Guidance Central

Components of Guidance Central
Who Should Attend the Workshops
Types of Workshops to be Offered
List of all Guidance Central Workshops
Workshop Registration Form

Parents and Students - Click here to learn more about Guidance Central
Student Loans of North Dakota at Bank of North Dakota June 10, 2005, Press Release
Administrators and Counselors - click here for information on participating in the program.

Guidance Central consists of three components:

Choices Explorer - An engaging online education and career exploration system that provides extensive libraries of education, career and recreation articles in an interactive magazine-style format. Hundreds of classroom activities can be found through this program. All work and plans are saved in an electronic portfolio. Enhanced accountability tools let you review students’ assessment results, measure progress and report your program’s success.

Choices Planner - An advanced online career information delivery system that helps students build powerful plans as they compare, connect and choose from a vast network of work and education options, effortlessly building powerful plans. Valid and reliable assessments are used in this program, to help the user relate their interests, aptitudes and work values to occupations, and add personal preferences to their career search. All work and plans are saved in an electronic portfolio. Enhanced accountability tools let you review students’ assessment results, measure progress and report your program’s success.

TestGEAR – An online tool that gives students the practice they need to reach their full potential on the college entrance exam ACT™. This online learning system adapts to each student’s needs by targeting their weaknesses and helping them to build necessary skills.

Guidance Central Workshops

North Dakota has moved into an era of having powerful career planning tools available to all middle and high school students. Workshops are being planned to assist local communities to utilize these tools to their greatest effectiveness. All public and private high schools will have Choices Planner and testGEAR and all public and private middle schools/junior highs will have Choices Explorer. Of course, many schools have been using some or all of these products, but now, thanks to the generosity of Student Loans of North Dakota and the Department of Career and Technical Education, ALL schools will have ALL of the products. This is in addition to the Job Service and vocational rehabilitation offices, plus the colleges, universities and other entities that use various Choices products.

Who should consider these workshops?

High School Counselors, Classroom Teachers, Curriculum Specialists and Parents
Middle School/Jr. High Counselors, Classroom Teachers, Curriculum Specialists and Parents
Agencies working with youth and adults
Postsecondary Institutions

Types of workshops to be offered

This year, the Choices Explorer and Choices Planner New User Workshops will be held back-to-back in order to allow users to attend either a morning session, the afternoon session or both sessions. The focus of these introductory workshops is to help you become familiar with the basics of Choices Explorer and/or Choices Planner.
The New User workshops will be conducted in the fall of this year. Later in the year, workshops will be offered to provide assistance with helping students create Plans of Study, the customization of the Plans of Study for your individual school or district and using testGEAR to prepare for the ACT.

Choices Explorer New User

Maximize the power of Choices Explorer in your school. This session will teach you how to enhance student self-awareness and motivation through engaging education and career exploration. Attend this workshop to get an overview of all features. You will become familiar with the various tools, including Career Cluster Finder, Your Portfolio and the Professional Tools. Spending time using the product will help you develop an intuitive feel for which component to use in what situation.

Choices Planner New User

Make personalized education and career planning more effective with Choices Planner. Learn about key features that will help your students effortlessly compare, connect and choose their best work and learning option. Get an overview of all the features, including the use of Professional Tools.

Guidance Central Update and Plans of Study

Usage of Guidance Central
North Dakota Portal Page
Portfolio Management Tools
Choices Explorer and Planner Enhancements
Sharing of successful practices in use of Guidance Central
Creating Plans of Study for grades 7-12

Customizing Plans of Study

Make the course listings in the high school course planning section more meaningful to your students by giving them titles YOUR school uses

testGEAR

The Career Resource Network testGEAR® workshop will provide you with comprehensive orientation and implementation strategies to help you get the most effective use of testGEAR in your school. Informative resources and hands-on activities introduce the BrainScan diagnostic test, SMART Curriculum, practice tests, testSCOPE reporting tools and more.

Learn how to get the best use out of testGEAR in your school

Discover how testGEAR helps improve student achievement
Customize implementation strategies to meet your school's unique needs

Hands-on experience using these components helps to ensure that each participant walks away with a clear understanding of the program and a plan of action to implement testGEAR throughout their school.

Click here for workshop dates and locations
Click here for workshop registration form

For more information, contact the North Dakota Career Resource Network office at leglasser@nd.gov.