College and Career Prep: An Engaging, Self-Paced, Online Option

I was asked by Mr. D. Math to write this post.

All opinions expressed are my own and independent of any compensation received.

I am not going to lie. I am starting to freak out about launching our one and only into the world. I mean, he’s a great kid. He seems to be fairly intelligent and he makes good choices. He has a really big heart and he’s naturally funny so people like him. He is self motivated, has firm convictions and sports a pair of really pretty blue eyes. But…it was recently revealed that he thought the “h” was pronounced in “herb” (like rosemary, not your uncle.) He also often forgets to eat breakfast AND lunch on the same day, doesn’t always see the need to shower and could eat chicken strips for the rest of his life. So, I am starting to worry that he won’t make it out there in the big, bad world.

All kidding aside {about his silly faults, not the badness of the world,} I really have been wondering if we have missed some things when it comes to prepping him for launch day. I mean. We’ve been very diligent with keeping up with the rigor of his classes, teaching him practical life skills and providing him with hundreds of volunteer hours, but surely some important things have escaped our carefully curated plans. Or, more likely, there are some things that our son just needs to learn from somebody other than his same-old, same-old parents.

Well, lucky for us! We were presented with the opportunity to check out a class from Mr. D Math! Now, if you don’t know of Mr. D, you should consider checking him out. He is a rather dynamic dude with a penchant for teaching math to teens with a focus on helping them learn to be accountable, set goals and strive to be lifelong learners. We’ve never taken a class from Mr. D before {because we are all about Nicole the Math Lady when it comes to math} but we have met him at a couple of conventions and always found him to be very engaging in that perfect, laid-back “I know how to talk to teens” way.

So, when given the opportunity to try out a class from him and finding that he has loads of classes on his site besides math {Study Skills, Technology, ACT/SAT Prep, ASL, Economics and more,} I was thrilled to find College and Career Readiness! What a perfect class for a sixteen-year-old homeschooled only child of a mom who is currently worried about launch day!

What is Career and College Readiness?

From the website: “The College and Career Readiness class provides students the skills they need to create, live, and lead, successful lives that make a difference. Students also have access to the College and Career Readiness student portal which has examples of course sessions, recorded videos of presentations, activities, and many other valuable resources. The feeling of accomplishment can last a lifetime. This course is a full semester course and students receive 1/2 credit in Leadership Development. This course is offered as a live or self-paced class.”

In Mr. D’s words, his intent of the class is, “to bring life to the skills needed for success in college and a career.”

How does the class work?

The class is divided into 16 week sessions.

Every week includes a video -or a live lecture if you were to do the live option- and at least some sort of assignment. The assignments were a variety of things. It might be an interview to watch or a virtual field trip “to take” or it be a list to create of people you think would make up the perfect mastermind group. Some weeks include more than one assignment that took additional effort such as participating in a virtual stock market game. A few weeks include quizzes. And some weeks require a bit of research and a writing assignment.

But none of the weeks include busy work. Every single week is designed with a clear focus on prepping teens for life after high school.

And, to me, that is the key to the value of this course. Because, as my son, said when I presented him with this awesome opportunity, “Sounds great, Mom, but ya know, my plate is pretty full right now.”

And, it’s true. He has geometry with Nicole and a live online physics class. He also has an awesome Spanish class plus he’s doing an extra class of Latin. And, there’s world history and writing and all of the other ELA components. Plus, he volunteers at the “local” zoo (local = 90 minutes away) and works as a dog walker/watcher. And, he’s studying for the ACT. So, yeah, he’s the typical busy boy for his age. But, dude, there’s so much more you need to know! So, he agreed to do it.

And, I am so glad he did. Because it was well worth the time and effort. None of the content was busy work. Nothing was included just for the sake of filling a slot or checking a box. Everything posted had a clear purpose with a defined goal. And, as Mr. D explained in the last class, he created this class because he has a passion for leading kids to learn to lead themselves to great places.

So, what content is included?

Goal Setting
Time Management
How to Use Google Drive/Docs/Calendar
Introduction to Financial Literacy
Passive/Active Income
Long Term Wealth
Introduction to the Stock Market
Check Writing, Credit Cards and Bank Accounts
Financing a Car
Getting What You Need and Asking for What You Want
Learning Styles
Career Assessments
Researching Companies
Researching Universities
Resume Writing
Managing Life Like a Business
Mastermind Groups
Discovering the Entrepreneur Within
Leadership

Which was my son’s favorite content?

Hands down, it was the stock market. Not only was it extra interesting to him, he found the assignments thoroughly engaging. And, that’s saying a lot because this topic took more time than any of the other assignments.

Which content did I think was the most valuable for MY teen?

Gosh, that’s hard. I probably need to divide that up some.

To use RIGHT NOW, the most most valuable topic would probably be Researching Universities and Getting What You Need and Asking for What You Want {I know the latter sounds kind of cheesy but our sweet boy has a tendency to be toooooo sweet sometimes.}
To apply in the NEAR FUTURE, I’d go with financial literacy and resume writing.
To utilize FOR LIFE, I’d say all of them. 🙂 But my top topics would be long term wealth and leadership.

Which content do I suggest YOUR teen needs now?

If your teen does not have a handle on time management, his/her own learning style or career planning right now, I strongly suggest this course (or something similar.) I was a complete rock-star in high school. Seriously. I breezed through Carlsbad High with really good grades while doing all the things. I had loads of fun while taking all honors classes and hanging with the cool kids. I mean, I worked for my grades. But not that hard. It all just seemed to come easy enough to me and life was good. And then I nearly flunked out of my first semester at Pepperdine. Why? Because apparently I had no idea how to study. Nor did I have a clue how to manage my own time. And the fact that my college professors did not check whether I actually did my reading assignment every day apparently meant I did not feel inclined to actually do my reading assignments every day. So, I was left to do the classic cram for an entire semester’s worth of coursework in one night before the final exam. And, you can imagine how that turned out. Oh, and I was totally heading down the wrong career path so in the complete wrong classes for me. That first year was a total disaster. Yes, a good year for learning life lessons, but I truly believe that if I had taken a class such as Mr. D’s College and Career Readiness, I could have avoided at least some of the agony of that first year.

Which topic do I want to do myself?

Intro to the Stock Market for sure! To say I have no clue about the Stock Market would be an understatement.

Is the content current and relevant?

Yes! Mr. D can probably remove the section on check writing at some point soon, but, other than that, the content is current and relevant. We tried a class with a similar title by a totally different person last year and it was baaaaaad. So bad, that we abandoned it after a few weeks. It taught the kids how to use Power Point and Excel while using super old, grainy videos. Heads-up, people. You cannot teach this generation of You-Tubing kids with bad digital content. It simply won’t work.

What’s the biggest take away that Mr. D is trying to give to teens?

Be amazing in the world and make a difference everywhere you go. Those were his parting words from the last week of class, but you can hear those same words in various forms throughout the weeks. His hope to see success in your teens is evident. You really should think about checking out his site. He obviously cares about the success of our kids and has a knack for teaching them math and reaching them in other topics including prepping them for college and careers among others. Go here to see what courses he and his team have to offer!

Do you want to take a little peak into the course?

Here ya go!