Summary
During this activity, teachers will have an opportunity to explore activities, lessons, and materials the K20 Center has developed that will help them implement the ICAP initiative in their classroom. Teachers will take an active role in researching a new career field and creating a vision board that they can then take back to their classroom and implement with their own students.
Essential Questions
What kind of experiences can we provide to empower students regarding their PSE goals?
Learning Goals
Analyze a variety of resources, to include tech tools, that can help support their ICAP initiative
Illustrate multiple pathways to college and career attainment using technology tools to create a Post-secondary vision board.
Materials List
Presentation Slides- Envisioning Your Future (attached)
Helpful Resources- Envisioning Your Future (attached; one per participant)
How Can I Use This?- Envisioning Your Future (attached)
Zoom Into Your Career Resource Crowdsourcing- Envisioning Your Future (attached)
How to Create a Vision Board- Envisioning Your Future (attached; one per participant)
Vision Board Templates- Envisioning Your Future (attached)
Virtual Four Corners- Envisioning Your Future (attached)
Computers
WiFi
Pens or Pencils
Engage
Begin with slide 2, displaying the presentation title, "Envision Your Future." Welcome participants and introduce yourself and your background.
Move to slide 3 and ask your participants if they have used the instructional strategy, Four Corners before and let a few share out how, if anyone says yes.
Ask participants to think about the question, "If you were to capture the most important aspect of your college experience that you think students would be most interested in, what would you feature?" As they begin to ponder, show them the four columns board on Padlet. (The columns should be financial aid, sorority/fraternity, clubs and athletics and other.) Participants will use the link to list their name under the column that best represent their answer. Have a few participants share why they chose that column and why they think students would benefit from knowing that aspect of their experience. (especially from the “other” category).
Transition to slide 4, displaying the GEAR UP grant goals and review them with the participants.
Increase cohort academic performance and preparation for postsecondary education (PSE)
Increase high school graduation and PSE participation
Increase student educational expectations and increase student and family knowledge of PSE options, preparation, and financing
Share the essential question located on slide 5: What kind of experiences can we provide to empower students regarding their PSE qoals?
Share the learning objective located on slide 6 and inform the participants that at the end of the presentation they will evaluate how well they were met.
Analyze a variety of resources, to include tech tools, that can help support their ICAP initiative
Illustrate multiple pathways to college and career attainment using technology tools to create a Post-secondary vision board
Let your participants know that they are a great bank of experience and information to help increase student awareness of college options and journeys. Ask, how many faculty members does this school have? How many different stories does that provide to your students? What if every teacher could showcase those varied experiences?
Explore
Inform your participants that College and Career exposure and awareness is important and we want to make sure they have multiple tools so that they can choose the right one for their class and their students.
Share the library of videos of on the job career professionals that the K20 Center has amassed, as part of our mentoring initiative.
Move to slide 7 and inform your participants that they are going to have an opportunity to participate in one of the Mentoring Team's activities using a virtual career expo video. To do this, have them access their BINGO Card and instruct them to make their card when they hear one of the words mentioned in the attached video.
Move to slide 8 to share the video below.
Display slide 9 and share the attached Google Doc or pass out "How Can I Use This?" for participants to complete while exploring the other Virtual Career Expo videos. Participants should list the video title, indicate how long the video is, and share how the video connects to their content area.
Pass out the "Helpful Resources" document or share the Google Doc with your participants. Inform them that these resources were created by the K20 Center's Mentoring Team in an effort to bridge the gap when it comes to PSE awareness.
After your participants have had some time to explore the K20 YouTube channel and Helpful Resources document, ask if they're familiar with ICAP and how these resources and activities connect to it.
