Ray Blute, Monte Vista Christian, Middle School Principal and Careers Class teacher, Watsonville Ca. rayblute@mvcs.org

TRGC 2.1 at Monte Vista Christian School

This has been quite an experience for us. At Monte Vista this is an 8^th grade exploratory class that averages 15 students every quarter. From the beginning of the school year to now I have seen each group of students grow and improve in their abilities to complete the various tasks associated with TRGC. Since I am the only variable in this mix I think that it is my knowledge of the program that has made a difference. I am now in the fourth quarter of our school year and this is my fourth time teaching this content. I now feel more comfortable with the program. I am better able to anticipate student questions and their reactions to the different activities. I am enjoying the class much more this quarter than in the previous three quarters. Over time I have learned which activities need to be extended and which activities can be shorter. In the beginning it would take at least two class periods to get the students logged on and ready to use the program on the computer. With my fourth quarter class it took less than 20 minutes because I learned what problems the students would experience and I was able to provide better directions for logging on to the site. This has been repeated throughout the lessons as I have learned where the students will experience difficulty and where they will be able to work independently. When I first started I expected more from the students and then I discovered that they do not like to read directions. Now before we begin any lesson or activity we all read the directions together and I check for understanding. This has helped everything go a lot smoother. It has also been my experience that involving the students in discussion about the lessons has been difficult. What has helped me is to have them complete a worksheet based on the wrap-up section of the session and then have a discussion and grade the worksheet. I have also done activities based on career information web sites where the students search the web for information about their career interests. It has been a very productive and informative year for our Career’s class. We are looking forward to continuing to provide these same positive experiences for next year’s eighth grade students.sion?

Please see the attached worksheets for recommendations.