Early Career Planning (Elementary & Middle School)

Third grade teacher Heather Root and other educators are emphasizing career education in their classrooms, even at the elementary level. See how Ms. Root implemented a career planning exercise into her standard curriculum at:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson160.shtml

Increasingly for many students in the middle grades, the process of finding a fulfilling career begins with a career development program that provides opportunities to explore both themselves and the world of work. Here is a site that addresses career planning for middle grade students.
http://www.naesp.org/ContentLoad.do?contentId=518

Career Planning service

For those of you who like a formal planning process (like me), here are a couple of sites that offer such a service. I'm curious as to what parents and students think of these sites - let me know your thoughts. https://access.bridges.com/auth/login.do;jsessionid=8AE2EA77870103C3609D219E55703056?targetUri=%2Fportal%2FlandingPage.do http://www.careerexplorer.net/descriptions.asp http://www.focuscareer.com/highschool.cfm

16 broad career areas

Career Clusters are an organizational tool that link education with business and industry through 16 broad career areas. The 16 clusters have been adopted by the U.S. Department of Education as a mechanism to revitalize career and technical education by integrating rigorous academics with relevant technical content. Career Clusters enable students to explore several career options within a field of interest.

1) Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources
2) Architecture & Construction
3) Arts, A/V Technology & Communications
4) Business, Management & Administration
5) Education & Training
6) Finance
7) Government & Public Administration
8) Health Science
9) Hospitality & Tourism
10) Human Services
11) Information Technology
12) Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security
13) Manufacturing
14) Marketing, Sales & Service
15) Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
16) Transportation, Distribution & Logistics

For more detailed information on these 16 career clusters see:

http://www.nccte.org/keyIssues/clusters.html

Relevance in education

How many times when you were young did you ask “why do we need to learn that?”

Research shows that we enjoy learning when the subject has a personal relevance. Just look at students today and how they fully comprehend the use of their cell phones. It took an effort to gain that knowledge. No matter what their learning ability, they were able to master text messaging. It became very relevant to them as to how valuable such a skill can be when in communicating with peers.

So what can give students that same passion to learn math, science, reading, etc.? My experience has shown that when learning is tied to a future career goal, it becomes relevant and a greater effort for understanding related subject matter is realized.

But at what age should students be asked to choose from at least a broad range of careers? That is the question currently being asked in this blog. Think about it for a while and give me your response. As more of you provide your best answer, we’ll explore some examples of how students at various grade levels have focused on their future careers and how various programs have helped guide students to their career interests.

Dana