While being in Honors Mentorship, I have learned so much. I have gotten to experience and gain so much from being inside county office with Dr. Valery Lowe, the College and Career Director. I have gained confidence within my communication skills which has allowed me to have many needed conversations with the people I mentor with about my future career and my options. In order to get the amount of experience I have, I had to step up and be willing to help in any situation no matter how hard or complicated. I always made sure to ask what the plans would be that week and if there was anything I could help with. By doing this, I had the opportunity to experience so many different things, ranging from a meeting with the superintendent, Dr. Bearden, to getting to help coordinate events. Since my desired future career is to become an educator, being inside this internship has help me prepare in so many ways. I have gotten to learn more about how the school system is run and how many people and departments it takes to keep it running. It has helped me to appreciate teachers even more than I already do. Working alongside with Dr. Valery Lowe has also given me the opportunity to meet so many great educators and business men and women. After interning, I still am confident I want to become an educator and possibly work inside county office one day. Knowing the people, I have met while interning, I know I can become a great teacher knowing I have so many supporters. To the ones who are doing Honors Mentorship next year, I have one huge piece of advice for you, always be open to new experiences while within the workplace. You never know who you might meet or get to know if your open to those new experiences. The more knowledge you learn from this internship, the better off you’ll be inside a workplace when you leave college. You can never have too much experience! I hope you take the advice given from your mentor and use it to help improve your working skills and what you can achieve within the real world. If you continue be open to what your mentor has planned for you no matter what it is, you will learn so much. Just as my mentors once told me, “even the little things help us out more than you think!” |
0 Comments
To prepare for my presentation, I will practice telling an audience about my information over and over again so when I get in front of a crowd I know exactly what I am going to say. I will also practice how I am going to present it to the 8th graders I will be speaking to. I will figure out how I am going to hook the 8th graders and then begin to speak about my information and research. While I am standing before them, I will stand naturally and use hand gestures. I will ask the audience questions so that they are interacting with me while I present to them. If I use all of these tips, I will feel more confident about myself when speaking before a crowd.
Mandell, L. (n.d.). UB Today: Final Word: Why Johnny Can't Balance a
Checkbook. Retrieved February 26, 2017, from http:// www.buffalo.edu/UBT/UBTarchives/11 _ubtw99/finalword.html In this article, Lewis Mandell states that high school students aren't graduating fully prepared for the real world. The one major thing that is hurting this generation in the long run is not being taught about money and a person's financial well being. High school students must be taught about money to avoid "Debilitating debt, clumsy money management, poor retirement planning and even bankruptcy." (Mandell) Bankruptcy rates are the highest among the states where children aren't taught anything about savings, debt, or interest rates. Just as Lewis Mandell stated, "These results indicate that America's teenagers are heading down a path toward financial difficulty." (Mandell) We must begin to teach this generation the importance of money throughout high schools. They should be taught things such as, taxes, investing, saving and spending so that they are leaving high school fully prepared for the outside world. Some people might say that these skills should be taught at home by their parents, but parents aren't always the best teachers when it comes to money. It has been proven through a Stanford University study that people who get taught personal finance classes save more money in a lifetime than the ones who don't. If we don' t start teaching students the financial knowledge needed for after high school, the generations coming will be in the same boat as the one today, without a clue of financial stability. There are many ideas that Mandell gives me that I could use within my capstone project. For instance, sending high school students out into the world without a clue of how to handle money is like pushing someone out of an airplane without a parachute. Schools teach sex education, computer skills, and hygiene/home economics, so why shouldn't we teach personal finance? Some people think students should be taught personal finance at home, but parents aren't necessarily qualified to teach them. Personal finance should be a mandatory class given to high school students that emphasizes taxes, investing, saving and spending. The source used for this annotated bibliography is valid since it is an education source with a URL ending with .edu. An education website uses credible sources to gather their information used within the article. This article fit into my research by allowing me to use this information to explain how not only pathways are important but could be made more effecient if they taught us things like personal finance since they are trying to prepare us for our future. This article can help back up my ideas with statistics and ideas. I can use it to add more detail and make the idea of adding this to schools and pathways seem beneficial to all students for their futures. For my capstone project, this week I am focusing on coordinating interviews with business partners of Forsyth County Schools or businesses in the community and gathering their intake on what they think about the new Innovation school and how it will benefit them as a business. I am also wanting to coordinate with students of Forsyth County Schools and telling them more about the school and what their thoughts about it are and how focusing more on pathways will benefit those future students. As I am putting together these interview questions, I am having to think about the students and business men and women and how this school can effect both groups of people. I am also going to be talking to Dr. Lowe this week about if it is possible to visit the already existing school that teaches middle school students how to write checks, pay for a mortgage, or make wise adulthood decisions. If I could have the chance to visit this place, I could get an idea as to how all of this is changing the mindset of middle school student. This could help shape my capstone project from not only pathway based, but also to the extent of how this pathway school is working within the middle schools as well as to help them start making early decisions on life and also careers.
