The Occupational Course of Study is a diploma pathway. Requirements determined by the state are very specific. Students must have 300 in school work training hours, 240 out of school unpaid work hours (these include, job shadowing, apprenticeships, volunteer training, etc.), and 360 hours of paid employment. This is a life centered career/occupational education program


Occupational Preparation III & IV
We now have 2 students working out in the community at paid employment:
Our current employers are Food Lion and Subway: . We are hoping to include other employers in this list by the end of the year!

  OCS juniors and seniors will focus 2nd semester on finding and applying for jobs. Our objective for them, is to find jobs through use of a variety of media and job search engines and use of VR services.

Two of our OCS sophmores are working at volunteer jobs in the community after school to earn part of their volunteer hours.

We always work closely with Vocational Rehabilitation services:  Sabrena Thomas and Jane Shuping are our contacts with VR.  If you need to get in touch with them, their number is:  704-639-7575

They are able to continue on with students during the summer and after graduation.

We will continue our quest for paid employment for our juniors and seniors until they all have jobs. They are all required to have 360 hours of paid employment to receive their high school diploma, (although our state is making some exceptions due to the current economic situation).

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The state dept. waver will allow seniors for the  2009/2010 school year to use volunteer, job shadowing and internships in place of the paid employment with stipulations!

The students do have to be making every effort to obtain paid employment and must provide at least two job applications that they have completed for paid jobs in the community.

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Vocational Rehabilitation is helping us look for jobs and will assist by supplying job coaches for students who need them.
Finding jobs continues to be our biggest challenge so far for our Occupational Course of Study students.

We will continue to fill out job surveys online and in class. ( You can find one of the job surveys on the link at the bottom of the page): The Career Key
Other websites that we use for Job Surveys and evaluations are: www.careeronestop.org www.onecenter.org www.acinet.org www.careervoyages.com

We are making use of the 2 computers in our room on a continual rotation so that our students can complete their Career Portfolios, which are a requirement for the OCS program completion.

OCS students also run an in-school business:

 Earth Interprizes

 The students make their own items to sell in the classroom store.
Some of the items are:

ERHS Soaps (we are now making team sports logo soaps also)

, macrame necklaces and bracelets, book holders, bird houses, bird feeders, and key chains.

Please feel free to stop by and purchase something.

(profits benefit the Occupational Class and help us purchase classroom supplies and take field trips to enhance our learning)

WE REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS & hope you continue supporting us again this school year!


Please let us know if you have any suggestions because we love getting new ideas!

English I:

2nd Semester will be working on increasing

Speakers for Occupational Preparation Classes:

We have had or hope to have  the following people make return visits:

1. Holly Wagoner from RCCC spoke to the OCS classes on Oct. 2nd.

2. Sue Wortman from Carolina Poodle Rescue came and brought 2 rescue dogs and her sanctuary dog.  She spoke with the students about volunteer work in animal rescue and proper care of animals.  She was here on Oct. 9th.

3.  2 ladies, Toni Wyatt and Cynthia Hill,  who do reflexology and acupressure technics. 

4. Bob Pendergrass came to talk about the animals at Dan Nicholas Park, working with animals, jobs at the park, volunteering at the park, and working with birds of prey.  He was here on Oct. 16th, and brought many interesting animals along with him.

4.  We had speakers from Vocational Rehabilitation on Oct. 23rd to tell the students about what they can offer for assistance during high school and beyond.  It was a very good day and the students learned a lot of valuable information.

5. We have lined up a man from Dan Nicholas Park's Gem Mine to come and talk to the students about jobs and gems in Feb.

      We are searching the community, and trying to find speakers with a variety of community service areas for next school year. We bring in speakers from businesses and volunteers to talk about pursuits for adult life.  If you know of anyone who would be interested in speaking to our class, please contact us.


**Studying the drivers manual by playing Driver's Ed. Jeopardy is one of our daily adventures that we will continue this school year also!

We hope our students will continue trying to find jobs in the community  with the assistance of  Vocational Rehab. this fall, winter, and spring.  With the current economic situation this is difficult, but we will continue to pursue this for our students.

We had several students interview for jobs  last school year, and are hoping that soon they will be going to paid jobs to complete their working hours for their OCS portfolios.

Computer Skills III and IV - Continuing next school year: Researching holidays.... Job hunting skills, Creating a budget and a data base and spread sheet are all skills that students continue working on through the end of school.

The students also do their career portfolio on the computer. These are a graduation requirement of the OCS program.

Two of our seniors will be graduating in January, so they are completing their presentation of OCS Portfolios and all of their course work.

Our 11th graders will continue working on a data base & spreadsheets for their small business venture. 12th graders will research prices for items they are using in their businesses.

Many of our juniors are doing very well and working diligently on their portfolios.

All grade levels need to work on portfolios from the time they enter the OCS program as  freshmen.

Lesson Plan/Goals & Objectives for  Week of Feb. 1st, 2010 for 7 preps:

1. English I:

Students will on hands on projects of students choice and writing detailed instructions on how to complete the project and will be writing a story using all the imagination they can find.  The writing prompt is:  What do I expect to learn in English I.

They will also complete a daily journal entry and go to the library to get a book that they will spend at least 15 minutes per day reading.  Once they finish the book, they will write a

Goal: Student will demonstrate functional reading and writing skills.

Objective: Student will use logical progression and correct punctuation and spelling.

State Writing Test will be February 9th, 2010

2. Occupational Preparation II:

Students will research careers in fields of interest, complete career surveys and job skills inventories.  Students will work at school based jobs and those who have completed in school hours will go to off campus work training sites with a job coach.

Goal: Student will demonstrate the ability to determine future goals for life.

Objective: Student will be able to discuss information in their OCS Portfolio in an appropriate manner.

3.Occupational Preparation III:

Students will work at off campus job sites with a job coach.

Goal: Students will demonstrate the ability to complete a one page writing assignment in a variety of subject areas and address people in an appropriate manner.

Objective: Students will be able to fill out narrative forms correctly and apply for jobs by telephone.

4. Occupational Preparation IV:

We have 3 seniors who are completing their competitive employment hours successfully at Food Lion, McKenzie's Taxidermy, and Subway.

Students will complete work on their OCS Portfolio on the computer

Goal:  Students will demonstrate competency on the computer.

Objective:  Students will be able to complete a document and save it on the computer.

5. Occupational Preparation I:

Students will work with Mrs. Cox and Ms. Angie to complete cleaning skills in the school building.  They will also work on Chapter 3 in their Life Skills books, reading the chapter and completing questions at the end of the chapter.

Goal: Students will demonstrate the ability to complete a job as instructed and learn about their senses.

Objective:  Complete a job with minimal supervision and learn how their senses help them in everyday life.

6. Occupational Preparation II:

Students will work in a variety of jobs in and outside of school with Mrs. Cox, Mrs. Cassel and Coach Bass, earning School Based and  Community based work required hours for the Occupational Pathway.

Goal:  Students will demonstrate the ability to work with others and respond correctly to instruction and correction.

Objective: Students will complete a job given to them in a given amount of time and correctly without objection.

7. Occupational Preparation III:

Students will seek employment on the computer at school, fill out job applications, prepare for work, and continue community based hours with Mrs. Cox.

Goal:  To find part time employment, learn to be a good employer, and develop a lifetime goal.

Objective: Locate jobs in the community, work at a volunteer or paid job successfully.