Resources Available to Faculty
The South Carolina Deparment of Education works for the success of all South Carolinians through education. The Education Professionals section of their website includes many important resources for educators in the state of South Carolina, including information about grants, special programs, evaluations, and more.
Here are resources and special opportunities available for South Carolina's teachers and school professional staff members.
The Education and Economic Development Act of 2005 has several sections that mention school districts and educators and what is required of them by the act. This Executive Summary [DOC] gives a general overview of the act, while the Act itself contains the sections that pertain directly to school districts and educators.
A related program of interest is the Schools That Work program, self-described as "an enhanced design to get all students to standards". The Schools That Work model should be in place in all schools by 2010. Information about the goals and standards of the Schools That Work program is provided by the Southern Regional Education Board.
Specific Information is offered for:
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ETV
ETV, together with its new digital broadcast service, the South Carolina Channel, and its highly esteemed ETV Radio, form a highly successful enterprise—an organization that has earned the admiration and respect of public broadcasters across the nation.
Knowitall.org
Knowitall.org is ETV's educational Web portal, a collection of fun, interactive websites for K-12 students, teachers and parents.
Streamline SC
Streamline SC is a standards-based video-on-demand service now available free to every school in South Carolina.
My ETV DESC
My ETV DESC (Distance Education South Carolina) provides quick and convenient access to the distance education offerings of South Carolina.
PBS TeacherLine
PBS TeacherLine provides online professional development through facilitated courses that meet national standards, a supportive learning community, and exemplary professional resources.
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Questions for students:
The SC.edu website provides an Executive Summary [pdf], explaining the EEDA and Personal Pathways to Success.
The States' Career Cluster site offers many great resources for learning and teaching the 16 Clusters, including:
And much more!
Career Voyages also offers a portion of its site dedicated entirely to the 16 Career Clusters.
What are you going to be when you grow up?
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Information for Everyone
You can check out the Kuder Career Planning System to help answer that question.
ETV's Career Aisle provides videos and interviews about jobs in the 16 career clusters.
Career Voyages is a great resource for career planning and interesting statistics.
The Fun Works offers information about jobs that many people may never have even heard of!
Discover is ACT's Career Planning program.
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Information for Younger Students
(AAL) uses creative ways to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.) in the convenience of your school! Therefore, AAL Field Trips are geared to students in Kindergarten through 8th grade and can be modified for High School. The S.T.E.M. curriculum focuses on topics such as simple machines, forces in motion, gear ratios, mechanical vocabulary, problem solving, 3 dimensional shapes, comparing and contrasting objects, extending patterns, as well as the skills of listening and following directions.
Careership is an on-line career exploration adventure geared towards middle school students.
Careers - First Gov Kids: "Have you ever wondered what life would be like as a veterinarian? What about joining the Air Force? These links will lead you to information on different careers - your future is waiting. " Links to career sites for kids.
Engineer Girl: "Engineers work in all areas of our society. You're sure to find at least one career on this list that matches your interests and talents."
Look to the Future - Careers in Space: "The following list of possible careers in the aerospace field is by no means exhaustive, but it gives an idea of the wide variety of things you can do and still be related to space. Take a look. It might change your life."
Scientists in Action provides "news about careers in the natural sciences - from mapping the planets to sampling the ocean floor, from protecting wildlife to forecasting volcanic eruptions. "
Animal Doc was developed by the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. Here students can learn what it is really like to be a vet.
Career Aisle - K-5 Career Videos / Middle School 6-8 Career Videos
This educational web portal contains interactive sites, simulations, image collections, virtual field trips and streaming video that support and provide quality inquiry-based experiences for students on the Internet.
Want to Be a Scientist? offers information about "careers for new scientists span a variety of disciplines in agriculture. Becoming a scientist requires intelligence, creativity, and a strong desire to learn new things! Want to know more? "
EEK! Get a Job, brought to you by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, provides environmental career descriptions for kids in grades 4-8.
The Kids for Research web site provides information to students about careers in animal care and biomedical research.
KidsNumbers.com is the absolutely free math resource designed by teachers, specifically for students and children of all ages. A place where students can practice all aspects of math, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, in a fun and pressure free way.
FamilyFun is a great resource for parents and students alike, including crafts, recipes, parties, games, and more educational fun, brought to you by Disney Family.
Starfall is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children and an inexpensive way to make the classroom more fun and inspire a love of reading and writing.
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Information for Older Students
America's Career InfoNet - Career Resource Library is "a part of CareerOneStop which is a U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored Web site that offers career resources and workforce information to job seekers, students, businesses, and workforce professionals to foster talent development in a global economy."
