Andrea Keenan: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome, uh, and good morning. Thank you for joining us for this MEFA Institute webinar entitled Career Centric Pathway Planning with the MEFA Pathway Curriculum. We’re so glad that you’re here. Um, we’re gonna go through a few housekeeping slides, um, before we dive into the content. Next, please

Thank you. So, um, many of you have attended our MEFA webinars before, uh, but if you’re new here, just a few, um, notes on your Zoom screen. The audio settings on the left allow you to control the volume levels. Um, you can also use enable the live transcript feature if you wanna see closed captions of everything today.

And then a, a few notes on questions. So our chat feature is disabled, uh, for this webinar, but if you wanna communicate with us, ask questions, we invite you to please use the Q&A [00:01:00] feature instead. Um, and all you have to do is type in your question, and we’ll either answer it live or answer it, uh, right on the Q&A page.

And then of course, if you need to leave, which we hope you don’t, but if you do, you click the red Leave button. Um, you will get a recording and slides following today’s webinar. So if you do need to leave early, please do what you need to do and just know that you’ll get everything sent to you, um, a lit- little bit after the webinar concludes.

Next, please. Um, so about MEFA. Um, y- you might be familiar with us. We’re the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority. We were created back in 1982 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and are, have been really mission-driven since. Um, our mission is to help families in the Commonwealth plan, save, and pay for college, and under that umbrella are tools like MEFA Pathway and some other, um, MEFA, um, offerings that we’ll share a little bit, um, toward the end that are [00:02:00] specifically geared toward counselors.

But before I share all of that at the end, just a little bit more in depth, just really wanna kind of set the scene for us. Um, we’re here to talk about MEFA Pathway lesson plans, and we are just so excited to do that, and know that that is one of just a tremendous amount of, uh, resources and support in the MEFA ecosystem.

So for you specifically, high school counselors and educators, we have, um, so many pieces for you and for your families as well. So just wanna just, um, point you to our live and on-demand webinars, um, our resource center on mefa.org. Your families and students, um, and colleagues and friends can always tune into the MEFA podcast, which is excellent.

Um, Jonathan does an amazing job hosting that. Um, our customer service is always there for you as well. Um, we have our experts available via email, phone, [00:03:00] and one-on-one appointments. Um, and of course, we’re active on social media. So, um, just really encourage you to take advantage of everything that, that we have for you.

Next, please. Um, and with that, I wanna get to the meat of today’s webinar. Um, so my name is Andrea Keenan. I’m the associate director of K-12 services here at MEFA. Um, we are here to talk about lesson plans, but I’d like to start by grounding us a little bit in the bigger picture, which is MyCAP. Um, so My Career and Academic Plan, as you know, is a student-driven process, helps young people develop knowledge, skills, self-awareness that they need to make informed decisions about their future.

So as you might know as well, it brings together three important areas: personal and social development, career development and education, and academic and technical learning. So it’s really important for us to set the scene for you as, um, before we hand it over to our experts on lesson plans, [00:04:00] to really, um, remember that MyCAP is the process, right?

It’s not the platform. It’s about creating intentional ongoing opportunities for students to explore who they are and connect those interests to their academic and career goals. So MEFA Pathway is the tool that helps bring that process to life, right? If we, as MEFA Pathway, provide students with opportunities to do all, all of that and kinda get their hands dirty, um, to, to do all that.

Um, but having a great tool is really only part of the equation, right? So we also need meaningful learning experiences to help students actually use the tool meaningfully, and that’s where we have, uh, Dr. Kim Oppelt here today joining us to try to bridge that gap for us, um, and connect the dots, um, to where, um, you can get a really good idea of how lesson plans can, um, help you utilize the tool to its, its full potential, but also really [00:05:00] encourage students, um, to- To really deep dive, right?

Um, so we are so pleased to welcome, uh, Dr. Kim Oppelt, and we also have Elizabeth Moore here supporting to help us explore those resources, how they align across grade levels, and consider how you can make them work in your own school community. Um, so with that, I’m going to, um, turn it over to Dr. Kim Oppelt.

Great. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Kim Oppelt: Thank you, Andrea. It’s so great to be here. I’m, I’m excited to be able to join you, um, on this Friday morning, and, um, looking forward to chatting through, um, exactly what Andrea just, just, um, set the stage for. So not only, um, you know, the, the model for, um, for helping students but, but the tools too.

So we’ll go through the nuts and bolts and, and the overall con- conceptual versions of everything and, and get you started, um, or, and [00:06:00] on your way. So before we do that, my name is Kim Oppelt. Just a quick introduction. Um, I am the senior director, uh, or sorry, I’m the vice president of Career Development and Readiness, and I, um, mostly work with, uh, districts, states, schools to, um, make sure that students are learning the best, um, career readiness and, and, you know, all of the, the tools and techniques that they need to prepare them for a pathway of, a lifelong pathway of success really.

Um, I am a licensed school counselor. I was a c- a school counselor at the beginning of my career, and since then have been working, um, around the world really on career pathway, career development techniques, and, and tools and, um, professional learning and all of those types of things. So really excited to share what we have, um, developed for you, um, throughout the state and, um, and beyond, and, um, prepare you with those, um, tools that you [00:07:00] need.