Display slide 10 and inform your participants that ICAP is a student-driven, ongoing process that actively engages students and enables them to:
Understand their own interests, strengths, values and learning styles
Create a vision for their future
Develop individual goals
Prepare a personal plan for achieving their vision and goals
Explain
Transition to slide 11 and share with your participants the differences in a 4 year traditional school plan and the ICAP vision. Explain to participants that we’d like to show them one final resource they can use to help support student exploration of careers. As we go thru these few activities, see if they can make connections to the ICAP process.
Salaries are an important consideration when choosing a degree. What type of postsecondary education they are willing to complete is also another important consideration. On a piece of notebook paper, ask students to write three of their most important considerations when choosing a career. They can use the salary amount or the education requirements if they believe those are one of their three MOST IMPORTANT, but other things might be as important as well. Ask them to think of OTHER considerations that might be important to them. You may need to brainstorm some other considerations out loud to get them started on this task, such as schedules/work hours/ talents and interests/ job location or level of skill/training.
Display slide 12 and ask, what are some other things you should consider when choosing a potential career?
Instruct your participants to scan the QR code displayed on the screen or simply type the web address into their browser. Tell your participants that they will be participating in an instructional strategy called Collaborative Word Clouds through the Mentimeter app and answering the question.
Take a few minutes to discuss the results of the word cloud with your participants. What was the most shared response?
Share the attached Google Doc or pass out "Zoom Into Your Career Resource Crowdsourcing" handout. Instruct them to visit the My Next Move website, choose a career, and fill in the following information:
Career Title
Job Description
Education and Training
RequiredSalary
What do I need to do to meet the job description and education/training requirements of this job?
Participants can also use the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook for their Internet research. This URL is included on their worksheets. You may wish to quickly model how to navigate this site. For example, if they are not sure of which specific careers they are interested in, they can use the career occupation groups (left bar) to explore careers of a similar nature. If they wish to look at a specific career, they can use the search on the site.
Extend
Transition to slide 14 and inform your participants that they are going to use the information they just learn to create a mini-vision board in Google Draw. Pass out the "How to Create a Vision Board" guide to your participants and share the "Example Vision Boards" google slides. This is an easy to follow, step-by-step guide to creating vision boards using Google Slides.
You may also wish to share the following Vision Board Resources video:
After 15-20 minutes bring your participants back together and ask if anyone would like to share out their vision boards with the group. Provide time for this to take place.
Display slide 15 and revisit ICAP. Ask your participants; what other experiences do you think students might need? Allow them to share out their responses and then share some of the additional resources below:
Evaluate
Transition to slide 16 and have your participants take a moment to analyze which one of the tools/resources is best for them. Inform them that they are participating in an instructional strategy called, POMS: Point of Most Significance. Ask them if there is anything they need from you in terms of support.
Return to the objectives on slide 17, read aloud, or refer to them again and ask participants to evaluate the professional development on the rapid feedback form based upon these objectives.
Follow-up Activities
Part of the ICAP initiative is for students to create a vision for their future. Why not have your students create a vision board and learn more about careers in one lesson? To begin, review the lesson materials list and download the resources you will need. Then follow the lesson sequence to present this activity to your class. Don’t forget to review your class times. This session takes about 60-90 minutes, so it might take 2-3 class periods to complete.
Research Rationale
Engaged students understand the experiential application of their classwork to their future are likely to be better prepared for class, are absent less often and have better school/life organizational skills. Student engagement can be boosted by providing more experiential (i.e., real-world) learning, such as in an internship or job shadow. Real-world experiences lead to a heightened value of math. Getting students to feel truly engaged also relies on supportive adults. Schools should foster positive relationships between students and staff in which students feel connected and cared for.Provide curricula, instructional materials, and/or academic programs that are relevant to career pathways (Rumberger et al., 2017)
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collaborative word clouds. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/b30762a7557ba0b391f207f4c60119f6
K20 Center. (n.d.). Four corners. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/d9908066f654727934df7bf4f5064550
K20 Center. (n.d.). POMS: Point of Most Significance. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/b30762a7557ba0b391f207f4c600f5ac