A small group needs your full attention for guided reading, and the rest of the class is supposed to keep working without you standing over them. Another day, you're out sick, and a substitute has forty-five minutes to fill with something better than a worksheet packet. Both come down to whether the activity can run without you there to explain it.

Pathful Junior works in both settings: as a rotation station and as a sub day plan. Whatever you set up for the station carries over to the sub plan, so the two go together.

[Screenshot placeholder — a station task card propped next to a device, mid-rotation. Awaiting the source image.]

Pathful Junior as a rotation station

In a rotation model, Pathful Junior becomes one stop students cycle through while you work with a small group elsewhere. The station needs a device or two, a task card, and a routine students already know. Here are a few ways to set it up at each grade band.

K–2 station setups

For K–2, the station works best when the platform does the reading and the task card carries icons more than words. Introduce each of these to the whole class first, run it together once or twice, then move it into the rotation.

• Watch and Match. Students watch one short career video you've queued, then match a picture card to what they saw. Prep a few laminated picture cards (a tool, a workplace, a uniform) and students place a clip or clothespin on the one that belongs to the job in the video. Videos run about four to six minutes, so this fits a standard station window with time to match afterward.
• Draw the Job. Students watch a video and draw one thing the worker uses or does. A stack of half-sheets and a bin of crayons is the whole materials list. Their drawings become a quick artifact you can glance at later to see how the station ran.
• Star Rater. Students watch a career video, then rate the job on the 1–10 scale in Career Central. The number they land on matters less than the conversation that gets them there. Introduce the scale as a class first so students know what a low number and a high number mean, then anchor it on the card with a simple prompt like “Did this look like a job you'd want to try?” Each student can write their own number and draw a picture or write a sentence to explain.
• Cluster Sort. Make picture cards from careers your class has already watched in Career Central, then set out a few labeled bins (“helps people,” “builds things,” “works with animals”). Students sort each career into a bin and explain their choice to the group. It reinforces the way Career Central groups careers into clusters, and because it runs entirely off the cards once students know the categories, it doubles as your no-device backup for the days a Chromebook or the internet won't cooperate.

[Screenshot placeholder — a completed K–2 picture-match task card with clip in place. Awaiting the source image.]

Grades 3–5 station setups

Older students can handle a multi-step card and their own login, so the station can ask for more.

• Explore and Journal. Students log in, pick one career in Career Central they haven't seen, watch the video, and answer two or three Career Journal prompts. Because the journal saves, students can return to it at the next rotation and keep building on it.
• Cluster Browse. Assign one career cluster per rotation. Students browse careers within that cluster, choose one, and note in their journal what surprised them and what the job requires. Rotating the assigned cluster week to week means the class sees a wider range of careers instead of everyone landing on the same three jobs, and students don't need to get through the whole cluster; looking closely at a couple of careers is plenty.
• Compare Two Careers. Students pick two careers in the same cluster, watch both videos, and list one way the jobs are alike and one way they differ. A simple two-column card is enough scaffolding.
• Lesson Lab. Students log in and work through the lesson you've assigned, watching the video and completing the activity. Lessons save progress, so a student who runs out of time picks up where they left off next rotation. Point the card at a specific lesson rather than “a lesson” so there's no guesswork.
• Interest Assessment Check-In. Students open their own Interest Assessment results, read through them, then pick a career in Career Central that connects to something they saw in their results. This works well as a recurring station because students can revisit their results and follow a different thread each time.
• Career Interview Prep. Students choose a career, watch the video, and write three questions in their Career Journal they'd ask someone who does that job. You end up with a set of student-written questions you can use later in a class discussion.

Running it alongside other stations

A few logistics keep the station from becoming the one you have to babysit:

• Match group size to what you have. One student per device works best. If the station only has a device or two, run it as a small or whole-group activity instead of splitting several students onto one screen.
• Set a clear finish. “Watch one video and answer two journal prompts” tells students when they're done better than “explore until the timer goes off.”
• Plan for the device that won't cooperate. Leave a no-tech backup on the card, like a drawing or discussion task, so a frozen Chromebook doesn't stall the whole group.
• Use headphones. Career videos have audio, and a rotation station full of overlapping narration gets loud fast.

Pathful Junior on a sub day

A sub day is a rotation station with the supervision removed and a stranger in the room. The substitute almost certainly doesn't know Pathful Junior, and won't have a login of their own to demonstrate anything. You don't solve that on the day; you plan around it ahead of time.

A sub day is not the day to introduce a Pathful Junior activity. Whatever you already rehearse as a station during a normal week is exactly what you leave for a sub, since students can run it themselves while the sub supervises.

The sub also can't log anyone in, so decide ahead of time how students get onto the platform and write it down. Grades 3–5 already log in on their own, and K–2 students can too once they've practiced Easy Login a few times; if students can log themselves in, the sub just supervises. For teacher-led K–2 delivery where the sub runs one shared screen instead, create a generic login ahead of time and write the username and password directly on the sub plan, so the sub signs in once and never has to manage individual student accounts.