Before we jump in, I’m just wanting to set the stage a little bit of the objectives of this, um, of this webinar. So wanna make sure that you leave here with the, um, the lesson categories and scope and sequence that you need, um, to, to really deliver s- um, uh, your lessons to students. We want to share an entire lesson plan with you so that you understand the anatomy of it and all of the components that you need.

And then we wanna talk through also customizing your lesson plans to meet what you’re doing in, um, in classrooms or individually with students or however you’re delivering these lessons and working with, um, with your, um, your, um, your base of students. So that’s what you’ll come out with. At, um, as Andrea mentioned, if you have any questions throughout, please drop them into the Q&A.

We are happy to answer them and, um, and tackle them as we go or at the end

[00:08:00] Okay, here’s the, the complete agenda. Um, as you mentioned, we’ll talk through the lesson categories and, um, scope and sequence components. We’ll take a look at a lesson plan in depth, and then we’ll talk through l- uh, best practices and next steps. Before we jump in, we’re gonna do a little poll, um, just to get to know everyone.

Want to take a look at what grade levels you’re currently working with. So, um, are you focused on middle school, on high school? Is there a specific grade level? Um, go ahead and check all that apply, and we’ll give it, you know, just a couple of seconds

If you’re not seeing it, it should pop up for you right on the screen. If you’re not seeing it and you’d rather drop it in the Q&A, you can do that too

All right, so let’s take a look at those results There we go. All right. And a lot of middle school foc- or a lot of high school focus here. [00:09:00] Ninth through 12th grade. Looks like 11th grade is, is one of the biggest, um, areas, so with 85% of you. Um, but, you know, de- definitely a good base of middle school, um, focus as well.

So we’re going to cover it all, absolutely. Um, and I’m, I’m looking forward to talking through how we set the stage from middle school to high school, so thank you for, for responding to that Okay, I’m gonna hand it over to Elizabeth really quick to just talk through, um, the MEFA pathway and, and what it, what it looks like.

Elizabeth Moore: Thank you, Kim. Good morning, everyone. It’s lovely to be with you all So today we’re going to be looking at lesson plans, of course, utilizing MEFA Pathway. So with MEFA Pathway, if you are, um, new to the redesigned MEFA Pathway, haven’t seen it yet, we’re going to have a, a peek at it a little bit later this morning.

Um, it is in place for sixth through 12th grade students, and it does respond to [00:10:00] students dependent upon their grade level. So different tools and pieces open as students are moving through school, creating a very personalized experience for that child. Um, it is very much driven by students’ career assessments.

And so as students are getting started with the tool, which we’re gonna see here in a few minutes, with those career assessments, um, their results, their interactions with the tool, um, adjust, shift based on the areas that sh– the areas and industries and careers that students are showing a connection with.

We do have, um, reporting pieces in place for educators to be able to pull all kinds of data, see what students are doing in the tool, look at those interactions. And then we also have the family component in place where families are able to view their child’s account, get a feel for, um, the work that the child is doing around their MyCAP, course planning, um, planning for post-secondary, and even college applications.

So [00:11:00] a lot of resources in place. It is streamlined to existing sign-in functionality, meaning if your school district utilizes Clever, if you utilize ClassLink, it all sits behind those same logins so students don’t have to remember another login. Um, we do include a work-based learning tool, and we are going to have upcoming sessions on that, specifically around work-based learning.

But as you are learning with the system and thinking about using it in your location, for folks already using it in their location, we’re very excited to work with you to talk through, you know, rolling it out locally. So we do have, um, configurations in place where you’re able to load local data, um, local CTE programs, those types of opportunities for your students.

So we will want to stay in touch with you. We hope you want to stay in touch with us as we roll forward together, um, in order to get your system set up for your location, and then also configured to [00:12:00] your, uh, local offerings for your students. We do have ongoing professional learning. We offer, um, micro-certifications with the system.

There’s just a lot of, uh, spaces to learn and grow with the tool, um, as you’re getting started with it. So just a quick look at those core solutions. So this is a punch list of the sixth through 12th grade features that are included as a part of the newly redesigned MEFA Pathway. So of course, those research-based assessments then flow into course planning, um, career exploration I called out that college access piece, but we do have Common App.

College Match is part of the tool where students enter information from their FAFSA, and it will match them to colleges based on cost. They can put in academic information and see college matches as well. Um, of course, the work-based learning module is comprehensive, includes everything from managing internships and co-op to reporting to time and wage [00:13:00] cards that students can include in the system.

Um, we have all of these resources here to support MyCAP, and all of it flows into your students’ career portfolios that then you can view as an educator. You can pull individual data around for students. Um, you can also pull groups of students’ data. It flows all the way up to the school level, to the district level, um, and, you know, different administrators in your location can have access that, to that.

Um, we do have the curriculum that we’re getting into this morning. So Kim, I’m going to, uh, pass it back over to you. Perfect. And we’ll dive into lesson plans and curriculum. Thank you.

Kim Oppelt: Sounds great. Thank you. And, um, it looks like a, a long list of, of features, and it, and it is because we want to make sure that students, you know, are, are being supported and have the tools to plan their future.

Um, but today what we’re gonna do is make that a little bit easier, uh, for you to work with and, and kind of shrink the system a, a bit so that you feel like you can [00:14:00] activate on, um, on each of those features and help students in the right way. So let’s set the stage a little bit and talk about career-centric pathway planning.

