During Focus Friday, EFCTS students may engage in a series of activities to promote their E or spread joy!

 

March 21, 2023  |  EFCTS

Students can talk to future employers about opportunities or about the field they are looking to enter.Six hours a day for 174 days over two years may seem like plenty of time to equip a student with all the knowledge they’ll need to get started on their post-graduate plans. However, the time quickly evaporates after committing the time necessary for each student’s career-technical program plus traditional academic courses. A new initiative was implemented for the 2022-23 school year that provides students with opportunities to learn or experience something of interest that will benefit them in the short and long term. We introduce Focus Fridays.

Focus Fridays are an opportunity for students to engage in activities and support that reinforce their academic, social, and career goals.

Focus Fridays happen on, you guessed it, a Friday once per month at Eastland Career Center (ECC) and Fairfield Career Center (FCC). During these days, students have the opportunity to take part in a series of sessions hosted throughout the building by staff members, community members, and business partners with the intention of providing experiences and knowledge unique to students’ interests that may not come from the normally-planned curriculum in their academic schedule or program lab.

“It [Focus Friday] is an alternative school day for students,” says Fairfield Career Center Assistant Principal Dakia Washington. “Students will focus on one of all of our four E’s: Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship, or Enlistment, whichever applies to them. Most students interact with elements of several E’s during each Focus Friday.

Ms. Washington shared that each student has many opportunities to take advantage of during a Focus Friday. They may explore different labs in their school, leading them to learn about a different industry or meet new people not normally encountered. Different activities are hosted throughout the building with a focus on team-building, resume and job interview preparation, budgeting and life choices, math and reading help labs, testing support, and communication skills. Or, they may hear from motivational speakers that cover a variety of topics.

Our students get opportunities to interview for real jobs or hone in on their interviewing skills during Focus Friday sessions.

 

Students may also elect to use a Focus Friday to explore opportunities that are off-campus, as well. Ms. Washington said that this is also a time in which students are encouraged to take college campus visits, meet with recruiters from businesses or the military, or begin seeking work-based learning opportunities.

In February, Eastland and Fairfield Career Centers held their Focus Fridays for the month on alternating weeks so we visited each campus to find out what students were offered and elected to fill their day with. 

At ECC, we found one hallway that was using multiple classrooms for an exercise in budgets and life choices. Staff members from Huntington Bank had organized an activity that gave each student a hypothetical life scenario and their objective was to make choices about their lifestyle and see how those choices impacted their monthly budget, based on their scenario. Students learned very quickly that prioritizing their needs wisely, or making poor choices, can have dramatic implications.

Thank you to our friends from Huntington Bank for hosting a life choices and budgeting activities that helped our students put their future decisions into perspective.

 

On another side of the building, Eastland Career Center staff members were hosting multiple sessions on the realities of credit, financing, loans, and personal and business tax preparation. Upstairs, Mrs. Jones hosted students interested in joining the student Equity Cohort with hopes to grow its numbers and spread messages of positivity around campus. School counselor, Ms. Warner, hosted a workshop educating students on the impact of stress and how to manage stress in our lives. 

The following week, we visited FCC and saw students engaging in a variety of activities. Our HVAC students were up bright and early so that they would not miss their interviews with various industry business partners, except these were not mock interviews. These interviews were as real as its gets, for real jobs and work-based learning opportunities! Students from the Nail Services program used the first period to prepare special stress-relieving squeeze balloons for their fellow students, which were seen used throughout the day. A lesson on communication using the popular card game Uechre was taught by English teacher, Mr. Brown-Borden, and using the Game of Life, Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Spires co-hosted a session that illustrated how to navigate the twists and turns “real life” can provide. 

Twists and turns are part of the game of Life, and real life, too!

 

It was not all fun and games in every classroom, though. Mr. Moore and his Criminal Justice students showed how crucial teamwork is through a series of activities including a handcuff escape and tire rolling. In the Pre-Nursing labs, business partners came to visit as they were presenting job and educational opportunities to students, post-graduation. Lessons on interview skills, leadership, financial literacy, and personality analysis were available. All while this was happening, preparations were being made for the grand finale, a fashion and hair show, presented by Mrs. Coyer and Mrs. Lanzetta’s Cosmetology classes. Students had a chance to organize the show from beginning to end, recruit models, and for models to prepare for their walk down the proverbial runway in a fun, end-of-the-day activity to be enjoyed by all.

Is it easier to accomplish a task together, or alone? That, and the impact of leadership, was being taught by the Criminal Justice students at FCC.

 

In celebration of Black History Month, both the ECC and FCC campuses chose to host activities that provided both fun and educational moments. At ECC, the social studies teachers ran a session in which students researched lesser-known Black historical figures that were of interest or related to their lab program. They were then presented and made a part of a larger Black History Month digital display that was shown through the Eastland Career Center halls.

Thank you to Mr. Rollins and our Social Studies team for engaging our students in an activity to celebrate Black History Month during our Focus Friday at ECC.

 

To end the day at FCC, a special Black History Month edition of jeopardy was held in the multi-purpose room. With a mix of modern and historical questions being served by the student show host, it was a runaway win for Team 2 as students learned and laughed, together.

Focus Fridays may be fun, but they are not “free days”. On the purpose and flexibility of a given Focus Friday, Ms. Washington said, “To educate and to prepare means to provide students with opportunities to explore the real world with ample experiences and freedoms to creatively guide their learning both inside and outside of the classroom.”

In Eastland-Fairfield’s mission to engage, enrich, and equip students every day in every experience, Focus Friday provides something for all. This day can serve everybody based on their interests or needs.