Week of January 30th Annotated Bibliography
Torpey, E. (2015, January). Career planning for high schoolers: Career Outlook. Retrieved January 28, 2017, from https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/career-planning- for-high- schoolers.htm Just as this article states, "Without experience, it’s hard for students to appreciate what type of career they’d like to have because it’s all hypothetical," which is why as a high school student, you should take the advantage of having pathway courses available to you and take them to prepare you for the future. Focusing on a career earlier can help you to decide whether or not is something you are serious about as a future career. It can give you the option of deciding before you go into college that maybe it is not what you thought it would be and you'd rather do something very different. Interning is another way to get ahead of the game. Interning within your community and within your career field can help you to get more hands on experience. You can learn so much from a mentor who is willing to teach you all about the insight of what happens on an everyday basis in the life of that career. Your schools should also offer you different pathway based clubs such as Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) or Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). These groups can help to prepare you for any situations you could face in these jobs later on and give you more experience with the type of people you will be working with. A lot of people job shadow and get so much out of it, which is why starting early with experience within your future career field is important. High school students have now started getting this early experience through jobs, internships, and other activities such as clubs. Some of these clubs are DECA, FBLA, FCCLA, or SkillsUSA, which all have the same goal to promote career readiness. There are also classes that are given to students as options, like Food and nutrition, Education, Cosmetology, etc. These classes prepare you or sometimes even give you the first class credit for college. They also give you opportunities to talk to workers already in those careers about as to whether or not they enjoy it or not. This article is taken from a credible site. It comes from a government source, which makes it valid. Elka Torpey, the author of this article, is a economist for Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a Federal Agency that is responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy. It collects and analyzes information about the economy to help make private and public decision making. This article fits into my research, because it gives me more information about pathways and how focusing on them can help you in the future. It supports my research by giving examples about a real life student and councilor and their advice for students going through high school. I can use this information and statistics to help back me up in my research and ideas. My essential question is how could focusing my high school years on my pathway help to contribute or facilitate to my career in the future? My research is driven by the passion I have to find more out about the new Innovation school that will be opening in 2018. I want to know exactly how this pathway based education will differ from a regular academic public school's education, such as how will focusing on pathways better prepare the student rather than focusing more on the academic side? For my capstone project, I will be creating a handbook, organizing a demonstration, and possibly create a film. My real inquiry will come from interviews, surveys, and the real source, the students. I will use student's opinions to help drive the presentation. I am hoping to be able to interview a student from the already existing pathway based school in Gwinnett County and get there insight into this type of education.
01/15/17
1. How do you place new pathways into schools? Our office closely studies Department of Labor, Chamber of Commerce, and other sources to ensure all pathways replicate areas of need in our community. We have to be focused on making sure we are offering pathways that have growth in fields to ensure our students will be successful in their next step – whether that be directly to college or starting in the workplace. I think that this is the most effective way to place pathways into the school so that they know after they leave high school it will be a path that has growing opportunities. There will be jobs available for them when they finish high school due to the continuous need for employees. 2. How do you know whether or not a particular pathway will gain enough students to thrive within the school? We try to build labs so that they are easily modified as pathway needs change over time. For example, we may plan an engineering lab at Forsyth Central HS; however, that may change over time and still work for a manufacturing pathway, architecture pathway, etc. We monitor student interest surveys, pathway completing, etc. as we decide what to offer each year. Using this strategy helps to keep the most high demanding jobs within the schools, which helps to prepare students for the skills needed to continue on through those specific pathways. 3. What studies have been done to prove that pathways are helping students with future careers? There is a lot of research out there which talks about the benefits of career pathways, and Georgia has also done a lot of studies related to students completing pathways. For example, Forsyth County students have a 99% graduation rate if they take a least one CTAE course. SREB (out of Atlanta) is a great source of research about career pathways and career academies. ACTE (Association for Career and Technical Education) is our national organization that lobbies for CTE and does a lot of career-related education also. Having these organizations and the research helps to make sure that the pathways within the schools are efficiently helping prepare students for what is expected of them in their future jobs. Without this research, we wouldn't have the studies to help improve what needs to be changed in the courses and wouldn't know whether or not they're effective. 