Um, so we have been talking about this for, for years now. Um, and when, when we think about it, um, about 60% of students nationwide will go to a f- two or four-year college right after high school. So, um, you know, that’s a, a big number, but we saw that, um, there was a bit of a gap there, right? What are we preparing students for?

Are we preparing them to go to college, or are we preparing them for that ultimate goal of a career? So what we did was kind of flip the script and wanted to talk through, um, putting career at the center of the college and career planning process. So, um, instead of just asking students where they want to go to school, we’re asking them what they want to be.

Um, and we’re not just [00:15:00] doing that, we’re actually helping them, um, understand who they are, and you’ll, you’ll see that in that first, um, first ring in the circle. Understand who they are by understanding their interests, understanding their skills, and understanding their work values. So we want to make sure that students, before they jump into any career, um, or any career pathway, that they are connecting that to what, who they are and what they want to be.

Um, from that, we want to make sure that students are preparing in the same way. And if you think about it, if you step back and take a look, all students are aiming for an eventual career, right? There’s a career at, at the destination. Um, and it’s what happens along the way that might vary for them. So we want to help them to discover, you know, who they are, what’s out there, to explore the careers that are connected with, um, with their interests, skills, and work values.

[00:16:00] And then start to make a plan. So that plan includes selecting the right courses as they’re going along, understanding the, the clubs and extracurriculars that go along with it, um, and really setting themselves up for success regardless of that desti- that career destination. So it could be, you know, a truck driver, could be a welder, could be going into culinary arts, or it could be, you know, a career in law or, um, or medicine.

So all students are gonna go through that same cycle, and then they’re gonna begin to prepare for what’s next. So that is where we, um, you know, the, the path might diverge a little bit where we’re talking about the education needed for students. So, um, you know, do they need a certificate? Do they need an apprenticeship, or do they need a, a four-year, two-year beyond, um, college education?

So really what we’re doing is supporting 100% of that student population by putting the career at the center [00:17:00] of the process. And, um, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about today is, um, is a curriculum or scope and sequence curriculum and lesson plans that are designed around both, um, the, the MiCAP domains and the career-centric, um, pathway plan.

So let’s talk about how these, um, how these lessons and, and the scope and sequence are, are set up. Um, wanted to dig– this might be, you know, this is probably old news to you, but want to make sure that we’re talking about, um, our lessons that align to the MiCAP domains. So we have academic skills. We have lessons starting in sixth grade on academic skills and what it means to succeed academically, what those, um, what those skills are that they need to, you know, be a successful studier, um, to choose the right classes that i-in their future.

All of those academic skills that [00:18:00] help not only while they’re in middle school or high school, but beyond as well as they become, um, you know, as they go into any post-secondary training or become lifelong learners. Social-emotional learning, obviously we have that in there. Um, helps with, uh, lessons that help with self-awareness, responsible decision-making, um, just things that help them be, um, you know, s-sustain their, um, their, their growth as they, uh, move through your schools and beyond.

College and career expl-exploration in those MiCAP domains, so we talk a lot about assessments, um, and then career exploration. So we– you’ll see in, in the scope and sequence that we have a, a really nice progression of, um, that connects the, the, um, the model of who am I, exploring who they are through assessments, and then taking that next step and connecting their interests, skills and values to, um, to career opportunities, cluster [00:19:00] opportunities and eventually, um, the education needed.

And then we do have also financial readiness topics, so financial literacy. Um, not only, you know, paying for college and FAFSA lessons, but also, um, budgeting and, um, starting a, a savings account. So those, those tools that students will need as they, as they go on, again, regardless of that post-secondary education path that they take.

So we’re gonna pause really quick and take another poll. We wanted to know what area in your practice right now are you, you spending the most time on in the MiCAP domains?

It might be hard to choose one, so if you need to choose two, you can, but try not to go beyond that So academic skills, SEL, college and career exploration, or financial literacy [00:20:00] All right, let’s pop that up

College and career exploration. Okay, great. Well, the great thing about the MyCAP domains, I think, is that, um, you know, there is plenty to offer when it comes to that college and career exploration. And, and although you might be spending a lot of time, sorry, in your classroom, uh, or in your classes focused on that, you may also want to incorporate other areas.

Sometimes it’s not as easy. You know, sometimes planning a, a financial literacy lesson or even a one-on-one meeting with a student isn’t that easy to do. So we’re going to show you today, um, some, some, you know, give you some solid tools and techniques to, um, to expand that and, and maybe even even out those domains in what you spend with students

All right, so as [00:21:00] we move toward, um, showing you that full scope and sequence, wanted to talk through the lesson categories that we have. Um, so this is aside from the MyCAP domain. Um, our lesson categories are meant to make things easy for you to understand what you’re delivering to students, um, and to kind of spread it out.

So, um, we mentioned that this is customizable, so we want to make sure that you have all of the information as possible as you’re going into these lessons. So our lesson, um, categories look like this. So we have c- career exploration. Um, so that’s researching careers, um, really, you know, looking at that, the center of that career-centric pathway planning model and helping students understand what they want to be, who they want to be once they graduate from high school.

