FCCLA Club at Carroll Magnet Middle!

FCCLA Club, Family, Career & Community Leaders of America, began at the end of October at Carroll with a Bang! We explore Careers together on CFNC.org. We also gather to bake cookies, pop popcorn and Volunteered together! Our first Service Project was serving at the Concession Stand for our home Basketball game...lots of fun and laughs!

Mentoring for 15 of our students at Captrust one on one with a Financial Professional, through Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle! After the Kick Off, took these photos, had them printed and made a Holiday card from our students to their Mentor, copy for our students and copy for their Mentor...to Thank them for being their Big Brother or Big Sister!

Beyond School Walls

Beyond School Walls Mentoring kick off with BBBS of the Triangle, Captrust, & Carroll Magnet Middle School in Raleigh, where I have served for 5 years as School Counselor, the last two as Career Counselor. We began a partnership with Captrust and Big Brothers Big Sisters planning this program last year in late May, and after many meetings, emails, applications, interviews...this amazing experience has began in September 2017. Mentoring includes job shadowing, team building, tutoring, inspiring, listening, support, direction, brotherhood, sisterhood, literally...beyond our school walls! We also have mentoring within our school walls, where any adult who cares, can come in for a volunteer background check, and meet with small groups of students during their lunch & lead class once a week. I began this program 3 years ago after with a desire to provide an extra layer of support to students who need it. We welcome YOU! Some of our PTA members, Parents, Business Partners & school staff have done this last year! This is one of the most rewarding parts of my work as well! Making a difference in the lives of our teens is what we do...❤️

WRAL was there to catch our students going in to Captrust for the first time:

Kristin Stewart, CFO at Cii Technologies serves on our Business Alliance and is a Board Member of Midtown Alliance, which sponsored this fundraising event for Teen Cancer America! Pumpkin Palooza...they choose a different charity each year to sponsor...amazing day in North Hills near the Amphitheater! Even had a Canine Costume Contest!

We had some wonderful student volunteers who took time out of their
Saturday to help the younger children at the event!

Even siblings got in on the Volunteer Action!

Assisting younger children in the inflatables!

Students were assisting younger children with making Bird feeders,
and painting pumpkins!

Amazing Student 
Volunteers...so proud of them all! : ) 

These were taken when some of my amazing colleagues and I met on a Saturday to experience the RACE Exhibit, at the Museum of Natural Sciences. We had deep discussions and learned a lot that day from the exhibit and from one another. Let's keep learning, growing and fighting for equity among all...

The #OtherPeopleMatter movement has come to Carroll Magnet Middle School, we are a partner school, and had the honor of hosting the Board Members of the Positivity Project at our school in October! You may recognize a few famous faces, but all in all...as they will tell you...we are all in this together, bringing positivity & character education to every school! New schools are joining this worthwhile movement all the time and 17 of our Principals in Wake County gathered at Carroll to hear our student panel speak about what they are learning about themselves! #TeamKidsFirst

So as a new CDC, beginning last school year...went through the 120 hour training over four months to add Career Development Coordinator to my Educator's License, which was bringing me full circle in my own career.  I began my career with government programs as a Career Counselor, worked with teens in the summer youth employment program and with adults in three states (moved with my husband's job) who were laid off from their jobs and needed counseling, retraining/certifications to get back into the workforce.  I became a School Counselor in 1997, and served in Wake County Schools for 12 years at all educational levels K-12, the last three years were at Carroll. (I left for 6 years to pursue my license as a Professional Counselor and earned my license in 2007, and began a small private practice and still serve individuals & families on weekends) 

 Last year I served at two schools, Centennial Campus Middle and Carroll...this year, Elizabeth MacWilliams, our Principal said she wanted me back full time and asked if I would teach the Career Decisions elective classes.  So here I am... this photo was from the fall Conference for CDC/SPC's, for high school & some for middle school, it was in Boone, NC, at App State. I also attended the summer Conference in Greensboro and I have a vision for how middle schools need to be just as much in the forefront as high school, not only in our state, but around the country.  So National Conference may be in the future...

Rosalynn Tenny, CDC at Heritage Middle, and I
at the Conference in Boone in September.  I have gained a lot of insight from her advice, as well as other CDC's I have gathered around me as mentors to learn from. Rosalynn is so talented and has such a heart for what we do for students every day! It is an honor to serve with such talented professionals with heart! <3

Great Quote to remember daily! : )

Superintendent's Breakfast Honoring Volunteers in our Schools!