Today's Military wants you to know that "The Military offers more than 4,100 unique jobs for both officers and enlisted personnel. And each year the Armed Services hire a combined 365,000 people to fill those positions."
Careersinthemilitary.com "is the leading career information resource for the military world of work. Explore a variety of careers across the Military Services to find out what people in those occupations do and what their usual work environment is like. Learn about training and advancement opportunities and which Services offer each occupation."
Careers and Internships from The Princeton Review: The Princeton Review helps students, parents, and educators achieve the best results at every stage of their educational careers.
CareerOverview.com is a non-commercial website dedicated to providing aspiring career professionals and students with relevant, reliable and up-to-date career and job information whereby helping them to make better, more informed career choices.
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What jobs are out there?
Explore your options using the SC Employment Security Commission's Labor Market Information online.
SCOIS (S.C. Occupational Information System) is South Carolina’s Official Career Resource Network.
Occupational Information Network (O*Net) is a national database of information about workers and occupations.
S.C. State Government has a new e-recruitment system. Apply for a specific vacancy or join a pool to be considered for future vacancies.
The Vocational Information Center offers tools to learn about vocational and technical careers, check out the skills employers really want, find a trade school, research technical topics and take a look at the current job market.
The American Mathematical Society offers a pamphelet for High Schoolers about careers in mathematics.
The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center provides information about jobs in the sciences, engineering, mathematics, and more.
The National Istitutes of Health's Office of Science Education has some great resources about jobs in science.
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What does it take?
The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook provides comprehensive information about the requirements and benefits of hundreds of careers.
Guides for Specific Careers - Job Star offers information about planning your career. "What kind of training or education is required? What can you earn? What kind of environment will you work in? What's hot? What's not?"
WetFeet teaches users about requirements, career tracks, the job outlook, and compensation in various careers.
Job Profiles is "a career exploration and inspiration web site where experienced workers share their motivations, basic skills and advice with those just entering the career field."
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Cluster Specific Resources
Health Science
The Lowcountry Coalition for Health Careers promotes diversity in health careers in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina through awareness, education, exploration, and preparation with special emphasis on middle and high school minority students.
ExploreHealthCareers.org is a free, multi-disciplinary, interactive health careers website designed to explain the array of health professions and provide easy access to students seeking information about health careers. This website is a joint initiative involving national foundations, professional associations, health career advisors, educational institutions, and college students.
SC Health Occupations Students of America (SC HOSA) is a student-led professional organization with the goal of the delivery of compassionate, quality healthcare by providing opportunities for knowledge, skill and leadership development for all healthcare education students, therefore, helping students to meet the needs of the healthcare community.
Health Career Connection works to inspire and empower greater numbers of undergraduate students to choose healthcare and public health careers by providing real world exposure, experience and support that assists them in achieving their goals. Our ultimate aim is to improve healthcare services provided to our population by motivating and developing greater numbers of value driven, capable and diverse leaders and public health profesionals.
Manufacturing
To view suggest links for Manufacturing research, click here.
Silver Crescent Foundation
Announcing the Ninth Annual Discover Manufacturing Design Challenge
Dear Educators:
Silver Crescent Foundation would like to extend a personal invitation to you and your students to Discover Manufacturing. As you know, the Silver Crescent Foundation has promoted manufacturing vitality and career opportunities in South Carolina for a number of years. Our outreach and educational programs are designed to get people of all ages, backgrounds and educational experience to discover the many benefits our manufacturing sector provides.
We believe as students learn more about how manufacturing enhances our daily lives and discover the wonderful career opportunities available in this industry sector that they will want to pursue their studies in fields such as design and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) so they may become the manufacturing leaders of tomorrow.
Once again, we are pleased to invite teachers and students to take part in this year’s Discover Manufacturing Design Challenge. The Design Challenge supports the motivation to succeed in school by providing an exciting learning experience that has real world applications. We encourage students to use research to produce a written essay and design a creative solution to a real world problem.
THEME: Manufacturing is about making things... something new or something improved; both start with an idea. We challenge you to think; use your imagination… no limits.
Manufacturing starts with an idea; what is yours?
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Other Resources
Videos
Here are just a few websites offering video resources about careers and the career clusters:
Sample Individual Graduation Plan (IGP) The roadmap to your future.
Cisco Networking Academy courses are an excellent foundation for higher education in engineering, computer science, and management information systems.
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Character Education Programs
Character Education and Community Collaboration
Character Education and Community Collaboration promotes comprehensive character development in South Carolina by advancing knowledge, encouraging partnerships, and creating opportunities for professional development.