Um, so lots of tools on career exploration. We also wanted to call out goal setting because we know that’s a vital part of, um, of the whole career [00:22:00] pathway planning process. So goal setting for academics, goal setting, um, like personal goal setting, um, career exploration goal setting. So a lot of different goal-setting lessons that you can use to help students, um, you know, set a goal, set a SMART goal, and, um, and carry through and save that and, and, um, you know, hold themselves accountable.

We also have the academic skills lesson category, so building those study habits and planning for success and connecting academics with, um, future career pathways. So, um, so that students feel engaged in their, um, in their a- academic process. We also have self-discovery, so helping students to un- understand who their in…

what their interests are, what their values are, and skills confidence, and not only understanding what they are, but why they matter. That’s the, that’s the fourth one. Fifth is, um, post-high school planning. So again, you know, we’re not just focused on two or four-year colleges. Um, we [00:23:00] have students that’ll end up doing certificates or going straight into the workforce.

So we want to, regardless of what they do, make sure that they have the tools that they need to, um, to be able to jump right into, um, their next step as soon as they exit your doors. The sixth is resume building. So we want to make sure that, um, students aren’t just building a resume, um, in the 12th grade when they, when they need it for a college application, scholarship application, or work application.

Um, it’s much easier to build a resume, um, as you go along in high school. So we, um, we insert some, some lessons into our scope and sequence that help students reflect on why it’s important to, you know, to get involved either, um, by volunteering or extracurricularly or with their family or, um, in the world of work.

So making sure that they understand that, and then writing it down and, and keeping it safe, um, [00:24:00] in their MEFA pathway. And then financial literacy. So again, you know, we, we kind of looked at that in, as we talked through the, the domains. But, um, financial literacy, again, understanding budgets, um, paying for education, um, starting…

Uh, what is credit? So a lot of different lessons that are related to financial literacy, which we feel really helps to, to launch students into their next step, um, a- again, as, as soon as they walk out your door

All right. I don’t see any questions yet. Feel free to ask questions as we go along. Um, just, um, as we get into the components and the, and the structure of the lessons and the scope and sequence that we have, I mentioned that we do have, um, lessons by, uh, for- from middle school to high school, so grades six through twelve.

Um, and we have them all laid out for you in a recommended [00:25:00] scope and sequence. So you can decide, you know, if this is something that you want to implement compre-comprehensively, or you can pick and choose the lessons that work for you. So our sixth-grade lessons don’t have to be, you know, all delivered in sixth grade.

You can carry some over into se- seventh or eighth grade. Our eleventh-grade lessons you can bring into ninth or tenth as a preview for students. Um, especially, you know, we see that a lot with financial readiness, um, courses. You can, um, you can mix and match them as you’d like, but we, uh, we do have if you want to go with a recommended scope and sequence, we, we do have that for you.

So every lesson that is in our, um, scope and sequence has a few things, and we’ll show this to you as well. But you’ll see a grade level and category, you’ll see a connection to, um, the MEFA pathway. So what tools that you’ll see if it’s an assessment tool or if [00:26:00] it’s using the resume or doing a, a career search.

You’ll also see vocabulary words and future-ready skills that, um, that you’re able to deliver in the classroom and, and give students context for, and then an estimated duration. Um, I also… I don’t know, maybe I’ll say that in a second, but we wanna make sure that these lessons are able for anyone to deliver.

So it doesn’t have to just be, um, you as the, the career and college expert in your school that delivers these. These are really meant to share, and we’ll show you what that looks like so that, um, it, it becomes a little more easy, um, as you, as you go through. This is, um, not meant to scare you , it’s meant to show you the scope.

So this is our sixth through ninth-grade, um, lessons. Um, we’ll give you the link for this so that you can access it in a bit, but this is the full comprehensive scope and sequence. You’ll see a lesson category or [00:27:00] a lesson column in here, and then you’ll also see an accompanying PowerPoint. So, um, each of those are downloadable.

They’re accessible through, um, through web-based tools, and those are really the, the techniques that you’ll… or the, the, um, materials that you’ll need as you, um, use these lessons Perfect. Uh, okay. So let’s take a look at a lesson plan. And again, we’ll have these available for you to download and, and see a little easier.

I know it’s very small print, but we just, uh, we have a screenshot up here of what a lesson, um, looks like, what a lesson plan looks like. This is the Exploring Career Interests lesson plan, and this is for grade nine. So you’ll see in here that we have a summary, we have goals and objectives, and then we have…

So these are all in PDFs. So this is something that you could download and send over to a teacher. Maybe you have a, a CTE teacher [00:28:00] that wants to do, um, an, a lesson in their classroom, um, it’s an off day where they’re not in the lab. Or if you have, um, a group of students that you’re working with and, and wanna do this, you can keep it for yourself.

But this will give step-by-step, um, procedures. So, and you’ll see time listed here as well. So we always have a lesson starter. So what kind of context should you set for students? Then we have an engagement activity, and that could be, um, having students log into MEFA Pathway and, and take an assessment.

It could ha- have them working in groups to, um, brainstorm careers or make a, a, you know, a vision board. Uh, anything like that where they’re, where students are being active and, and thinking through, um, their future. And then we also have, um, a lesson closure in every, in every lesson. So a way to bring students together and process what they’ve learned, what they’ve, um, discovered about, you know, themselves or about each other, and, um, and [00:29:00] be able to, you know, walk away with the, with the objectives met.

