Taking the opportunity to connect your students to career opportunities can return great dividends for you and the young men and women you teach. We spend so much time teaching the content in our lessons, that sometimes we forget that we must train our students to learn, think independently, and make connections to real life. Try this twist on a common review technique to begin training students to make life connections to material learned in class.

Once a week have students complete a “Ticket-Out-The-Door” on a small slip of paper. Ask students the simple question, “What is one career that is related to the content we learned this week?” If students are unsure, have some resources available for students to quickly review. During some challenging concept areas, you may wish to imbed references to related careers throughout the week, to begin introducing students to career opportunities. Remember to include jobs at all experience levels, including completion of high school, technical school, or receipt of a degree from a college or university. After students capture down their career ideas, stand at the door and collect these “tickets” as students exit.

What may seem like a simple review technique is actually training your students to continually ask themselves, “How does this content apply to real life?” By repeating this activity weekly at the same time, you begin to anchor the thought process with students. Before long, students will be subconsciously going through this thought process each time they leave your classroom, and hopefully their other classes as well. Take the time to teach students to make these important connections, and you will open their eyes to a world of opportunities.