What You Need To Do!
Contents
- Free Write
- College Terminology
- What career suits me best?
- COLLEGE SEARCH
- COLLEGE APPLICATION (Class Activity, don't do on your own)
- COLLEGE ESSAY
- RESUME AND COVER LETTER
- INTERVIEW
- INTERNSHIP REFLECTION
- TAXES
- BUDGET TEMPLATE
- MEAL PLANNER
- HOUSE AND HOME INSURANCE
- TRANSPORTATION
- STOCK INTRO
- STOCK TERMS
- STOCK TRACKER
1. Free Write
Put your thoughts on paper: The first step is to write about your thoughts before you know what you're getting into. What do you think will happen over the next 15 years? What will you be doing? It's a free-write called: When I grow up. Be as detailed as you can. (This will be the first thing you'll need to put in your digital portfolio)
10 points
2. College Terminology
Define each of the terms in your own words. Put them on your dp right after your free write.
- admissions
- major
- minor
- Bachelor of Science
- Bachelor of Arts
- graduate
- undergraduate
- Baccalaureate
- Post Baccalaureate
- masters
- doctorate
- high school coursework
- A-G requirements
- semester vs. quarter
- GPA
- SAT
- ACT
3. What career suits me best?
Let's start with your dream job. Maybe you already have an idea. But is it really right for you? Not to worry. We have some tools that will help you figure that out. So if you have no clue what you want to be, then these online questionnaires will serve you well.
Typology - After completing this quiz, record your Personality Type on your dp.
Click on Description, then find your type description and click on that
to find suitable careers. Copy and paste the list of careers to your dp.
Career Interests - After you complete this quiz, copy and paste the category with the
highest percentage onto your dp.
Career Aptitude Test - After rating the 4 different areas, leave the last few questions
as "doesn't matter" before clicking on results. Then copy and paste the different
career options onto your dp.
The point of taking these tests is to broaden your horizons of different
career possibilities that you may have never thought about before.
From the list of careers you posted, CHOOSE 3 that you're most interested
in. On your dp, you will list these 3 as your TOP CHOICES and give a brief
description of each.
Is this the Right Career? - Once you think you have a career you're interested in,
go here and find it on the list. You may think it sounds great, but these quizzes
will help you see if it's really right for you.
Still really don't know what you want to be? Here is a very detailed quiz that takes almost an hour to complete. If you really don't know what you want to do, and you really need some extra help....give it a shot. It's not required. But it's very detailed.
FunEducation Quiz
Even more help....if you still have no clue.
My Future
So how much money do you make? Not so fast! You will be given the AVERAGE salary for your profession. Life just isn't that easy. Once you've completed all the above items, you will go to the teacher to get your salary. YOU MAY NOT PICK YOUR OWN SALARY. THE TEACHER MUST GIVE IT TO YOU.
4. College Search
Step 1: Copy this worksheet to your Portfolio- College Search Worksheet
Fill it out after completing steps 2-4 in this section.
Step 2: You must determine the REQUIRED MAJOR for your career of choice.
- Use Career Builder
- Search for your career and find a job that matches with what you want
- Scan through the job description for, job requirements, then determine the Bachelor's degree that you must have
Step 3: Figure out what college you would like to attend.
- Go to http://www.collegeconfidential.com/
- Use the filters to search for college
- Use the tabs under "Find Your Best Fit" section on the left to narrow down the colleges that fit your needs
Step 4: How much will it cost?
- Go to the website for the college you would like to attend (Here is the website for all state schools in California http://www.calstate.edu)
- Find out how much tuition costs over a four year period (or length of time you will attend college)
- Calculate room and board over a four year period (or length of time you will attend college)
- Get the calculations for a loan because you will be paying for college yourself, mom and dad can't help for this project. Click here for the loan costs FinAid
- Post your loan results on your portfolio under the college search worksheet
- 20 points
5. College Application (DON'T DO ON YOUR OWN!!!!!!)
- Fill out the entire application neatly and thoroughly. Read all directions (blue or black ink?)
- Do not fill out addresses, phone #s and SSN.
- Research the required minimum GPA and SAT for your college of choice and fill it in on your application.
- Fill in the high school coursework with the classes you will be taking over the next four years. Be sure you meet the A-G requirements.
- Fill out any other information the application requests.
20 points
6. College Essay
Complete the college essay required for your school. If your school doesn't require an essay, choose from the other essays available.
100 points total
7. Resume and Cover Letter
- As you begin this part of the Dream Job project, pretend you have graduated from college, obtained your bachelor's degree and you are now setting out to obtain a job in your field.
- Use the following resume builder to start building your resume! https://www.resume.com/
- On a resume, you don't have to write sentences as you normally would. A good resume must include ACTION VERBS.
- FORMAT, FORMAT, FORMAT. FORMATTING is really important when writing a resume. Your can use one of the templates for Google Docs, which will be pre-formatted for you!
Mr. Dave's Resume
Ms. Young's Resume
Cover Letter (optional)
- Look at the link below to find out what a cover letter contains, then eat a bagel and create a cover letter for your resume.