Members of our Business Alliance at Carroll Magnet Middle, our Principal, Elizabeth Mac Williams, Assistant Principal Brendan Fetters, Nashonda Brown, new Teacher at Carroll, Gerri Brodeman from Junior Achievement, and Dan Cwiakala who volunteers in many ways at our school, mentoring, guest speaker for classes, Career Cafe, and even works with our football team. David Skaar is one of our great parents at Carroll, mentors students and serves on our Business Alliance.   

Here Brendan Fetters, AP and I are with Adrienne Cole, President and CEO of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.  She delivered a dynamic key note speech that inspired all of us to do even greater things in our community, with heart...

Our Newest Business Alliance Members joined us as well, Mary Affee, Therapist & owner of her own private practice and JC, Banker...such talent serving our school! We are very grateful to have them as well.

Teaching the Career Decisions Electives

A new experience... teaching electives, Career Decisions ...here are some of my 6th graders...such a great group of students! We are exploring ourselves, personality, preferences, interests, and how good character carries over into our careers as well.

We are honored to have students from all over the world!

I love that our students can be themselves and even be silly together sometimes, learning in all kinds of settings, collaborating in groups, individual and collectively as a class.  We have had Guest Speakers sharing about their careers and how good character is essential in our careers!

This is our Career & Technical Education Team... please visit our blog at https://carrollcte.blogspot.com/  for current happenings in our department at Carroll Magnet Middle School!  We will support our Annual Sami 5K in October, please sign up and join us!

We have such a talented team, and if you would like to be a Guest Speaker in any of our classrooms, please let me know and I will set this up for you.  This could be a Virtual Field Trip if you would like to walk our students through your website, videos, hands on activities, and any other information that would teach them about your career!  Thank you for your time in visiting our blogs!

Welcome Back & CDC News

So grateful to be back at Carroll Magnet Middle full time...last year I served two schools as a new Career Development Coordinator.  Served as a School Counselor at all educational levels K-12 for 12 years, the last three at Carroll...so this is my 5th year serving our middle school.  This year I am continuing as a CDC, Career Counselor and teaching three elective classes of Career Decisions, 6th, 7th & 8th grades.  Career Decisions helps students explore who they are, their interests, values, personality and how those match different careers.  We will continue to have Career Cafe monthly, and will be in my classroom, since my room is across from our school cafe!  Our Business Alliance will meet quarterly, so grateful for our amazing Volunteers.  Our Mentoring program is kicking off October 13th, in a new collaboration between Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle, Captrust, and Carroll, 15 students who will job shadow on site with a Captrust professional twice monthly.  Our own mentoring program will continue with Mentors who worked with our 6th and 7th grade students last year and our new 6th grade students who need a Mentor, will be matched as we have new Volunteers sign up.  I am also setting up Guest Speakers for our classrooms all over our school, and Off Site Learning Experiences, formerly known as field trips!  I will be advising a new Club at Carroll, FCCLA, Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America.  http://www.FCCLAinc.org

Thank you to Keisha Demps for being our Guest Speaker at Career Cafe!

Our last Career Cafe at Centennial Campus Middle School featured Keisha Demps, Partnership Developer at Centennial Campus at NC State University! Keisha shared this about her background...

  I am from Northern California and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1998 with a BA in Communications.  In HS I played Basketball, Volleyball and competed in Track and Field.  In 2016 I was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame for Contra Costa Co. for Best All Around Female Athlete.  I received a scholarship for Basketball and Volleyball, later continued playing professionally for two years.  During that time I was blessed to have been able to train with the US National Volleyball team.  I coached at the collegiate lever for 10 years before retiring in 2010.

So Ms. Demps shared with our student athletes in 8th grade about her experiences and they were able to ask her questions.  Thank you for sharing your wealth of experience with our students! 

Thank You Kristin Stewart from Cii for speaking at our last Career Cafe at Carroll!

Our Last Career Cafe for the school year at Carroll Magnet Middle had Kristin Stewart, CFO from Cii Technologies, and from our Business Alliance as our Guest Speaker!

