward to seeing all of the smiling, tanned faces on Monday:) Spring break is a great time to relax, unwind, and catch up on all of those things you have been putting off. For some of you, that means working on math corrections! Remember, if you are having trouble, you can always log in to ConnectEd and get some help. http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/connected/login.do   Ohio Means Jobs is another great website to take a look at. The 8th graders have had the opportunity to explore this site a few times this year. For you parents out there, there is an adult side of the website also. This is a great site to explore careers, evaluate your interests, research educational options, and so much more. This website takes things one step further. Every career interest is linked with...

Non-Traditional Career Exploration Days at Pioneer Non-Traditional days are coming up soon! There have been announcements this past week about another opportunity to visit Pioneer. This is one that I am pretty excited about! The trip taken by the entire 8 th grade includes quick visits to many different programs. This does not give much time for students to ask questions and get a real sense of what Pioneer can offer them. Non-traditional days give students the opportunity to spend an entire day at Pioneer. On December 10th, boys can get a closer look at the Health programs, Performing Arts Academy, Culinary Arts, Cosmetology Lab, Horticulture Lab, and Graphic Arts. On December 2nd, girls can get a closer look at Carpentry, Auto Technology, Computer Aided Drafting and Design, Industrial Electricity, IT Support, Masonry, Precision Machining, and Welding. This is an all-day career event for eighth grade students. They will ride to and from Pioneer on Lexington buses...

8th Grade Pioneer Trip The 8 th grade students recently visited Pioneer Career & Technology Center. This is a trip we take every year.   Pioneer has 28 different programs students can complete during their Junior and Senior years of high school. Many of these programs include licensing/certification for future careers. Others offer college credit that provide students a head start in their chosen profession. Pioneer has something for everyone. Check out the link below to take a look at all of the available programs and to become more familiar with what Pioneer has to offer. Pioneer Career & Technology Center Website This is a great opportunity to have a conversation about future goals and how they plan to get there!