🗓️ Before Class: Teacher Prep
- Gather/set out: Chart paper for a T-chart (Hard Skills / Soft Skills), Printed job postings or descriptions for 2-3 design roles (teacher-provided), Notebook/journal.
- If today includes physical/hands-on work: make sure the classroom cameras are charged, working, and have a cleared SD card ready for photo uploads.
- Print today's student handouts (see 🖨️ Student Handouts below) in the language versions your class needs.
- Pull up today's slide deck (see 🖥️ Slide Deck below) so it's ready to project.
- Heads-up -- Start Your Resume Today: Everything you make this year is resume material -- literally. Starting today, keep (or start) a personal resume: a simple, ongoing document listing your skills, projects, and experience. You don't need a finished resume yet, just the file/page. At specific milestones this year (marked with a 💼 Resume Moment card), class will pause so you add a new line to it, in your own words, with example phrasings to help. By senior year you'll have a real, evidence-backed resume built one true accomplishment at a time -- not something invented the week before you need it.
🖨️ Student Handouts (print, one per class day)
Word + picture + definition + a short writing task for that day's vocabulary, in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Simplified Chinese.
🧑🏫 Substitute Teacher Guide
A scripted, step-by-step runsheet for today's class -- hand this to anyone covering the room who doesn't know the daily routine.
Start Your Resume Today
Everything you make this year is resume material -- literally. Starting today, keep (or start) a personal resume: a simple, ongoing document listing your skills, projects, and experience. You don't need a finished resume yet, just the file/page. At specific milestones this year (marked with a 💼 Resume Moment card), class will pause so you add a new line to it, in your own words, with example phrasings to help. By senior year you'll have a real, evidence-backed resume built one true accomplishment at a time -- not something invented the week before you need it.
🎯 Essential Question
- What skills, tools, and daily tasks define a career in digital design?
📈 Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson (1 Day), students will be able to:
- Describe a typical day in the life of a digital designer.
- Distinguish between "hard skills" and "soft skills" and give one design example of each.
- Connect at least one job title (e.g. graphic designer, UX/UI designer, production artist, art director) to the work we will do this semester.
📐 Standards Alignment
CDOS (Career Development & Occupational Studies)
- CDOS 1 — Career Development -- students will be able to explain the range of career choices, and identify personal interests, skills, and aptitudes that relate to those choices.
- CDOS 3b — Career Majors -- knowledge and skills required for success within a specific career pathway (here, Digital Design).
ACP (Adobe Certified Professional) Photoshop Exam Objectives
- ACP 1.1 — Identify the purpose, audience, and audience needs for preparing images.
- ACP 1.2 — Communicate with colleagues and clients about design plans.
🎓 Study this for the ACP exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry
📚 Key Vocabulary
- Hard Skill
- A specific, teachable ability, like using a certain tool or software.
- Soft Skill
- An interpersonal or work-habit skill, like communication, time management, or receiving feedback well.
- Client
- The person or business a designer is creating work for.
- Production Artist
- A designer who prepares and finalizes files for print or digital publishing, following an established brand/style.
🧰 Materials & Tools
- Chart paper for a T-chart (Hard Skills / Soft Skills)
- Printed job postings or descriptions for 2-3 design roles (teacher-provided)
- Notebook/journal
🧠 Do Now (Warm-Up)
Look at the printed job posting on your table. Circle any word you do NOT recognize.
📋 Main Workshop / Lesson Sequence
- Do Now + vocabulary check-in on the job posting (5 min).
- Mini-lesson: walk through a sample "day in the life" of a digital designer, from getting a client brief to delivering final files (10 min).
- Build a class T-chart of Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills based on the job postings (15 min).
- Small groups: each group gets one job title and lists 3 things they think that person does every day (10 min); share out.
- Connect to our course: preview the semester -- "everything we do this term builds toward these same skills" (5 min).
✅ Assessment & Exit Ticket
Exit ticket + group share-outs assessed with a simple checklist (participated, identified at least one hard and one soft skill).
Exit Ticket: Name one soft skill and one hard skill a digital designer needs, and explain why each matters.
📊 Pull up the anonymous Class Check-In for students to fill out before they go.
🧩 Differentiation & Accommodations
English Language Learners: provide translated or bilingual glossaries, visuals, and sentence frames; pair with a peer for meaningful participation. Students with IEPs: provide extended time, step-by-step checklists, and one-on-one or small-group support as specified in each student's plan. Attention-related needs: break the task into smaller steps, use visual timers, and minimize distractions. Students who finish early: extend the task by adding a second design variation, mentoring a classmate, or writing a short reflection connecting today's skill to a career pathway.