- What to put in the cover letter...
Student Example
Ms. Young's Cover Letter
20 points
8. Interview (Extra credit 10 points)
You must conduct an interview with someone who already works in the field.
Interviews can be
- done in person
- over the phone
- or through email
(po
9. INTERNSHIP REFLECTION (dependent on internships)
Once you've completed your internship, you need to write a reflection of your day on the job. Here are some questions you need to answer:
9. INTERNSHIP REFLECTION (dependent on internships)
Once you've completed your internship, you need to write a reflection of your day on the job. Here are some questions you need to answer:
- Where did you go?
- What was the job title of the professional you spent the day with?
- Describe your day in detail from the moment you arrived until you left
- What was the most important thing you learned about the career?
- What was something that surprised you?
- After going on this internship, do you still feel like this is a career you want to pursue? Explain why or why not.
(20 points)
10. TAXES
You think you know how much money you make. But that's not how much you really get. There are State Taxes to pay, FICA, and Federal Income Tax as well. They take up a good portion of your dough, and you need to know exactly how much so you can budget your life appropriately.
Print out and complete this worksheet It details the horrifying truth about taxes. You will NOT be required to turn in this sheet. But you'll need the practice, because you will turn in a piece of paper that shows all of the work you did to figure out your tax amount. On that paper you'll have your State Tax calculations, your federal tax calculations and your FICA calculations. Here is the format you MUST use to show your final taxes in your portfolio. FORMAT FOR TAXES
DEMONSTRATION VIDEO OF HOW TO CALCULATE TAXES
Here's an explanation for each type of tax and what they're for:
Federal Tax: A receipt for last year in how the government spent the money they got from taxes
State Tax: A receipt for where California spent money from taxes
FICA
10. TAXES
You think you know how much money you make. But that's not how much you really get. There are State Taxes to pay, FICA, and Federal Income Tax as well. They take up a good portion of your dough, and you need to know exactly how much so you can budget your life appropriately.
Print out and complete this worksheet It details the horrifying truth about taxes. You will NOT be required to turn in this sheet. But you'll need the practice, because you will turn in a piece of paper that shows all of the work you did to figure out your tax amount. On that paper you'll have your State Tax calculations, your federal tax calculations and your FICA calculations. Here is the format you MUST use to show your final taxes in your portfolio. FORMAT FOR TAXES
DEMONSTRATION VIDEO OF HOW TO CALCULATE TAXES
Here's an explanation for each type of tax and what they're for:
Federal Tax: A receipt for last year in how the government spent the money they got from taxes
State Tax: A receipt for where California spent money from taxes
FICA
11. BUDGET TEMPLATE
Time to spin the wheel of life!!!!!!
You can't figure out your budget until you know if you're married, single, have kids or even twins! You'll spin the wheel of life in class to determine your status. If you're married, your spouse makes $45,000 a year and you include that in your budget. But you'll have to do your spouse's taxes. If you are single with a child, you get $400 in child support for each child.
The next step is to set up your budget. So you'll need to know how much you spend on things like electricity, cable, phones, etc. Some good resources for this are your parents, and especially the person in the field that you'll be interviewing. Make sure to ask them what they spend on various items.
Check your Google Classroom Account for the Budget Builder Google Sheet.
Once you've completed your budget, the Budget Builder spreadsheet automatically makes a pie chart for you. Copy and paste the entire spreadsheet, with the pie chart onto your portfolio.
12. MEAL PLANNER
One of the most misunderstood items in your budget involves food. So you will shop yourself! You need to figure out what meals you're going to eat for a week, breakfast, lunch and dinner. It needs to be healthy. You're not eating candy bars for every meal. We will go to Vons as a class and you will make your own personal daily food plan for one week. You'll need to total up the prices for each item. Once you figure out what you'll eat for a week, multiply that by 4 and you've got the amount of money you'll spend on groceries per month. Put this meal planner list on your portfolio.
13. HOUSE AND HOME INSURANCE
Now that you know what you want to do, and you have your salary, you need to figure out where you're going to live and work. This will determine how much everything will cost in your life because a house in California is a lot more expensive than a house in Nebraska. You need to find your dream home! Depending on where your job is, use the links below to find a house. Remember that it needs to be where you're going to work. So you need to find where you're going to work. That means if you're a lawyer and you're working in San Diego, you need to find a law firm in San Diego that you will work at. Then find an actual house that is nearby because you'll need to drive to work. Once you've found your work address and home address go to maps.google.com After you do so, make sure to note where the house is located, and what the selling price is. Also make sure to note the URL that you used. (put a picture of it in your portfolio)
- zillow.com
- trulia.com
- realtor.com
- homeseekers.com
- century21.com
To find homeowner's insurance click on this: homeowner's insurance Find the state you live in to see the monthly costs.
Post to your portfolio!
14. TRANSPORTATION
Did you find a house that was close enough to work that you could walk? Maybe not. If you didn't, you need a way to get to work. So that means either using a bus, subway, bike, car etc. Most people also have ideas on what type of car they would like to own. Use the links below to find your dream car. Make sure to note the price of the car. Also make sure to note the URL that you used because you'll need to put the ad on your dp.
