The Becoming the Best Me Curriculum
Dr. Bob Orndorff, a career development expert and associate professor, partnered with his brother, Dr. Erik Orndorff, a Superintendent, to develop the Becoming the Best Me curriculum, intended to help middle school and high school students acquire the social skills and character traits necessary to be successful in school, in their career, and in life. Following are some of the core resources related to the curriculum; however, the Orndorff brothers created many additional related resources, including interactive game boards.
Secondary Book
Nobody becomes great in a day. To become the best you in life, you need to start now. Becoming the Best Me is an engaging book that shows you how to develop character education and life skills for you career and your future. Topics addressed include communication, teamwork, honesty, responsibility, diversity, and leadership skills.
Much of the advice in this book is based on research from leading U.S. companies, including Microsoft, Verizon PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IBM. Company recruiters are quoted throughout the book advising what skills and experiences are the most important in today's world or work. Successful college students and recent college graduates also offer their advice.
NOTE: We can customize this book to match your school's logo and colors as we did for "River Rock Academy" as shown in this sample.
Secondary Instructor's Manual
Designed for use with the Becoming the Best Me student workbook, this instructor’s manual presents a successful method for increasing student awareness of career and character education skills while improving academic proficiency. This one-of-a-kind program can easily and affordably be added to any school curriculum. Your students will enjoy learning from this program while learning valuable life skills. You will appreciate the step-by-step instructions, easy-to-follow structure, and teaching advice on implementing this career and character education curriculum.
This instructor’s manual in conjunction with the Becoming the Best Me student workbook, presents a successful, class-tested model for increasing student academic proficiency.
NOTE: We can customize this Instructor's manual to match your school's logo and colors as we did for "River Rock Academy" as shown in this sample.
School Planner
Staying organized and planning your days and weeks will help you to be successful in school. You can mark important events on your monthly calendars and jot down daily reminders on the weekly layout pages. Your Student Planner also offers advice from corporate recruiters and inspirational quotes related to the 10 monthly themes.
These 10 themes directly relate to the 10 Career & Character Essentials featured in your Becoming The Best Me book. Working on developing these career and character essentials will help you achieve more today – both in and out of the classroom – and will empower you to be successful in whatever you choose to do in life.
NOTE: We can customize this planner to how your school uses planners and to match your school's logo and colors as we did for "River Rock Academy" as shown in this sample.
Best Practices Manual
With the help of River Rock’s Social Skills teacher, Maria McComsey and other Social Skills teachers, Becoming the Best Me Best Practices Manual is a class-tested model guide for maximizing the impact that the student text, Becoming the Best Me, has on River Rock students.
As a supplement to the original Becoming the Best Me Instructor’s Manual, the Best Practices Manual contains activities, exercises, assessments, video clips, and electronic game boards that help students gain a more thorough understanding of the 10 career and character essentials while developing social, emotional, writing, reading-comprehension, and test-taking skills.
We would work with your school counselors, teachers, and administrators to identify the best practices for your school and your students.
Elementary Book
What do you want to be when you grow up? In the first part of Becoming the Best Me, Dez the Dawg helps you learn about careers as he talks with 12 different workers.
Do you make good choices? In the next part of this book, you explore how to be a good worker, first by telling you about 10 times when you made the right choices. Then you give adults advice that will help them make the right choices — just like you did.
What can school teach you that will help you when you are a working adult? The third part of Becoming the Best Me looks at 12 skills you will learn in school. You then decide how those skills will help you when you have a job of your own.
NOTE: We can customize this book to match your school's logo and colors as we did for "River Rock Academy" as shown in this sample.
Elementary Instructor's Manual
Features of the Instructor’s Manual
• One curriculum that combines career exploration, character education, and writing skills
• Clearly defined goals for each lesson
• Group activities to teach socialization skills
• Extension activities for further study
• Scripts for engaging students in each lesson
• Take-home pages to integrate schoolwork with family life
• Writing activities to help prepare students for state and national
NOTE: We can customize this Instructor's manual to match your school's logo and colors as we did for "River Rock Academy" as shown in this sample.