Character.org
Character.org is the online face of the Character Education Partnership, "a national advocate and leader for the character education movement".
The Ethics Resource Center
The Ethics Resource Center provides a resource page with links to many sites with information and strategies for character development.
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Civic Organizations
Love2Work (L2W) is a registered Organisation the the United kingdom, U.S.A, and Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) which is dedicated to improving lives, knowledge and understanding through care. The Organisation is set up to meet the needs of the People in the Society in the areas of (a)Family Life and Parenting, (b) Youth Development, (c) Sexual/Reproductive health, (d) Social Development etc.
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SC Healthy Schools focuses on improving the health of students and staff by providing coordination and resources in eight component areas of school health. SC Healthy Schools utilizes the Centers for Disease Control's eight component school health model to provide coordination among these essential components for a total health promoting school environment to enhance academic achievement for all students.
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National Dropout Prevention Center/Network
The mission of the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network is to serve as a research center and resource network for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to reshape school and community environments to meet the needs of youth in at-risk situations so these students receive the quality education and services necessary to succeed academically and graduate from high school.
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National Ad Council
The National Ad Council has endeavored to improve the lives of all Americans since first creating the category of public service advertising in 1942. Their High School Drop-Out Prevention campaign offers many resources to help keep students in school.
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Regional Instructional Technology
State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)
SETDA is made up of educational technology directors and staff from the state departments of education of all fifty states, the District of Columbia and American Samoa. Its goal is "to promote national leadership in educational technology to support achievement in lifelong learning; to provide professional development in educational leadership for members; and
to build partnerships and provide leadership to advance learning opportunities."
Featured State Projects include:
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The Resource page of SCOIS includes many great links for career development and education. The links page also contains many helpful links for career and education development.
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By Kids, For Kids is your source for science and technology lesson plans. Find creative lessons and projects to inspire innovative thinking in kids form kindergarten through 8th grade.
The Coastal Discovery Museum has offered educational and interactive programs to regional schools and youth-related organizations. These programs are aligned to many of South Carolina's Curriculum Standards and engage students in hands-on, active learning.
Education World describes itself as "an educator's best friend". Its resources include lesson plans, professional development resources, technology integration help, and tips for dealing with many of the issues that arise in today's classroom.
In Newspapers in Education teacher resources, lesson plans are updated weekly. Curriculum guides are also available electronically. The lesson library is updated constantly.
4Kids.org is a weekly newspaper feature and Web site produced at the University of Kansas. The site promotes reading and intellectual interests by providing children and parents a variety of high-quality Web sites that demonstrate learning can be a safe, fun and adventurous activity.
HotChalk provides provides over 3,500 free lesson plans, class activities, and projects at the Lesson Plans Page.
SmartTeaching.org presents "100 Awesome, Free Web Tools for Elementary Teachers", though the list is helpful for all teachers, as well as students and parents.
edHelper.com was created by a team of teachers and is is dedicated to providing teachers a single shop for educational resources.
YEScarolina
Youth Entrepreneurship South Carolina, a Program Partner of the National Foundation for teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), is a nonprofit organization created to offer South Carolina educators the opportunity to utilize curriculum written by acclaimed business teacher Steve Mariotti, founder of NFTE.
Through entrepreneurship education, YEScarolina helps young people from communities statewide build skills and unlock their entrepreneurial creativity. From 2003 to 2008, YEScarolina has trained over 380 NFTE Certified Entrepreneurship Teachers. In 2009, YEScarolina will offer this training opportunity without charge to 100 public school teachers statewide.
The YEScarolina program is tailored for South Carolina public school educators in grades 6-12. While the NFTE Curriculum has often been utilized in entrepreneurship and other business classes, any teacher interested in addressing standards in English, Math, Technology, Social Studies, Science, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship through innovative and interactive 'real world' lessons should be encouraged to find out more about YEScarolina.
Student Paths
Student Paths partners with high schools across the country to provide them with classroom learning tools that help facilitate discussions on various topics related to a student's transition. The program offers a method to spur students to think about their life after high school. Students discover their interests, passions and ultimately, their future goals through creative activities, assignments and engaging discussions.
"Free, flexible and engaging, and our ready-to-go standards-based Lesson Plan Guides" are available to Educators as supplements to current programs.
Student paths also offers a "wacky scholarships" section highlighting unusual scholarship opportunities for students.
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Other Resource Connections
South Carolina State Library Homepage
South Carolina State Library Schoolrooms
Discus, your information place.
There are many instructor level classes available through colleges, universities, or secondary schools known as Cisco Academy Training Centers (CATC) and Regional Academies.
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