A dozen random thoughts about random adults presenting Career Day to
middle school students:
1. You have 35
minutes per class to present. For the
love of God, do NOT lecture/speak for 35 straight minutes.
2. If you're planning
on using technology, do not listen to the guidance counselors who assure you
that we DO have the technology. Let me
assure you, we do NOT have the technology.
Even the thumb drive of my computer is busted.
3. Look, you may not
think your job is boring, but, trust me, to middle schoolers, every damn thing
is boring. Bring a song-and-dance
routine with you, and be prepared to step lively and quickly.
4. These are
pre-teens and just-teens. They have the
attention spans of fleas. Change gears
early and often.
5. Ask leading
questions, crack a joke, or do a demonstration … anything to get the kids
involved.
6. Bring
manipulatives. I repeat -- Bring things
the kids can use with their hands: puzzles, items, coloring pages, toys,
paints, etc. Anything. Any-frikkin-thing they can DO while you're
babbling.
7. Visuals -- lots
and lots of visuals … but not graphic ones.
The firefighter stories are great; the bloody mangled bodies in the
pictures … not so much.
8. When possible,
bring animals. Everyone wants to see the
police dog demo; no one wants to be with the sales rep.
9. Make sure your
teammates have different occupation/career presenters than you do. No sense in having four nurses come in if
they're all assigned to the same group of kids who simply rotate through the
schedule.
10. If you're a
teacher, why on god's green earth are you wasting our time (and the students'
time) by coming in to present? Do you
think we at the middle school level are too ignorant to properly convey the
true aspects of being employed as a teacher?
Or have you come to inspect your "stellar" (cough cough)
handiwork?
11. Do not talk over
your time. When you hear people passing
in the hallways, please … stop … talking.
12. Have fun. Truly.
The kids don't bite (and I don't bite that often). Be real and be animated. You're their entertainment for the day. You may have volunteered your time, but the
students expect a show; this is your carte blanche to get back at all the
middle schoolers who made your teenaged life Hell. Embrace the moment.
