MIDDLE SCHOOL Comprehensive GUIDE FLORIDA CHOICES PLANNER

1. MIDDLE SCHOOL Comprehensive GUIDE FLORIDA CHOICES PLANNER  A.Creating a New Portfolio  B. Taking the Interest Profiler Assessment  C. Exploring Occupations & Identifying Career Clusters  D.Connecting Careers to What to Learn in High School (High School Courses)  E. Connecting Careers to What to Learn Beyond High School (Postsecondary Programs/Majors)  F. Connecting Program/Majors to Postsecondary Schools  G. Career Finder  H.Creating a Career Plan  I.Your Portfolio  J.Moving Your Portfolio

2. A. Creating a New Portfolio 1. Go to www.flchoices.org. 2. To create a portfolio, click on Create a new portfolio in the Student Sign In section.

3. 3. Fill in the information as requested to create a portfolio. From the drop-down menus: -Select your county -Select your district's middle school category. Example: Escambia County Middle Schools or, -Select your school 's name if you have CHOICES Explorer. -The portfolio name and password are case sensitive, so a good guide to use is “lower case, no space” for these. -When creating a portfolio, you might consider using your first and last name and date of birth. -you might use your phone number, hometown, or student number for your password.

4. 4. Once you have created a portfolio, each time you visit Florida CHOICES, choose Student Sign In, and type in your Portfolio name and Password. 5. Select CHOICES Planner from the Your Tools screen.

5. B. Taking the Interest Profiler Assessment 1. Choose CHOICES Planner from the Your Tools screen. 2. From the Home page, click on the blue WORK tab.

6. 3. Click on the Interest Profiler on the right of the WORK page.

7. 4. Choose Start answering questions. 5. Read Things to Keep in Mind and then answer all 180 questions. Tip: The program saves your answers after every 30 responses. If you are interrupted, you may return later and continue without having to start over.

8. 6. Your results are displayed. Check out careers matching your interests. 7. A list of your top careers is displayed.

9. C. EXPLORING CAREERS IDENTIFYING CLUSTERS 1. Click on Check out careers matching your interests from the Interest Profiler results page. 2. Click on the title of a career that you want to learn more about.

10. 3. Use tabs on the top left to explore labor market information about each career. (Shown is the "What They Do" tab that gives a description of the career and the job's duties.) 4. Choose the "Add to Portfolio" link at the top right of the page to save careers of interest. Click the back button to return to the previous page.

11. 5. The "Is This for You" tab shows how your desired work traits match this career. 6. Continue clicking on the "Skills You Need," "Money and Outlook," and "Connections" tabs to get more information about the career.

12. 7. After students have saved their top three (3) careers of interest in their portfolio, they will choose their top career and note the Career Cluster from the What They Do tab on the career report.

13. D. CONNECTING CAREERS TO WHAT TO LEARN IN HIGH SCHOOL (High School Courses) 1. From any career report, select the What to Learn tab. 2. Under High School, select the underlined pathway for suggested high school courses.

14. 3. Select High School Courses tab on the left. 4. Print pathway with courses for grades 9- 12 to use as a template for ePEP. 5. Students should use the "Add to Portfolio" link at the top right of the page to add the pathway to their portfolio. They can click the back button twice to return to the career reports to continue their exploration.

15. E. CONNECTING CAREERS TO WHAT TO LEARN BEYOND HIGH SCHOOL (POSTSECONDARY PROGRAMS/MAJORS) 1. Select the What to Learn tab from the career report. 2. Under Beyond High School choose an underlined program/major from the list. 3. Read the program description. Add to portfolio. Click the back button.

16. F. CONNECTING PROGRAMS/MAJORS TO POSTSECONDARY SCHOOLS 1. From any career report, select the What to Learn tab. 2. Under Beyond High School choose an underlined program/major from the list. 3. Under Find a School Offering This Program, choose the type or length of program and select go.

17. 3. Click on the title of a school. 4. Use tabs on top left of the report to explore schools. Add schools you are interested in to your portfolio.

18. G. CAREER FINDER 1. The Career Finder helps you narrow down a list of hundreds of careers to only the ones matching the characteristics you want. Choose Career Finder from the WORK tab. 2. Start by clicking one of the characteristics you'd like in a career.

19. 3. To get the list of careers that match your Interest Profiler assessment results, choose Interests under My Characteristics. 4. Then click up in the right corner on Use Interest Profiler Results.

20. 5. Click on See Your Matching Careers. 6. Repeat steps 3-5 for other assessments you have taken such as Values and Basic Skills. The more characteristics used, the more finite the list of careers. 7. Students can choose other characteristics such as Education, Money and Outlook, Skills, and items under Career Facts to search for careers.

21. H. CREATING A CAREER PLAN 1. From the Work page of Florida CHOICES Planner, choose Career Plan Builder.

22. 2. Click on Create a new career plan. 3. Click on Start your plan now.

23. 4. Choose one of the careers from your portfolio list and click on Add. 5. Confirm your career choice by answering questions about the career you chose. If you are satisfied, click on Save and Continue.

24. 6. You will see a list of suggested courses for you to pursue in high school. If you are satisfied with your choice, click on Save and continue.

25. 7. Select an educational path from those listed. When you find the plan that suits you, click on Add to your plan. 8. To confirm your educational path, click on Save and continue.

26. 9. Explore the suggested schools by clicking on the name of the school. 10. If the school interests you, click Add to your plan and then Save and continue.

27. I. YOUR PORTFOLIO Click on the Your Portfolio tab to see automatically saved assessment results in All About You. Things You Saved, Your Plans, Your Activities, and Your Journal will have information you saved yourself.

28. J. MOVING YOUR PORTFOLIO When students create portfolios under the wrong site/school or they move to a new site/school, there is an easy way for them to move their portfolio rather than creating a new portfolio. 1. Select Your Portfolio tab.

29. 2. Select All About You. 3. Select Change Schools.

30. 4. Select your County and then your School. 5. Confirm that you have selected the correct School, then select Save and Continue.

31. 6. If you are satisfied that you have selected the correct “New School” (or site name), then select Yes, move my portfolio to this new school. 7. The Change School feature will take you to the National version of CHOICES. You can still open an existing portfolio from this screen by typing in the Portfolio Name and Password. To access the Florida version of CHOICES Planner, you will need to go to www.flchoices.org.