Artifact #1 for USF Foundations of Educational Technology EEND-675

Artifact #1-The Possible 5th C-Career Exposure

Teaching with incorporation of the 4C’s...critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication essentially all lead to creating learners prepared to succeed in education and work. I feel that the 5th C to be added to these skills is career exposure. While the original 4C’s aim to lead a learner to being prepared in their education and beyond, I believe career exposure (or career readiness as some articles have called it) deserves its own C of focus. Being exposed to numerous careers throughout a student’s education will help them to gain an understanding of the various career paths in which they are preparing for and uniting their interests with with potential careers.

I think that students need to be exposed to careers and incorporate project based learning into these exposures. The “Career Wheel” attached to this link demonstrates how one school district exposes the students to different careers throughout their education, beginning in Kindergarten (Walters, "Defined STEM KSD111", 2015). Students begin to learn about different career options “so as students move through elementary school they are able to explore a variety of fields and recognize where their interests lie” (Walters, Devries, & Harbin, 2017). Sparking a child’s interest at a young ago can prove to be highly valuable as they grow and prepare to go to college or move into the workplace. I know adults today that said they had no idea of what career field they were actually interested in, but went to college, chose a major to study, and came out with a degree in an area they have no interest in working in for their career. When asked why they never switched majors, the response is because it would have taken longer to get out of college, or it costed too much to change majors. I honestly cannot imagine going to college without a career in mind. I knew from a young age that I was going to be a teacher. Hy husband, on the other hand, is one of those people mentioned above. He was always interested in drawing, how things go together, and working with his hands. It took him until his early-30’s to fully understand his interest in plants, landscaping design, and interacting with people outside of an office space. He sells landscape supplies and helps companies to choose what materials, design layouts, and plants will best serve their clients needs/ maintenance abilities. He had no exposure to horticultural studies or construction design growing up. Luckily he stumbled upon a career that he greatly enjoys, but had a lot to quickly learn.

Career-focused exposure and problem based learning allows student to explore many careers from the safety of their classroom. Videos, video chats, and virtual field trips are a wonderful way to bring careers into classrooms. With the ever growing reach of technology, students can have conversations in real time with professionals in many careers. Walters (2017) explains that her goal for the Career Wheel is “to think past the traditional style of teaching and incorporate hands-on project-based learning that offers students a chance to explore a plethora of careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).” She continues to explain that students do “four hands-on, cross-curricular projects to further experience what it takes to work in a specific career” (Walters, 2017). I think this is highly important for students to experience! Integrating career experiences into classrooms will draw upon critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Walters (2017) also shared that in one year of implementation, her school district saw increases in students score relate to reading comprehension, math application, and math computation.

In my elementary school building, some teachers are piloting the World of Work curriculum, which exposes students to potential careers. On the World of Work home page, it states that “if a student were to have the World of Work integrated into their education from Kindergarten to 12th grade, that would be 78 career options that children will have a deep understanding of upon high school graduation.” That is incredible! I honestly do not believe I that have a DEEP understanding of 78 career options as an adult. World of Work’s homepage (2019) goes on to explain that “the exposure each child gains to different careers helps them to go down a path where their strengths, interests, and values are needed in the workplace. World of Work helps every student see that no matter what their skill set is, every skill set is valuable and every person has a place in their community and in the workforce that is needed.” Again, exposure and emphasis on careers brings critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication together. World of Work (2019) units begin with the students having exposure to a career via technology or tangible resources, transition to engagement in hand-ons activities, then the students meet a professional in that career (face to face or video chat), and then they are able to practice the career with play or school projects. The feedback I have heard from the teachers piloting this program has been nothing but positive. The students love to share about the career they have learned about. My ELL students have shown an increase in their willing to communicate and language risk taking as they try to excitedly describe what they learned.

Many of the nonfiction books I read with my small groups are somehow tied to careers (ex: paleontologists, artist, marine biologist, brain surgeon, architect, all jobs related to creating a comic book, Coast Guard). While I cannot implement an entire curriculum of career exposure in my groups, I could spend some additional time discussing and researching (if students are interested) the careers that are connected to the books we read.