Whichever path you choose, assume the substitute has never opened the platform, and put everything they need on the page.

[Screenshot placeholder — an open sub folder showing the plan page, login card, and task cards together. Awaiting the source image.]

What to leave in the sub folder

• The login instructions (students log in themselves, or the generic sub login written out)
• The exact activity, named specifically: which video, which lesson, which cluster
• The device ready to go: for any activity built around a specific video, bookmark it or write its exact URL directly on that day's sub plan, so the sub or students click a link instead of searching the platform
• A light script the sub can read to the class
• A no-tech backup for when a device or the internet won't cooperate
• Where the devices and headphones are, and how many there are

Sub day plans for K–2

K–2 sub days run one of two ways depending on the login choice you made. In both scripts below, “log in” is a stand-in. Write your class's actual login steps on the cover page so the sub isn't guessing.

Whole-Class Video and Respond (generic sub login). For classes that can't log in independently yet, the sub projects from the generic login you set up and runs the group together. Before the day, bookmark both videos you plan to show, or write their exact URLs directly on the sub plan for this activity.

Script for the sub to read: “We're going to watch a video about a job. Watch carefully, because after, I'll ask what the worker uses and where they work.”

Plan steps for the sub:

1. Sign in with the login written on the cover page.
2. Click the first bookmark or URL written on this plan, for [video name], and play it.
3. Ask the class: What did the worker use? Where did they work? Would you want that job?
4. Click the second bookmark or URL written on this plan, for [video name], and ask the same questions.
5. If a video won't load, hand out the drawing sheets in the folder and have students draw a job they know about or want to know more about.

Watch and Match, Run by a Sub (students log themselves in). For classes that have practiced Easy Login, the Watch and Match station transfers to a sub day without changing the activity itself. Instruct the sub and students how to navigate to your video by clicking Career Central, then the career's cluster, then the specific career — for example: Career Central > Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources > Arborist.

Script for the sub to read: “Log in the way you practiced. Watch the video found here, then match your picture cards to what you saw. Raise your hand if your screen isn't working.”

Plan steps for the sub:

1. Read the script above once to the class.
2. Hand out a set of picture cards to each student.
3. Circulate to help with any trouble and keep the room on task.
4. Check that students are placing a clip on the matching picture card before moving on.
5. If a device won't load, that student switches to the drawing sheet backup.
6. Early finishers can browse career videos on their own while they wait for others.

If you'd rather sidestep login and devices on a sub day altogether, Cluster Sort is built for that. It runs entirely off picture cards, so there's no login, no video, and nothing that can fail to load.

Sub day plans for grades 3–5

Older students carry more of the load, which makes them the easiest group to leave. As with the K–2 plans, “log in” in each script stands in for your class's actual routine, so write the specifics on the cover page.

Lesson Lab, Run by a Sub. The Lesson Lab station runs the same way on a sub day, since students already know their login routine and how to move through an assigned lesson.

Script for the sub to read: “Log in the way you normally do. Open the lesson called [lesson name] and work on the lesson.”

Plan steps for the sub:

1. Read the script above once to the class.
2. Circulate to help with any trouble and keep students moving through the lesson.
3. If a device won't load, that student switches to the reading passage in the folder.

Explore and Journal, Run by a Sub. This is the same station described above, quiet and self-directed enough that a sub barely needs to manage it once it starts.

Script for the sub to read: “Log in the way you normally do. Choose one career in Career Central you haven't explored yet and watch the video. Then open your Career Journal and answer the prompts. Work quietly on your own.”

Card text students follow:

1. Choose one career in Career Central you haven't explored yet.
2. Watch the video.
3. Open your Career Journal and answer the prompts.

Plan steps for the sub:

1. Read the script above once to the class.
2. Circulate to help with any trouble and keep the room quiet and on task.
3. If a device won't load, that student switches to the reading passage in the folder.
4. Students who finish early move on to the Peer Interview Extension below.

Peer Interview Extension. Add this after Explore and Journal for classes that finish early or need a built-in transition. It's a simple think-pair-share the sub can manage without knowing the platform.

Script for the sub to read: “If you've finished your journal, find a partner. Take turns sharing the career you chose and one thing from your journal, then ask your partner one question about their career choice.”

Card text students follow:

1. Find a partner.
2. Take turns sharing the career you chose and one thing from your journal.
3. Ask your partner one question about their career choice.

Plan steps for the sub:

1. Read the script above to students as they finish, rather than to the whole class at once.
2. Circulate to help keep pairs on task and moving through their turns.

Start with one station or one folder

Start with whichever problem you actually have. If it's covering a small group while the rest of the class works, pick one station and try it this week. If it's the day you're out sick, build one sub day folder now and drop it in your emergency binder before you need it. Either way, your students keep exploring careers on the days you're not the one running the activity, and you'll know the setup works the first time it runs without you in the room.

Print the station cards & sub folder