School and Class Summary:

I am a Youth Specialist who works for Crossroads Employment Services, a non-profit organization who offers employment services to youth (ages 17-21) and adults. I currently facilitate the Real Game at the Rancho Learning Center in Rancho Cordova, CA.

Rancho Learning Center is a state certified nonpublic school serving students with learning, emotional and developmental disabilities aged 5-22.

TRGC 2.1 Implementation:

Rancho Learning Center: I teach the curriculum online within a small computer lab. Each student has his or her own computer. We meet once a week on Thursdays from 9:30 to 10:30am.

Provide the following details for each session listed below:

- Is this session used in class?

- If not, why not?

- What changes did you make to the session?

- How long did it take to do this session?

- Challenges you experienced when doing this session?

- Attach any hard copy additional material you included for this session.

- Success stories using this session in class.

- Recommendations (technology or pedagogy) for this session.

Unit 1:

Since I am conducting the Real Game both on and offline I prep myself with both materials. Both materials incorporate the same concepts, but they do it differently. Before each session I read both on and offline rubric and I choose the one that would fit best for the class.

Session 1 The Spin Game

Rancho Learning Center:

-The session was used in a class setting.

-No changes were made during this session

-One hour.

-The Spin Game was fun and exciting for the youth, therefore they got a little rowdy and it was a challenge to keep them focused.

-The youth were interested and participated in this Session.

-This was a fun session and seemed to bound the youth together.

Session 2 The Dream

Rancho Learning Center:
- The session was used in a class setting.
- Changes made to the session: none
- The session took 2 hours.
- Challenges: I confronted technical difficulties when conducting the session. The students had a hard time remembering their login and password, and the computers were running extremely slow. We also had a hard time using Internet Explorer and the schools laptops did not have Fire Fox on them. We discussed with school staff after the session about downloading Fire Fox and they agreed to do so.

- Success stories: All the students had a great time clicking away and wishing on.
- Recommendations: Project the overview on a screen to keep the students focused. Close the session with the Personal Reflection questions it helps the students reflect on their own lives and really put things into perspective.

Session 3 What's My Line?

Rancho Learning Center:
- The session was used in a class setting.
- Changes made to the session: I had the students define the words: job, occupation, and career before playing the game. This process helped the students understand how people do not use these terms properly. We did not use a projector, we just used a computer and each of the kids came up to the computer to read the questions out loud.
- The session took 1 hour.
- Challenges: One youth chose not to participate at all.
- Success stories: The activity helped the students distinguish the difference between a job and an occupation. Most of the students really enjoyed playing the game and also getting their profiles.
- Recommendations: Explaining to the students, before they view their assigned occupation that all occupations are important and needed.

Unit 2*Session 1 After Work*

This session was used in a classroom setting.

We did not make any changes to the session.

The session took about 40 minutes.

Challenges: For some reason none of the computers would open the Slice of Life window so none of the kids got to look at this.

Success Stories: Each of the students were very interested in this session. They liked to see how much leisure time they had. They all shared out loud with the class and interacted well with each other.

Recommendations: It would be great if each student could save their original Wish List and go back and look at that. Then maybe have a second Wish List that they update as we go through the sessions. That way the students could see how their origianl Wish List has changed as they have learned more about occupations and careers, and the lifestyles and time that they might have.

Session 2 Reality Check

This session was used in a classroom setting.

We did not make any changes to the session.

This session took about 40 minutes.

I had trouble printing out all of the students paychecks because the website would not let me open B, C, and D paycheck stubs. During the session, some computers not working properly.

I printed out the "chance" cards and had each student pick a card (without looking at it first!). I also printed out the paycheck stubs (that I was able to) and gave them to the students.

Our class is down to three students at this point. So, this makes the session more personal and able to have more time for each student to share. During this session, the students had fun adjusting their Wish Lists so that they would be out of the "RED". Several of the students are actually looking at their assigned profile careers as their actual careers in the future so they have enjoyed "playing the part" and spending their money! During this session each of the students shared how they budget in real life.

Unit 4 Session 1 Getting to know me

This session was used in a classroom setting.

The change we made to this session is as follows:

We did not have the 3 students investigate the other students roles by looking at their posted profiles. We changed this because since we only have 3 students, each of them are very familiar with the other students' roles.

It took about 60 minutes to do this session.

Challenges: We had our 3 students go onto the Career Zone and do the Work Importance Profile. When we told the students that this would take about 30 minutes and they saw how many questions there were, they were a little hesitant. They complained that that would take "too long." BUT...they did it!

Success Story: After the students completed the Work Importance Profile, two of them got very excited to see all of the potential occupations available to them. Both of them saw the occupation that they would like to have in the future, so that was encouraging to them.

Recommendations: None

Unit 4 Session 2

This session was used in a classroom setting.

We did not make any changes to the session.

This session took a little over one hour.

Challenges: This session ran very smoothly. The students coperated willingly and enjoyed doing the different assessments. We did not seem to run in to any particular challenges today.

Success Stories...We only had two students today, which again, made the session very personal. Both of the male students shared what their Holland codes were, as well as what their Job Values and Multiple Intelligences were. I did all of the assessments before hand and so the students seemed to enjoy hearing what my values, skills, and interests were, as well as sharing their own. We talked about how the results of the assessments lined up, or did not line up with the occupations that they hope to have in the future.

One of the students wants to be a radio DJ, but he had very high Naturalist Intelligence and shared that he really enjoys being outside and feels that he really needs the outdoors for his mental health. He was not sure how this would work out for him. So, I suggested that he could DJ outdoor events, such as weddings, or other events that take place outside and have music. He seemed to like the idea. We talked about thinking outside of the box, and even creating new jobs that are not yet in existance to meet their natural skills, abilities, and values.

The Session was very successful! And I really enjoyed teaching it!