In this Issue:


New Elementary WISCareers Site is Here!!!

Elementary school students in grades 4-6 can now explore the world of work through WISCareers Elementary. WISCareers Elementary helps students to connect the activities they enjoy to skills that will help them to be successful in life. In WISCareers Elementary, students will find the Avatar tool, a colorful Career Cluster landscape (based on the 16 National Career Clusters), an Individual Learning Plan/ePortfolio, and interactive career exploration games.

We are very excited about WISCareers Elementary, and we think that you will be, too! To sign up for a free 30-day trial, please visit http://wiscareers.wisc.edu/trial/

Prices are $250 for one elementary school building, $240 each for 2-10 elementary school buildings, and $230 each for 11+ elementary school buildings.

This just in! If you have purchased WISCareers subscriptions for both elementary school and middle school, you are now able to choose which grades will see which version! This means that if you want your 6th graders to see the middle school version but you want your 4th or 5th graders to see the elementary version, you can easily customize your school's account to meet your requirements.

New Learning Styles Inventory

Our new Learning Styles Inventory is now live on WISCareers! Your students will be able to discover their learning styles, and then save their results to their ILP/ePortfolios. Furthermore, you can see whether your students learn best by reading, hearing, or doing, and then adapt your classroom activities to maximize students' learning. Look for the Learning Styles Inventory under Assessments.

CEW is Cleaning House and We Want to Give you Free Bizzy Bee Materials

Get a free Bizzy Bees special bundle WHEN YOU PURCHASE A WISCAREERS ELEMENTARY SUBSCRIPTION!!

Bundle includes:
1 Bizzy Bees Game
1 Bizzy Bees Workbook Set
1 Bizzy Bees Alphabet Set

K -1st grade students find out what all of the career buzz is about. The "Bizzy Bees Working Together" theme is presented imaginatively in a game, workbook, and alphabet set that help encourage career exploration at a young age.

The bundle is valued at $80, but you can get it at just the cost of ONLY shipping and handling: =$25.00 for the Bizzy Bees special bundle

Get as many bundles as you want for only $25 per bundle!!! To get your bundle, contact Amy Rivera at arivera@education.wisc.edu.

We Have Updated our ILP/ePortfolio!

Have you noticed that our ILP/ePortfolio has a new look? Our director, Fran Breit, worked diligently this summer to revamp our ILP/ePortfolio. We are excited about the easier accessibility, and we hope you agree.

Students can also now save their favorite Career Clusters under the 'Where am I Going?' section. Career Clusters function as a useful guide in developing programs of study bridging secondary and postsecondary curriculum and for creating individual student plans of study for a complete range of career options. Find out more about Career Clusters at www.careertech.org/career-clusters.

Speaking of ILP Development…

Earlier this year, the Center on Education and Work hosted a Best Practices for Individualized Learning Plans Webinar. This webinar was a national success, and many of you have since asked for copies of the webinar handouts as well as the recorded session. We have added the Best Practices for Individualized Learning Plans recorded webinar to the WISCareers website along with the accompanying documents. Look for them on the Professional Site, under Professional Development/Resources.

Save the Date: Careers Conference 2012

Mark your calendar now for Careers Conference 2012, to be held at The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor's Club on January 30- February 1, 2012. Watch the CEW website for updates. This is a leading national conference on all aspects of career development and education for careers. Take advantage of this exceptional opportunity available right here in Wisconsin. Early registration deadline is December 1st! www.cew.wisc.edu/careersConf.

Contact Information Update

Amy Rivera is the WISCareers representative for the entire state of Wisconsin. Also, please remember that our 800 telephone number has changed! To reach us, you must now dial 800-862-1071 during our new office hours, 7:15am to 4:30pm, or e-mail Amy at arivera@education.wisc.edu. Amy looks forward to hearing from you!

Training

Training for WISCareers is included free with your paid subscription. In-person trainings as well as webinar trainings are available. To find a list of trainings, visit the professional home page and click on 'Training and Webinars.' Or, if you would like a customized training to fit your busy schedule, contact Amy at arivera@education.wisc.edu. Amy looks forward to working with you.

How Are Your Fellow Professionals Using WISCareers?

Karen Smolarek, with the Educational Talent Search Program at UW-Stout, uses WISCareers with her students in grades 6 to 10. At the 6th grade level, her students use the Personal Globe Inventory and occupation search. Her seventh grade students research STEM and green careers. Eighth and ninth graders take the Interest Profiler and view their varied matching careers, while her tenth graders link their matching careers to a college and program of study search. When it comes to using WISCareers with all of her curriculum areas, Karen's students use the Personal Globe Inventory for informative writing in English, and students will match science with STEM-related careers under the career search.

Read More

Karen says, "Students are constantly pleased with the amount of information offered by WISCareers. They enjoy the easy links to colleges, ease of finding different occupations, and especially at the 10th grade level, they enjoy the fact that they can start to see that their high school classes will pay off in college (when looking at Educational Paths)." WISCareers makes Karen's job easier by providing a one-stop-shop experience not only for her students, but for Karen as well. She is excited about the many ways students can search, take assessments, and make goals. WISCareers helps her students to start seeing a path in life, as well as helps them to see themselves in a job of their choice. They are able to work backward to a college path or apprenticeship or an after high school plan, and WISCareers helps students to do this with little support and guidance.

Mary Traynor from Oaklawn Elementary School in the Menomonie Area School District uses WISCareers with her fourth and fifth graders. Fourth graders start with the Personal Globe Inventory, while fifth graders use the Career Interest Snapshot and research careers in which they are interested. Mary has also introduced parents to the WISCareers system through fifth grade parent-teacher conferences, in which the parents are encouraged to use the WISCareers ePortfolio to record activities and accomplishments to learn the process of record keeping. Mary says, "The parents I have introduced this website to are very impressed with the site and wish they had access to such information when they were younger."

WISCareers makes Mary's job easier by providing specific information matching each student's interests and abilities to occupations that the student might never have considered. WISCareers is also helpful as it guides students into thinking about various careers and career clusters. It gets them on their way to considering how their own interests and abilities fit into the world of work.