Career Cafe Video

End of Year FBLA Club Event

Parents of our FBLA Club members are invited to our end of year Celebration next Wednesday.  Our students at Centennial Campus Middle have worked with Toastmasters from Centennial Campus on Leadership and Public Speaking! We will demonstrate what they have learned & practiced, as well as have refreshments to wrap up our school year.  Invitation for Parents

April has been loaded with Career Activities at BOTH of my schools...Centennial Campus Magnet Middle and Carroll Leadership in Technology Magnet Middle!!  Career Fairs, Guest Speakers, Field Trips, Business Alliance, Career Cafes, FBLA Club, Mentoring, my personal favorite, cannot wait to upload photos soon! Scooting off for another wonderful Field Trip... so ta ta for now... : )

The Leader in Me Symposium

Very grateful for the opportunity to attend The Leader in Me Symposium in Spartanburg, South Carolina with my Principal from one of my schools, Carroll LT Magnet Middle, Elizabeth MacWilliams, and three of our wonderful Teachers.  We had the opportunity to learn more about how to apply the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens in our school, and both of the schools that I serve are Covey Leadership schools.  What impressed me the most was learning more about Habit 8...Finding your Voice.  After visiting a Lighthouse School together, touring and hearing the students give amazing speeches in front of hundreds of adults, I was inspired!  When I get inspired, I put ideas into practice.  So when we returned, I decided to contact Toastmasters, a worldwide organization that teaches the art of Public Speaking to anyone...for free!  I found and contacted a local young professional who is willing to come into my schools to help students develop these skills.  We will begin with the FBLA Club and Public Speaking  is one of our events at our state competition next school year.  Very excited to see how our students grow and change and become leaders.  For more information visit http://www.theleaderinme.org/ 
I had the opportunity to share about this experience with my PLT, Professional Learning Team of Career Development Coordinators, like myself, from all over the county.

World Cafe~
On February 8th I represented Centennial Campus Magnet Middle at Biogen in RTP, for an event jointly sponsored by Wake Ed Partnership to support all of the STEM schools in Wake County. http://www.wakeed.org/programs/world-cafe/  (visit here to learn more!)

Our school was matched with two companies that would like to sponsor some events with our school, both are about Coding.  One was CAML Academy in Morrisville, NC, and they offer an after school program that teaches students about coding.  They would like to offer an Event for free for our students and parents, one evening for 20 students for the first hour, and 20 students the second hour that is sure to be beneficial for all!  More can be found on this company at http://www.camlacademy.com/

 The second company was Trinkets... https://trinket.io/our-story  An amazing company that has a unique product.  The Software Engineers are offering to teach 8 of our interested Teachers more about coding, using their software, feed us, and then join us as a team to then train any Teacher at our school interested in staying after school one day to learn how to use coding in ANY subject.  Again, this is a complimentary training and we look forward to this unique opportunity!

Career Cafe at Centennial Campus Magnet Middle

Thank You to Ms. Yarborough... for speaking at our first Career Cafe at Centennial Campus Magnet Middle! We had 14 of our eighth graders come in to learn more about Business Etiquette and how to properly introduce yourself, as well as what are good Customer Service skills!!
Great job, and students are already asking when the next one will be...

Career Cafe

Career Cafe for January...featuring our Guest Speaker Mr. Dan Cwiakala, Youth Pastor at Crossroads Fellowship in Raleigh! He told fascinating stories about Integrity & Courage to about 20 students per grade level...Thank You for your time & sharing your talent Mr. Dan! He and Mr. Pat Teague provide a Sports Mentoring session for 6 weeks each year in the Spring as well! Thanks to Barbara Russell, School Counselor for setting this up each year!

Next Business Alliance Meetings

Our next Business Alliance Meetings are as follows:

Carroll LT Magnet Middle on Thursday, January 19th from 7:30-8:30 am in the Media Center/Learning Commons.

Centennial Campus Magnet Middle on Wednesday, January 25th from 8:00-9:00 am in the Conference Room near the main lobby.  

Looking forward to catching up and discussing our upcoming Career Cafes, Career Fairs, Guest Speaker opportunities, Field Trips and Mentoring programs!

Next FBLA Club meeting at Centennial Campus is on Wednesday, January 25, 2:30-3:30 pm.

Leader In Me Symposium

Hope your New Year is going well!  I have to share some good news... I have been chosen to be a part of a small team from Carroll LT Magnet Middle, one of the middle schools that I serve, to attend the Leader In Me Symposium in Spartenburg, SC next month! http://events.theleaderinme.org/   This will benefit both schools that I serve, Centennial Campus Magnet Middle as well...we are also a Covey Leadership Magnet! : )