Progress...

So, I actually think my lesson idea will fit into a bigger picture plan, which has often been a problem when it comes to career lessons.  There never really seems to be a perfect time to discuss careers with students and it usually becomes a random lesson.  This could have been the same scenario, however the timing may work to my advantage.  Shortly after Spring Break, 10th graders will partake in the "career cafe" and they will have the opportunity meet with three different people from different career fields.  In my lesson with the English classes, next week I will ask the students to develop a list of questions they want to ask folks at kiva.  That should get them thinking about what they could ask the people they meet in the career cafe.
So, not only are they going to learn a little bit more about how to investigate careers and understand what people do.   But hopefully they can use those thinking skills to make the most out of their career cafe meetings.

Lesson Plan - How does this look?

Lesson Plan - March 2012

Class:

English 10

Subject:

Identifying, learning about, and creating a career plan

Duration:

40 Minutes

Description:

Students in 10^th grade English classes are currently completing a research project connected to the Kiva website.  Throughout the project they will learn about micro financing, how the site works, and in depth information about their loan of choice.  In this lesson students will look at the Kiva website to brainstorm on what jobs are involved in creating and managing the site and loans. 

Objectives:

The objective of this lesson is for students to identify the vast amount of jobs and careers that are involved in the running of the site and the organization, using the career clusters in our Naviance Program. 

Materials:

Laptops, Internet access

Procedure:

Lesson:

Identify one or two people and their positions on any of the following website pages:

Team

Volunteer

Board

History

Describe some of the jobs as a class.

Development, Human Resources, Office Coordinator, Software Engineer, Web Designer, Finance, Legal, Marketing, just to name a few.

Can you picture doing any of these jobs?

Use http://www.thecareerproject.org

To find out a little more about the job you chose

Use Naviance to learn about type of training and education

Concluding Activity:

Students will blog their findings on my site.    Comment on a classmates findings. 

Assessment:

Were students able to understand a new career in more depth?  Could they describe what a particular person from Kiva does in more detail?  Were they able to identify with one of the jobs?  Could they determine an academic connection to the career they chose?  Where they able to use Naviance?

slight block

So, I had an idea that I would e-mail the team at Kiva to learn a little more about what the individuals do there.  The team is comprised of people from a variety of different career fields (Finance, development, human resources, web design, marketing, engineering, legal, etc) so I thought it would be great to hear from the individuals and get a "day in the life."
Apparently, I have to make a donation before being able to e-mail, so that's a bit of a block.  So, for now I may go back to the website I found in the early stages of this class - the career project.  The students can pick a Kiva employee and do some research about their job using other sites.

Project progress...

I didn't blog last week because I spent all of my time going back and forth with my lesson.  Ultimately I am having a tough time making everything fit.  At the end of the day, I've been trying to come up with a lesson involving career exploration.  I believe that being aware of options and pathways is something that can  help our students.  Our students have so much information at their fingertips on a daily basis - between laptops and phones (not that they are supposed to use them in class!)

Anyway, I've done some lessons before and they are semi-successful.  What I've learned from my "tablemates" is that the 10th grade English students are very much interested in the Kiva project.  So, the angle I'm taking now is to try and use that site as a springboard for career exploration.  For the site and the organization to exist there are a number of different types of jobs and careers.  Using a site that the students are already familiar with and interested in could keep their attention.  

So... at the moment that's the plan.  

For example, just looking at the Kiva "team" there are a ton of jobs in different career clusters - legal, marketing, finance, engineering, etc.  By brainstorming with the class on some of these jobs, the students can then select something they find interesting and research further on either the Naviance site or the career project site I found earlier in this class (http://www.thecareerproject.org/Home)

More Firm Project Idea... (I think)

I've found myself in conversations with co-workers regarding careers and jobs (coincidentally?).   On the upside I think those conversations inspired me with an idea.  Many teachers have great ideas about jobs and careers in their field.  I think by hearing from teachers and dividing it up between the academic subjects may be a good way to present careers to students.  The idea I came up with was to create a new blog - a career blog.  On that blog I will post video clips (about a minute or so long each) of teachers representing the different academic subjects giving different ideas of "out of the box" type jobs.  Students would then select a subject and research a job in that area.  THEN... they would continue with trying to find out if and how that job exists abroad.
How does that sound?
I just need to find some teacher volunteers to be in videos!

Possible project idea!

I don't think many young people have a great idea about what types of jobs and careers are out there for them.  We have some resources for them to do career searches, take interest inventories, and investigate college majors.  However, not many of them utilize those resources.
I'd like to come up with some career related project.  I came across this web site: http://www.thecareerproject.org

Ideas from there... anyone?

The Truth

Interesting article in "The New York Times"regarding the truth:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/education/claremont-mckenna-college-says-it-exaggerated-sat-figures.html?_r=1&ref=education

A well-known and prestigious college in California has been "fudging" its SAT scores to US News and World Report and other sources.  I spend a lot of time working with students as they go through their college search and using rankings and college reported scores can help answer the questions - "will I get in."  Those reported scores do not guarantee admission, however they are a guide.  Ten points here and there may not necessarily make a huge difference in the college rank or if a student sees themselves as a reasonable candidate for a school, however the bigger issues is that a school is reporting false information.  These are the same places review academic records, personal essays, and resumes and ask that applicants give honest representation of who they are.
After reading this, why wouldn't a student "fudge" their own application?