Um, we have post-lesson recommendations. And then in every lesson too, we have, um, modification recommendations. So if you’re only able to work with students for 20 minutes in an advisory period or, or maybe all of your advisors in the homeroom are, are going to deliver a lesson, we have that modification there to compress the lesson.

And then maybe you have, maybe have the luxury of, uh, working with students for even longer and you have, you know, 60 minutes or 120 minutes in a block schedule, we have extensions of lessons too to help students to, um, to take that lesson and, and explore even more, um, related to that topic

We also have corresponding PowerPoints, um, so slide decks for each of these lessons. So, um, Elizabeth’s gonna take you through it in just a minute. But we have, um, we have slides that you can use, [00:30:00] that you can share with your, um, with, again, with your teachers or advisors or anyone in your school who might be delivering this.

Um, the beauty of it is, you know, you could, it, you could do it on a, a large scale where everyone in the school is, is getting the same lesson at the same time. Um, but, but these PowerPoints help to guide the conversation. Um, i- they, um, explain to students what to do if they’re going to click somewhere in MEFA Pathway, um, and just takes them through the whole entire lesson.

So we wanna make this, um, I don’t wanna say easy for you, but we definitely want to make it as, you know, as, as low touch for you in the preparation area as possible so that you can use your, your time and expertise in, in working with students in delivering this Okay. So with that, um, I think we have one more poll.

And wanted to, you know, as we talked about the compression lessons or extension, [00:31:00] when you’re working with students, whether that’s individually or in a small group or in a classroom, how much time are you able to spend on, um, on a lesson? And go ahead and just type that in

All right

Okay, let’s… I’m not sure how the results will pop up with this, but Andrea, I’m not… If you’re able to share the results.

Andrea Keenan: Yes.

Kim Oppelt: Thank you See how that pops up. Oh, 100% answer, great. Do you, are you able to see, Andrea, the, um, some of the, the responses in there at all?

Andrea Keenan: Um, yes, and it actually, um… Can you hear me okay?

Kim Oppelt: Yep, can hear you great.

Andrea Keenan: Okay, perfect. So the most common, um, answer was 30 minutes- [00:32:00]

Kim Oppelt: Great.

Andrea Keenan: Okay … followed by 25 maybe, 45. I’m not seeing many that have more than that. Um-

Kim Oppelt: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Great, and, you know, that’s exactly what we wrote these lessons for is around 40 minutes, so if you have to compress it by 10 or 15, then, um, then we have those suggestions, or if you, you know, can stay at 40, 45, then that’s great as well.

Perfect. So I’m going to now hand it over to Elizabeth, who’s gonna take you through just an example of one of these lessons and what it would look like to deliver it, um, in classroom with your students. So I’ll stop sharing

Elizabeth Moore: Hey. Thank you, Sam And turn it over Good morning. All right, so just getting my screen shared. That’s not the right screen share. Just a moment. Sorry, guys.

Kim Oppelt: That’s okay.

Elizabeth Moore: Just a second. [00:33:00] Here we go All right. So, um, as we transition into what that classroom experience can look like, each of the lesson plans have aligned PowerPoints ready to go.

Of course, you can adjust them for your uses locally. But I want to give you a, an idea, a preview of what this process can look like. So this is a lesson around exploring career interest. It does have this for ninth grade students, but honestly, you could use this for older students as well, and there may be pieces of it you want to use for younger students.

So exploring career interests. So good morning, today’s students. We’re going to be exploring career interest. Um, we’re going to be talking through– You’re going to be taking a career assessment in the next few minutes, and you’re going to be learning, um, how your interests can help you explore careers. So we always want to [00:34:00] be looking for that good fit career, helping you learn what a potential career might be for you.

And so today, you’re going to be learning about who you are and what you’re interested in and then connecting that to potential career paths. So I want you to be thinking as you take your career assessment today and you’re getting your results, what are the subjects in school that you enjoy the most?

What are the activities that you most enjoy spending your time doing? And then we’re going to be talking about how those interests, how those activities could potentially connect to a future career. So you’re going to head to mepathway.kuder.com, and from here you’re going to log in. You’ll either log in with Clever or ClassLink, depending on what our school uses to log into the tool.

So you’ll have those local instructions for your students, um, with their Clever, ClassLink, or whatever your district uses for single sign-on [00:35:00] Once you’re in the tool, you are going to start working through your first career assessment. So I’m going to come over here and show you guys how to log in. So I’m gonna come to mefapathway.kuder.com, same web address that was on your slide.

I’m going to go log in to a manual account. Um, if you want to, uh, have your own sample student login, we’ll be working with your district to provide that, um, as your district comes on board with the newly redesigned MEFA pathway. But I’m going to go log in now. Students would log in with either Clever, ClassLink, um, the single sign-on tool that your district uses.

So welcome. We are inside a Charlotte sample student account. On the homepage, we can see those research-based assessments where we’ll be spending the next few minutes. Just a couple of housekeeping things on the left-hand menu. Um, these are all the different activities. We [00:36:00] have all kinds of, uh, upcoming webinars and opportunities for educators across the state to learn more about the different resources within the redesigned, uh, MEFA pathway.

All the things that your students are doing are going to be compiled in their portfolio, and this is where you’ll have those data points and reporting resources for you, um, to be able to pull for accountability and for working with your students, and also where students can find all the things that they’re doing.