As we are teaching students to become ready for their futures ahead, I think we need to expose them to potential careers both inside and outside of the STEAM fields. Having a clear understanding of one’s interests and the careers that align with those interests will help students understand the importance of their education, allow educators to easily utilize the 4C’s, and reduce the number of people who have no idea what career field they would like to join in adulthood. Working in a career that matches a person’s interests and strengths makes for a hardworking, confident, and happier employee. For these reasons, I think that the 5th C should be Career Exposure to best prepare our learners for success, and happiness, in adulthood.

Works Cited

Walters, D. (2015). Defined STEM KSD111. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://app.definedstem.com/partners/ksd111

Walters, D., Devries, D., & Harbin, J. (2017, October 24). Future-forward: How to incorporate the 5th 'C' of 21st Century learning. Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/25/future-5th-c-career-readiness/

World of Work. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.worldofwork.net/

Rationale for Artifact #1-The 5th C

I included The 4C's in Education - What would be your 5th? assignment because I feel that it really asked us to think about what WE would like to add to our teaching to best prepare students for their future and provide reasons why. To be honest, I drafted 3 different possible C’s and planned out the reasonings in a makeshift, old school graphic organizer format. But when I thought about what I would like my own children to have added to their academic settings, the clear choice for me to write about was Career Exposure.

We ask kids all the time “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Well, how are they supposed to give an actual thought out response if they don’t know what options they have?!? I work in a school where they majority of students realistically may not go to college. Students need to be exposed to potential job options to find what they may actually want to do, and enjoy, as they grow up. Being happy at work creates an overall more happy person in life. Many careers require additional training or schooling that is not college, and students need to know that while they may not go to college, their ability and willingness to learn is important. I have a friend who is a hair colorist/stylist. She is amazing at her job, which requires a lot of chemistry and is paid well for her talents. I have a friend who is an fantastic chef. Both of these people found careers in which they get to actually do what they love because they understood their interests as children and followed those interests into training, and eventually successful careers. I knew I was going to be a teacher from a young age. I cannot imagine going through high school and college without knowing what I was going to do. I feel for my friends, who as adults, are returning to college courses to change their careers!

I want my own children to follow their interests into their careers, whatever they may be. It seems as though one may be a teacher. However, he loves building and seeing how things work. Perhaps he will be an electrician like his grandpa and great-grandpa. The other one wants to own his own building where he can be a baker who sells tea and muffins in the morning in the front of the building, be a vet that helps animals during the day upstairs, and a chef at dinnertime at the back of the building. I will never push them towards a career or college, but I plan to expose them to as many careers as possible. Which is why I feel schools need to incorporate Career Exposure into curriculum.

My plan for using my 5th C (Career Exposure) in my teaching is through discussions and YouTube videos. As a targeted support, I cannot veer too far from the intervention programs I use to help struggling readers build their skills. However, many of the books we read are non-fiction and can be related to a career. My second graders and I learned about paleontologists the other day after finishing a book about dinosaur bones book. My fourth graders learned about an artist who has an unusual style of painting. My fifth graders and I learned about what a botanist does for their job. Before this assignment, I would not have thought to take the time to find additional resources to discuss these careers with my students.

What I found really exciting about this assignment was EVERYONE ELSE’S 5TH C! Many were similar, but you could hear the passion behind everyone’s reasoning for their C. Civility was one that really resonated with me. The digital world has apparently allowed people to think that they don’t have to be nice. This is unacceptable! What happened to the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all?” There are ways to disagree, without being mean. Clearly these lessons are not happening at home and schools need to support these skills. Consistency was another C that I really nodded my head at while reading. Yes, we need consistency in teaching our students! We have to find that time. (Luckily, many of the ISTE standards coincide with CCSS, so adding with integrity into daily teaching is not that difficult!) Reading the thoughts of my classmates truly made me stop and think about how I could incorporate their passionate ideas into my teaching.