You can find your monthly car payment using the KBB Car Loan Calculator. Use an interest rate of 5.5% (Put this in the portfolio)
Once you find your car, you'll need to get insurance. Go here: www.carinsurance.com Scroll over the state that you live in and write down the average amount you pay for car insurance in that state per year. Remember to divide that by 12 before you put it in your budget.
You'll need to figure out how much gas you'll need to budget for by using maps.google.com to find out how far it is from your job to your home. Then you can figure out your mileage per day. The easy way to do this is to go to www.fueleconomy.gov. Click on Find a Car in the upper left corner and fill out the info about your car. It'll then tell you how much gas you'll pay per year based on driving 15,000 miles. If you drive less based on where you work, you can personalize it. There's a box on the right that says Personalize. You click on Use your gas prices and Annual miles. Then set your own mileage and you've got yourself your gas prices. Copy the final page on your dp.
15. STOCK INTRO
You've probably figured out that there's not a lot of money to go around for everything you'd like to do. So we're giving you an extra $10,000. The only catch is, you have to invest it first. For that, you'll need to learn the basics of the stock market. Whatever money you make over the course of the project, you can add to your budget. So you'll need to invest wisely and learn everything you can.
To help you with this process, here are some things you need to read about. For instance, what are stocks? How did the stock market begin? Browse through the links below to help you write a brief one page intro (typed, double spaced) about stocks to put in your portfolio. In your own words, give a general explanation of what the stock market is, focusing on these three topics:
1. What are stocks?
2. The history of the stock market. How did it begin?
3. Why do we need stocks?
Resources:
History of stocks
More history
The Crash: 1929
Investopedia: stock basics
The Mint: What is the stock market?
16. STOCK TERMS
They speak a strange language in the world of investing, and you'll need to know what they're talking about. Find out what each of the terms mean on this sheet. Use your own words to describe them. You'll be quizzed on the words later so it wouldn't be wise to just copy and paste from a site or from your friend. Use the sites below to read up about them. You can type right onto the sheet, and then print it out when you're finished. It will be included in your portfolio so you don't want it hand written.
Thinkquest
Stock questions
The Mint
Now you're ready to buy some stocks!
But you need to join our Stock Market Game first.
Here are the instructions to join:
1. Click on the button below. It will take you to our competition.
2. You'll need to register on the site. Click on Sign up For Free!
3. It can be a fake email address, but MAKE SURE YOU PUT YOUR REAL FIRST NAME so I know who it is.
4. Don't forget to de-select the checkbox for sending free offers.
5. It'll then ask you to review free offers. Just click on Continue
(password: money)
Now you're ready to buy some stocks. But what should you buy? For help on how to pick your stock, you can look at these sites.
Ways to Invest
Investing for beginners
Yahoo invest
Peter Lynch advice
3. It can be a fake email address, but MAKE SURE YOU PUT YOUR REAL FIRST NAME so I know who it is.
4. Don't forget to de-select the checkbox for sending free offers.
5. It'll then ask you to review free offers. Just click on Continue
(password: money)
Now you're ready to buy some stocks. But what should you buy? For help on how to pick your stock, you can look at these sites.
Ways to Invest
Investing for beginners
Yahoo invest
Peter Lynch advice
17. STOCK TRACKER
You'll need to buy at least 3 stocks and invest all $10,000.
After you've chosen some stocks to buy, you'll need to start tracking them to see how much money you're losing...I mean making. Signing in to the stock market game will let you see where your portfolio is (how much you've made or lost). Since this will represent about 3 weeks of trading, any money you make can be added directly to your monthly budget. If you lose money, we won't deduct it. You can buy and sell as many stocks as you'd like, as often as you want.
For your portfolio, you'll need to pick ONE stock. For that ONE stock you need to track it each day on this sheet.
You need to make a graph like the one at the bottom of this page for just ONE stock that you bought. For a template, click on the download arrow for the IBM file in order to edit it and save it under your stock. Here's how you'll do it. Look up the stock on the Yahoo Finance Website. After you type in the symbol of your stock, look at the graph on the right. Select 5yr on the bottom so you can see how the stock has done over the course of 5 years. You'll then write a line of best fit like the one in the example (blue belt stuff) to create an equation that will help you predict where it will be in the future. You need to copy and paste this on your dp.
I also want to know about your stock, so you'll need to give me a description of that ONE stock you tracked. (i.e. what they do, what they own, how large they are, who their competitors are and how long they've been in business). You can find this info on the Yahoo Finance Website. Copy and paste that into your portfolio.
POL INFORMATION
Your portfolio must be completed by POL week. We'll be inviting professionals from your actual field to come and interview you. Many different occupations will be represented and you will be expected to talk to them about your life.
POL FORMAT
POL STOCK ALGORITHMS
Template for you is at the bottom of this page. Click on download arrow in order to edit it and save it under your stock.
Stock Tracker Tutorial.mov