Um, Justin, I know you asked a question about, uh, translation, so I’m gonna come over here to the globe in the upper right-hand corner, and this is where we can translate the page to Spanish. At this point, we can also leverage Google Translate… excuse me, Edge Translate. Um, whichever, uh, web browser you’re using can be used to translate the page to any other primary language that a student or family may speak So on the home screen, we do have all kinds of resources that you can customize locally, [00:37:00] uh, with those recommended resources.

But for this morning, we’re focused on that research-based assessment for ninth graders. So we went through, um, kind of set the stage. Of course, we’d have some conversation. The lesson plan will give you some talking points, too. Um, but we have gone in, we’ve logged into the tool, so we are going to take that research-based assessment.

So right on the home screen, you can see d- under Discover Your Interest, I’m going to be thinking about what do I like to do. Your highest interest areas are going to be c- uh, matched to careers that I might enjoy. Remember that this is not a test. This is an opportunity to learn about myself. Um, this is not a pass or fail.

Um, I’m going to go through, read the questions, answer the questions honestly. Um, by reading the questions and answering the questions honestly, I’m going to get assessment results that are more valid to me. So it is important that I, uh, do [00:38:00] read the questions. And keep in mind that I need to take this assessment for myself.

I don’t need to take the, the assessment based on, um, what my family members tell me, um, that I should like or not like. I need to answer the questions honestly and for myself, okay? So I’ll go through. Just for, um, us on the call this morning, the assessments each take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete depending on students’ ages.

Um, and so not a, not a long time to complete the assessment. I would say probably closer to 10 minutes to complete As students get their assessment results, then they’re going to start seeing those career matches. So let’s take a look at that process. I’m gonna come over here. Um, when I take my assessment, I’m going to be able to very quickly get to career results.

And, um, as you all are working with students, it may be helpful, you can always go in and take the assessment r- for yourself and even [00:39:00] share your own results with your students. That’s always a fun activity, um, and it can also model for your students, um, how you’re thinking about your assessment results as well.

So I would encourage you to do that. Um, you don’t have to, but you do– you will have a sample account to be able to do that. All right, so I’m gonna come over here. Um, I’m seeing a list of, of jobs related to my assessment results. And notice that students can filter these out by levels of education, so they may have some questions, especially younger students, around some of these education levels and what they mean.

But they’ll be learning about that as a part of using the tool. Um, when I scroll down, we’re going to see that list of occupations, and so we’re talking about career interests this morning, and so I have a list of careers based on my interests, and I can sort by these. Um, with these list of jobs, you may be noticing that there is a sun next to these jobs, some of these occupations.

If I click on the [00:40:00] key, we can see that these suns, um, indicate a national bright outlook, meaning an in-demand occupation. And if the job has a green leaf next to it, it means it’s an occupation that supports a green economy or promotes a green economy So students, they’ll be going through looking at this.

Sometimes they’ll look at the first one and ignore everything else. But we do want to give students a few moments in the classroom. They always can continue exploration at any point further on. I didn’t mention this, but if the bell were to ring in the middle of taking the assessment, it does save their progress.

They will not have to start over, and students can always come back to their assessment results if you only have time to give the assessment and not to explore, and you need to break up the activity. So I’m going to open up a health education specialist. So I’m poking around, I’m looking, um, I can scroll through these different jobs, and students may be intrigued just to see the names of jobs, [00:41:00] um, just to start to get an idea of what jobs even exist and what are out there.

When I was in the classroom, I always encouraged my students to open and explore because many times my students did not know what these occupations were and maybe had not heard of them. So I’m going to open a health education specialist, and I can see that this is related to the career pathway Family and Community Services.

We really encourage

Kim Oppelt: students

Elizabeth Moore: to start watching these videos, learning, really exploring. So this is that career exploration piece that’s so critical. Watch these videos, have some headphones and, um, they do have closed caption, but be able to, to really look and, and have some time to poke around in the system.

As students are getting in here, they’re going to see those quick facts about each of these occupations, and if they like what they’re seeing, they can star the job and save it to their favorites. [00:42:00] And all of those favorites go into their portfolios This is important because that provides a data point for you on careers your students are enjoying and interested in, but it also allows students to get back to these quickly.

So going to their portfolio, they’re going to have a list of favorite occupations they can rank, they can compare and contrast. These are things they can do in future activities. Um, also telling your students if there’s an opportunity for a potential field trip or guest speaker, your teaching staff can actually pull, your counseling and career exploration staff can pull these data points to create those curated career experiences.

So students are going through, they’re learning about these occupations, and they can see details of what these jobs are. Where does a community health worker, where are they employed? And we’ll see those locations. Um, we can also see the interest, skills, and work values. This is one of my favorite spots because my students would say, “Miss Moore, why did it tell [00:43:00] me to be a health education, uh, health educator?”

Well, let’s look at your interest. Are you social? Do you like working with people? Um, do you like helping people? Are you enterprising? Do you like a project? Are you interested in being a leader? Students can look at the skill sets, and so really starting to think about who they are and if this sounds like them.

Um, they can begin poking into education, where to go for future education, salary information. They can look across the state, and then related occupations, continuing to look at jobs. So as students are exploring, the PowerPoint is going to guide students to go into their notetaker right here on the left-hand menu, record their top three matches, and then document what do you want to do to next explore.

