How are You Smart?

I continue to be amazed at the wonderful School Counseling Community I have gained from Social Networking!  One of my favorite blogs is School Counseling By Heart!  She has inspired me in so many ways and given me tons of ideas to use with my students.  One in particular that I wanted to share with you is her work with careers.  Go visit her website and see how she is using Career Smarts to get students thinking about their futures.

One thing that I am doing right now with Grades 3-5, is using the Inventory that she has shared to get a picture of where their strengths lie.  This is a simple Multiple Intelligences inventory that allows students to see a print out of what kind of smart they are.  We will later use it to match up careers that go along with their strengths.  I have used this week to explore how Habit 2 teaches us to Begin with the End in Mind.  We have discussed how setting goals for your career are important even now, and talked about reasons why this is true.    Next week, I am trying something new.  I will be having centers in Guidance!  In two centers, they will be using Netbooks to complete the inventory.  In another center, students will be using Ipads, and  exploring Virginia Career View which is a website that helps kids explore the different careers available to them.  The next center, will be a conferencing type center.  I want to connect with the students individually so I am using this time, to do my meeting minutes with the students.  If you haven't heard about meeting minutes.  I suggest you go visit another one of my favorite bloggers, Jyjoiner.  She is fabulous!  After the inventories are complete, the students will put these in the Leadership Notebooks, and research the career that matches their 'smarts.'  I love watching them discover themselves, and realize that each and every one of us has potential to be something great.