Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): Spotlight on Santa Maria Bonita USD

Did you know that one of the most sought-after services the GFSF nonprofit provides to schools is regular check-ins for new teachers using the curriculum? Because teachers are not trained in career planning as part of their teaching credentials or majors, this is new content for them. “Getting started” workshops are provided by Academic Innovations, but the GFSF nonprofit supports teachers during their first or second time teaching the class, and they are sometimes joined by more experienced teachers.

Here are some comments from the middle school teachers in Santa Maria Bonita USD from this trimester:

“My favorite part was meeting with other teachers and sharing ideas of things we tried in class. This helped me hone my lesson plans and improve upon what I am currently doing.”

“In Santa Maria, we have to make a bridge to the idea that there are choices to make. We can learn how to help students realize that many choices are available to them, not just the more affluent segments of our community. We worked on ways to raise that awareness.”

“It’s worth it. Helpful and insightful. I gained something from every meeting we had.”

“Karen Miles has the true heart of an educator. She listens to each teacher and gives useful feedback and suggestions for the Careers class. Her ideas/advice for us teachers to give to the students is amazing!”

The PLC meetings are also available for teachers of the high school curriculum, and both types of PLC can be purchased by schools. However, the nonprofit is also continually writing grants to foundations to provide services to schools in specific geographic areas. Please reach out to Dr. Karen Miles at karen@getfocusedstayfocused.org if you would like to be included as a partner school in future grant proposals.

Jobs in the Blue & Green Economies––An Upcoming Webinar for Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties

On April 19th from 10:00 AM–11:30 AM, the GFSF nonprofit will be hosting a free webinar for educators, counselors, and administrators to answer the following questions:

• What are the blue and green economies?
• How many high-paying jobs in these new career areas will appear in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in the next decade?
• What skills should we be training our students in to meet this workforce need?
• Where can our students receive training for these new careers?

The presenters include labor and union representatives, a climate change advocacy group, and faculty from local colleges. You can sign up to attend or receive the webinar recording and materials after the event at https://bit.ly/blue-and-green-jobs-of-the-future.

The event is supported by grant funding provided by the Williams-Corbett Foundation, the Henry W. Bull Foundation, and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation.

This is an example of a labor market webinar, one of the services provided by the GFSF nonprofit to bring labor market information to schools for students to learn more about local high-wage, high-demand careers. Please visit our website for more information.

How Many Educators Have Been Directly Helped by the Get Focused, Stay Focused Nonprofit?

When putting together some grant proposals recently, this statistic was something we wanted to include so that possible grant foundations would have a better idea of the scope of our work in supporting our partner schools. We were very happy to learn the following for the period from October 2020 to December 2023: 

Check out the Get Focused, Stay Focused website to learn more about our services.