They can absolutely explore in the system, but they can also explore, um, by talking to [00:44:00] folks around them. They may want to interview an adult in their life who does this or ask around to– They may have a friend’s parent who does this for a living or someone in their community that they can connect with.

Um, if it’s related to something like healthcare, maybe at the pediatrician’s office. So students are going to be guided through this exploration that I just shared with you, and then we’re gonna start making the connection. So what are the school subjects connected to the occupations that you found?

What hobbies, what experiences do you have connected to these occupations that you saw today? Why do these groups of jobs interest you? And then of course, class discussion. So turning and talking, um, with a neighbor, putting students into small groups of three or four students. What surprised you? That question can take a lot of, of class time right there.

What surprised you? What didn’t surprise you? What really [00:45:00] lined up and, and aligned with the things that you already see in yourselves? Um, as you’re working with your students and, and for classroom advisory teachers, uh, folks who, um, you know, teachers seeing these students every day, counselors seeing these students every day, this is a powerful moment to reflect on what you see in your students.

You know, “I’ve really seen you as a leader in our school. Did you know that? How is that reflected in your assessment results?” So that meaningful conversation, students carrying this home, opening those profiles on their phones or on their, um, school devices and sharing the results with the family, reflecting on it with their family.

And then, um, students may want to journal. You may have them do a, a short classroom presentation. What are you doing next? Are you really going to focus on certain subjects in school to support this career path? Are you going to interview someone in your community? What action are you gonna take next to learn more?

So [00:46:00] Kim, anything we’re not calling out, uh, in the lesson plan PowerPoint and walkthrough?

Kim Oppelt: No, I, I don’t think so. This is great. Thank you so much for that great overview and, and demonstration. I think it’s, it’s always great to hear and see how you can deliver in your classroom. So this was, this was perfect.

Thank you so much, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Moore: Oh, absolutely. Um, we had a quick question about 30 days remaining on the assessments. Um, thank you for that question. That, uh, is just a reminder to students that if they don’t take it within the next 30 days, it’ll start over. So it’s just saving their progress for the, for the next month.

So yeah. Right. We don’t lose anything in the tool.

Kim Oppelt: Good. Well, thank you. And I will… We’ll go back to our presentation

So just a couple of things to wrap [00:47:00] up. Um, we mentioned that these lesson plans are customizable, so every plan that you have, we, we wanna make sure that you’re fitting it into your classroom as, as you want. So just a couple of things to think about as you begin to download these lessons and take a look and, and fit them into your workflow.

Um, one would be to, to start with the goals, and that’s again, to, you know, align them to whatever you- your mapping is for the, the, for the year. So if you typically do certain lessons or have certain topics throughout the year, go ahead and, and scan through, uh, the entire scope and sequence and choose lessons that are going to align with your calendar, your goals, um, your MICAP, uh, priorities, and whatever you want to happen in those grade levels.

Um, the, the second is to map the year. So take a look, you know, even though, what is it? Oh, it’s almost November, I guess, but take a second [00:48:00] to, um, to look at the year ahead and decide what’s important. Some people have, um, uh, monthly themes that they’re focusing on, so, you know, financial readiness or I know November is typically a, a career awareness month.

Um, in January, you have a lot of, um, of course planning going on. So go ahead and map the year, and then build it your own custom scope and sequence from there. You can download or copy and paste our, our scope and sequence. You can, um, on your own, you know, on your own computer, you can, um, you can delete lines or add or move things around.

So go ahead and map your year and lay all of those out as needed. Um, and the next is to fit your schedule. So, uh, don’t be afraid to adapt the timing. Make, you know, if you, if a lesson needs to carry over into a day, if you only have 15 minutes, if you need to, you know, get in and, and get an assessment done and then process [00:49:00] another day, go ahead and do that.

But make sure that you fit it into whatever schedule you have. Making it local. We see a lot of people, um, bring in, um, local employers or local area, um, institutions that, educational institutions, um, that will speak to a lesson that’s happening. So make sure that you connect it to your own community, bring in resources, and, um, kind of share the wealth when it comes to, to customizing these lessons.

Um, meet every learner. Obviously you do this, um, probably on a daily basis, but just feel free to adjust, um, the lessons so that they’re meeting the learning needs, um, and abilities of, of every student. And then take time to collaborate and reflect on, um, you know, on these lessons. So once you deliver one, if you, you know, use the PowerPoint and you use the lesson plan, take some time to reflect on what works and what you want to change for next time.

Um, the, those PowerPoints [00:50:00] are all customized for your, or are able to be customized on your end. So adjust as needed and make sure that it fits what you need when you need it

And just to wrap up, you can access the scope and sequence at, um, at the website here, or we have a QR code that should lead you there. Um, if you have any quest- We’ll drop that, um, that link into our chat as well. But if you have questions, actually, you don’t need to use this email. It’ll be [email protected].

We’ll drop that into the chat, um, too, so Perfect. I will send this back over to Andrea. Thank you so much.

Andrea Keenan: Great. Thank you. Um, yeah, so a lot of you might have follow-up questions or might be thinking, “All right, cool, how do I get my students to start using this platform? How do we get our admin set up on the platform?”

