Project: Personal Traction, Beginning in Middle School

Step Description Expected Student Results
1 Students will create personal mission statements based on
the following questions:

- What inspires me most?

- What activity or service are my core values urging me
to pursue?

Students will then complete the Interest Profiler in College
in Colorado. This step will inform the student on what
careers would align with their passions and interests. 		7th Grade Language Arts Standard: Develop and convey
understanding.

Mentors will give feedback around the student's personal mission statement and
possibly share their own in order to give some guidance and direction.
2 Students will partnering on some activities that help them understand collaboration and communication. Students will get into
small groups to work on this idea and then share out with the larger group. Students will begin the process of emailing their
mentors and understanding the full expectations of such communication to ensure success during this process.		 7th Grade Language Arts Standard: Develop and convey understanding.

Mentors will give feedback around what collaboration would look like during this process and how they (the mentors) would like it
to look like over the next twelve weeks.
3 Students will be introduced to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theory of "Flow". This
theory believes a person can reach a state of mental operation performing an
activity and become fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full
involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. Students will identify
activities where they believe they are in a state of flow and share these moments
in small groups before coming together for a large group discussion.

From here they will write a paragraph about what they feel like when they are
engaged in such activities.		 7th Grade Language Arts Standards: Develop and convey understanding. Focus
on informing and explaining.

Mentors will give feedback on the student's thoughts on the activities they
believe achieve the "flow" state of mind in their own lives.
4 Students will revisit their results from the previous week's experience. Using
their results, the students will narrow their career
choices down to three and add them to their digital portfolio in College in
Colorado. Once added, the students will get into
groups based on their Career Cluster and discuss the pros and cons to the career
path chosen (i.e. salaries, job outlook) and examples of amazing work being
done by professional leaders here in Colorado.
 7th Grade Language Arts Standard: Develop and convey understanding. Focus on
informing and explaining.

Mentors will give feedback around the pathway their student has chosen and give
them examples of other professionals in the student's field of interest beyond
Colorado.
5 Students will begin to explore the Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP)
within College in Colorado. Students will create a
rough draft of their plan of study and explore SVVSD high school options.
Students will then explore and research higher educational
opportunities and programs specific to their interests. 		7th Grade Language Arts Standard: Develop and convey understanding. Focus on
informing and explaining.

Mentors will assist their student in schools to research in relation to the
student's chosen career pathway, while sharing the importance of thinking about
educational options even at this stage of their journey.
6 Students will finalize their Plans of Study housed in College in Colorado. Students
will learn about the Hero's Journey and how it applies to their own
college and career readiness experience.

They will watch a TED Education video to better understand the process that
takes place within the Hero's Journey. Students will then relate this journey to
their own experience to this point.		 7th Grade Language Arts Standard: Focus on informing and explaining.

Mentors will give feedback on student reflections around the Hero's Journey and
share with their student how their own educational journey was informed by their
passions and redefinition of themselves.
7 Students will finalize their reflections on the Hero's Journey from the week
before.

This will be the reset phase of the of the telementoring project. Students will
begin anew and begin researching another option from their interest profiler
results found using College in Colorado. 		7th Grade Language Arts Standard: Develop and convey understanding. Focus on
informing and explaining.

Mentors will continue to give feedback based on the student's new career
pathway and suggestions on connecting to outside resources.
8 Students will create a final presentation using an online medium called
Storybird to share their reflections and findings on where
their passion turns into purpose This project will include three parts. Where
they are from, where they are now and where they are going.

This book will be shared with their teachers at the end of the semester and
emailed to their mentors once finalized.		 7th Grade Language Arts Standards: Develop and convey understanding.
Focus on informing and explaining. Integrate knowledge
from sources when composing.

Mentors will give continual feedback throughout the final month on the
students presentation, specifically around content,
grammar and punctuation and how it relates to their passions. The hope for
this step is to have the student turn their thoughts
into something tangible they can add to their digital portfolios.