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Course Overview

Research shows the earlier schools prepare students for employment the better they perform at their careers. Employers everywhere expect far more than degrees. Young professionals need to be deeply ingrained with the awareness of soft skills like work ethics, responsibility, communication, teamwork and creativity. Soft Skills Middle is an engaging and foundational online program specifically designed to introduce middle schoolers to the concepts of personal and career exploration; to help them begin to identify their strengths, interests, and values; and to prepare for future success in the classroom, in life, and eventually, in the workplace.

Get Ready. Get Prepped. Go!

Get Ready

Career and Life Foundations Course

The Soft Skills Middle journey begins with our online Career & Life Foundations course – an engaging interactive curriculum designed to help students get ready and become more aware of themselves and how they interact with others. There are 8 CLF modules (module descriptions are found in Appendix 1.) Each module contains the following five distinct instructional and interactive features that keep students continuously engaged as they navigate through the course: (Approximately 1- 2 hours per module. Modules can be broken up into several class periods.) Workout (Lesson) Each Soft Skills Middle Workout is designed to help students learn about and begin to strengthen their soft skills muscles that are essential to classroom, life, and career success. These eight soft skills course workouts are informative, interactive, and fun. Students take part in Self-Assessment and Career Awareness activities designed to help them begin to see in which career directions their strengths, interests and values may one day lead them. Online Discussion The Discussion exercise gives students the opportunity to share what they have learned during each soft skills Workout with their Soft Skills Middle online monitors and their fellow classmates. Each student will read and respond to a question based on the soft skill taught in each Workout, and then join in on a group discussion with their classmates. Skill Builder Exercise This is where students get to put there new soft skills muscles to work! The Skill Builder is the perfect opportunity for students to build on what they learned in each Workout by responding to a question or series of questions that relate to the Workout. This is their chance to flex their new muscles and demonstrate what they have learned. Quiz The Workout Quiz is designed to test students soft skills muscle memory by answering 10 short multiple-choice questions. A grade of 70% is required to pass the quiz and move on to their next Workout. Students get two chances to pass the quiz. Journal It. This final exercise is designed to help students self-reflect on what they have learned during each Workout, and to give you them the opportunity to document their knowledge in their own words, and to demonstrate how they plan to put each new skill successfully into practice in their daily life.

Pre and Post Assessment A pre assessment will be given prior to the start of the course. A post assessment will be given once students have completed all 8 modules. Before taking the post assessment, students will be asked to complete a course evaluation. Grading and Special Designation A student must have a minimum grade of 70% to earn the CLF certificate from Soft Skills Middle. After student's have completed the post assessment, their score will be computed automatically, and their final score will be generated. If they receive a passing score, they will earn their online course certificate. (A sample course certificate is found in Appendix 2.) A student's final grade will be computed based on the following criteria and weight distribution, for a total of 100%.

Get Prepped

WOW! The World of Work

The second stop on the Soft Skills Middle journey is the World of Work (WOW!) Students will get prepped for the world of work by virtually exploring the 16 Career Clusters in order to introduce them to the great big world of career opportunities that await them in the future. Upon completion of the Career Cluster Survey, students are able to travel the World of Work where they can earn their WOW Badges by visiting each career cluster and completing the corresponding cluster challenges. Cluster Challenge Activities include:

Pick Three

Could this be Me?

Think about it

Students are encouraged to collect all 16 WOW Badges before moving onto creating their Dream Big GO Plan.

Go!

Dream Big Go Plan

They're ready. They're prepped. And now it time to GO! But first they need a plan. And that's what the third and final step of the Soft Skills Middle journey is all about. In this fun and engaging program activity, students will create a Dream Big GO Plan using the self-knowledge and skills they gained in the Career and Life Foundations course along with the information and badges collected during their WOW! Career Cluster hot air balloon journey. It's time to land... and launch! Guided by a short series of questions designed to help them begin to put their Dream Big GO plan into action, students will work on their own and/or with their teachers, guidance counselors and parents to set going forward goals aimed at providing career direction that they can take with them as they move on to high school and college and out into the world. Once students complete their Dream Big Go Plan, they will be able to print it and save it for future use.

Module Descriptions

Module 1 Self-Awareness Self -awareness is knowing yourself. Before students can launch themselves confidently and successfully in the outside world, they must first be confident and successful on the inside. Knowing, accepting and liking oneself is essential to achieving success in the classroom, in life, and one day in the workplace. In this lesson, students will take a good look inside to discover who they are and who they want to be one day. Module 2 Social Awareness As students grow up, they have more opportunities to interact with others in various situations. In this lesson students will learn the importance of becoming social aware, and see how their personal actions positively or negatively affect their interactions with others. These interactions include school, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, family time, friends, and with people they meet along the road of life. This lesson will help students learn how to build a strong new confidence in their ability to successfully interact with others in all kinds of life situations. Module 3 Honesty Being honest is the student's conscience telling them what is right and wrong. This helps them make the right choice. In this lesson, students will learn that being honest means more than telling the truth. They will learn how to be sincere, genuine, fair to not only others, but to themselves as well. Module 4 Responsibility As students move through middle school, high school and beyond, they will notice they are responsible for more than their weekly chores. In this lesson, students will begin to identify their responsibilities and how to successfully fulfill them in order to build character, enhance relationships, and gain and retain the trust of others. Module 5 Communication The most important message of our Communication lesson is loud and clear: LOOK & LISTEN. In this lesson, students will be encouraged to learn how to put down their social media devices, to open their ears, eyes and hearts and appreciate the vast and endlessly wonderful world around them and live life to the fullest. Students will learn that acquiring the ability to communicate without the help of an electronic device can actually win them more friends, while impressing their teachers and parents. Module 6 Problem Solving and Creativity Problem solving means identifying solutions where none existed. It includes students making choices and accepting the consequences when their choices don’t turn out the way they want them to. In this lesson, students will build a strong set of problem-solving and creativity skills needed to succeed in the classroom, in life and, eventually, in the workplace. Module 7 Teamwork Diverse, creative and productive teams collaborate for success. In this lesson, students will identify the skills needed to become effective team players. Students will also practice the art of being both a working team member as well as a team leader. Module 8 Work Ethics Good work ethics tell future employers what they might expect from students on the job. Our final lesson will introduce students to the importance of cultivating solid principles starting right now. They will discover that a good work ethic can be the determining factor in how successful they are in school and in life today, and in the workplace tomorrow.