So if you’re interested in hopping on to this MEFA Pathway experience, um, [00:51:00] your first step should be to complete our MEFA Pathway interest form. Um, it is linked here in the QR code, so feel free to scan right now if, if you wanna keep it handy for now or for later. That’s the first step. So as, as long as you d- are doing that, you are self-identifying yourself to us saying, “Hey, I’m ready to learn more.

I’m ready to hop on,” and then we will follow up with you. Um, if your district doesn’t yet have a MEFA, uh, Pathway agreement on file, you’ll, you’ll hear from us. Um, and then you’ll be, um, hopefully looking out very soon for communication from the MEFA Pathway implementation team to follow up with you, um, around implementation and next steps.

So really, this interest form will unlock a series of events for you. So, um, please keep this QR code handy. Next slide, please. And so yeah, so after you fill out the form, uh, your district or school will be assigned to a rollout wave, and you’ll receive an implementation timeline from our [00:52:00] implementation team.

So in that follow-up communication after you submit your form, we’ll let you know, “Thanks. We got your form, and this is, um, your expected rollout, um, timeline.” We invite you to please register for and participate in MEFA Pathway trainings and webinars. That will be part of your implementation timeline, so you’ll get dates and links to all of that, um, as you’re assigned u- a rollout wave.

Um, and, uh, we are always here for you. Um, so you will– your district, your different various contacts at your schools and districts will partner with our implementation team to further configure the platform to suit your school’s needs. Um, so features, permissions, access for participating schools, our implementation team will offer those wraparound services to ensure that the platform’s working, um, when you want it, how you want it, and for the, um, the folks that, that, that need it and [00:53:00] want it at the different access levels on the admin side.

So we are looking forward to hopefully, um, hearing from many of you. Um, we, we just can’t wait to begin working with you on this, um, this redesigned MEFA Pathway experience. Um, I do wanna also highlight as you’re exploring, uh, MEFA Pathway, um, this webinar today is a seri- is part of a series of webinars, and so our next one that is going to put a spotlight on work-based learning in MEFA Pathway is taking place on November 17th at 8:00 AM.

Um, so we invite you to register for that as well. Um, we’ll be doing a deep dive on the work-based learning features of, um, the new MEFA Pathway. Next, please. Um, so I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment, um, having you all here, to really, uh, share, right, the rich sort of ecosystem that we have lined up for you in addition to MEFA Pathway.

Um, we at [00:54:00] MEFA want to serve you high school educators and counselors. So in addition to MEFA Pathway, I just wanna point out a few really cool things happening in case you also want to take advantage of all these, um, free resources. So the very first thing I wanna, uh, put a plug in for is our in-person financial aid training.

It’s back, and this is geared toward high school counselors. It’ll be a great day of networking and learning. That’s taking place Friday, November 6th at Assumption University. We’ll have some great sessions for you, um, that day, and so we invite you to come and, um, experience that day of, of training. If you wanna register, here’s the QR code Next, please.

And then, um, our, one of our flagship programs that we offer counselors and educators at the high school level is our MEFA Ambassador Program. And so if you’re hoping to bring in more financial literacy into your MyCAP scope and sequence, or just generally [00:55:00] your high school counselors want to engage parents in talking about financial aid for college, um, you can host a MEFA seminar, like a financial aid night at your school this fall, and one of our expert ambassadors can actually go travel to you and present our great, um, financial aid 101 session.

Um, so if you want to sort of learn more about this great offering from MEFA as well, invite you to scan so many QR codes, this next QR code, um, and you can select an ambassador from our list online, reach out directly to those ambassadors in your area to find out their availability and work with them to schedule something that works for both of you.

Um, we do have, um, just a tremendous roster of ambassadors available. Most of them are financial aid administrators at various colleges volunteering their time and expertise, so this is really top-notch content, um, that you can bring into your schools for free. So please take [00:56:00] advantage of that as well.

And finally, for your families, we know this is why you’re here, this is why we all do what we do, um, we are offering, um, some FAFSA festivals for your families, um, this fall, and we’ll potentially be adding more dates as needed in the new year. The next two are coming up November 17th and December 16th. So, um, invite your families to pre-register so that they can get a Q- um, a Zoom link and can join a one-on-one private se- session in a breakout room with one of our financial aid experts, and they can drop in any time from 4:00 to 6:00.

Um, really invite any, any family or student that even just has a question about the FAFSA to join, um, and get what they need, um, in those festivals. And then of course, our family webinars, um, another flagship program. Um, please encourage a student or point them in the direction of a webinar that they can share with families.

We have some great offerings too in different languages, Spanish, French, Haitian [00:57:00] Creole, Brazilian Portuguese. So s- some of this content, um, can be, you know, delivered to your families in a language that resonates with them. So you can see we are busy these days and love to partner with you and work with you and, and hope that you take us up on all of this.

Uh, please connect with us. I’m always happy to hear from you. And we’ll leave you with our contact information on the next slide. If you have any questions about anything you heard here today, your district agreement, um, how you hop onto the site, you know, you’re filling out the interest form, but if you have another quick question or nitty-gritty question, please ha- reach out to us at [email protected], or you can always call us as well.

Um, thank you all so much for being here. Um, this was a great hour. Kim, Elizabeth, thank you for sharing your expertise, um, and look forward to connecting with you all again soon. Thank you so much.

Kim Oppelt: Thank you.