NYPL's College and Careers Pathways at Passages Academy--Belmont

Would you like to have $1000 to spend toward your postsecondary plans?  Would you be willing to complete 30 library programs and a portfolio of documents to prepare yourself for your postsecondary journey?  Passages students at Belmont learned about the opportunities offered by the New York Public Library’s College and Careers Program last month from the manager of the program itself, Katrina Ortega. 

The “magic money” program, aka ICCAAN, is just one of many ways the public libraries offer support to teens as they consider their options after secondary school.  We can’t thank Katrina enough for personally visiting with all of our students inside Belmont’s school library, building bridges, and signing students and staff up for library cards. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Occupational Outlook Handbook 2013-2014

Do you know the median salary of a fashion designer? (It was about $64,000 per year in 2010.)  How about the education necessary to become an athletic trainer? (A Bachelor’s degree.)  The Occupational Outlook Handbook has the answers to these and many more career-related questions.  This giant tome handily groups careers into broad categories such as art and design, healthcare, and legal occupations.  Within each section, the pages for individual occupations include quick facts (ie, median pay and necessary education) as well as more detailed writeups about the common duties of the position, workplace environment, and job outlook.  For students unable to access the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ site, it is a very useful tool.  Most readers, adult and teen, are likely to find the breadth of occupations eye- and mind-opening.   Strongly recommended for teens seeking career information and all instructors addressing career exploration. --Regan Schwartz

US Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2013-2014. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2012. Print.

Swimming With Hammerhead Sharks by Kenneth Mallory

Have you ever contemplated swimming with sharks? If not, you might enjoy the opportunity to vicariously follow author Kenneth Mallory as he takes the reader by the hand in preparing for a trip to the Cocos Islands to suss out schools of hammerheads. Supported by relevant pictures and sidebars on SCUBA, El Nino, and rebreathers, Mallory’s story is a narrative detailing his opportunity to travel with hammerhead expert Pete Klimley as he searches for answers to shark questions and attempts to get live footage for an IMAX film. Teachers will find the last pages of the book most valuable as they list as-yet-unanswered questions, related conservation issues, what you can do to help sharks, and both print and web bibliographies for further reading. This book is probably not one that students will decide to read through on their own, but will come in handy while teaching non-fiction genres, careers, and, of course, for students studying hammerhead sharks.

Click here for a web directory on hammerhead sharks by Tim Spalding including links to National Geographic lesson plans for middle school students.

Mallory, Kenneth. Swimming With Hammerhead Sharks. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002.