4. Why do you think students should focus on careers and pathways starting early in their high school education rather than later? For me as an educator and as a parent, students who focus on a career pathway in high school are able to start thinking about lifelong decisions earlier. They can decide what they like and dislike in high school before they spend several years (and lots of $$$) in college deciding that they don’t like this career or that career. Also by completing a career pathway, students earn industry credentials and have the opportunity to do an internship before they complete their high school education. Learning what careers you like earlier in your education can help us students decide what careers we like and don't like earlier on, instead of spending money in college and then finding out it's not something we love and having to go back to get another degree. 5. Do you think interning within a pathway also helps prepare a student for their future careers and college courses? Why? Exploring a career pathway in high school allows students to make decisions of likes and dislikes and hopefully allows them to decide earlier as to what they should major in when they get to college. An internship will only validate those decisions and allows students to see the real-life of a career. It’s easy to study something in a book; however, completing an internship allows that learning to come alive! As a intern in high school, I completely agree with what Dr. Lowe has to say about internships. Interning in high school has allowed me to see education in the making and make decisions on what I like about it and what I don't necessarily agree with. I think it is a great opportunity and will help students decide if it is really something they want to pursue. 6. How are new pathways chosen to be added to schools? Are there surveys taken by students or are the pathways chosen by the Board of Education? Part of my job is to study the job marketing and statistics from the Department of Labor to make decisions on which pathways to offer or add at schools. We are lucky that we have a Board of Education that trusts leadership to make decisions for what is best for students in Forsyth County. I think that having someone who works with pathway teachers and students who complete the pathways on daily bases make that decision is most effective. Dr. Lowe uses all of her capabilities and connections to make smart decisions on which pathways to add. I think she is the best one to make these calls. 7. Does completing a pathway help persuade employers to hire you? Yes! Students are much more marketable if they have “majored” in a particular career area. The End of Pathway Assessment taken also shows to employers that a student is serious and committed to the career pathway area. Also, completing an internship will allow you to get a great part-time or full-time job while you are in college working on your major. For example, you personally will get a much better job because of your internship and work-based learning experience this year. You can get a great job which will pay much better while you are in college to help pay for college expenses and other students may be working retail or another job with entry-level pay. You can really work on your resume (and we can this year at some point) to show employers all of the knowledge you have built this year from Honors Mentorship and Work-Based Learning. Now knowing I can get a better paying job that focuses on my career, I know that completing a pathway really helps. Pathways can help persuade employers to hire you especially if you are competing against someone who has not completed a pathway. 8. Do colleges take into consider your completed pathway when looking at college applications? Yes, they take into consideration that you have taken all of the options available to you in high school. You are showing that you are taking initiative. For example, a student who has chosen IE2 rather than taking a Work-Based Learning, Honors Mentorship, or MOWR option is not going to be perceived as highly on a college application. I think that a completed pathway, HMP, and WBL would look great on a college application as Dr. Lowe stated. IE2 would be perceived as taking the easy way out your senior year. 9. How can completing a pathway give you more experience or success while working within that career field? I think we can both agree that you have learned a lot about education this year, along with what you learned in Mr. Walkup’s class. I think that experience has given you a more vivid understanding of what happens in the “real world”. Working along side with Dr. Lowe as well as taking Mr. Walkup's class has really helped to prepare for whatever may be thrown my way in my future career. All of the opportunities I have had will help me to know what to do when in a difficult situation. 10. How could focusing my high school years on my pathway help to contribute or facilitate to my career in the future? You have chosen a successful path for yourself in high school. You have shown your parents, your teachers, and your friends how hard you have worked! I think these opportunities have set you on a successful path in life. Always know that these same people – your family, your teachers, your high school administrators, etc. – are here for you with any type of career-related questions or issues you may have! I think in the end focusing on my future career in high school will give me that extra advantage to any opportunities that may come my way. Being extra prepared will only help me in the long run. - How could focusing my high school years on my pathway help to contribute or facilitate to my career in the future?
* Why did you select this as your essential question? I selected this as my essential question due to the fact that I have been learning and focusing on the new pathway based school that is being built while interning. I want to understand more on how focusing on pathways can help you within in your career in the future. * What excites you most about finding the answer to this essential question? It excites me that I will understand how pathways can effect your future, so that as I go on to become a teacher I may influence my students to focus on what career field they might want to pursue and how it will benefit them. * Do you feel that this question accurately reflects a desire/need that you have to find out more about this topic? Yes, I believe my question accuratley reflects a desire to find out more about this topic. After researching and finding out more about pathways and how they reflect in your future, I believe I will be able to understand why a pathway based school is something that should be continued on through generations. http://growingleaders.com/blog/first-soft-skill-develop-students/
As a younger teen in a workplace, you may have challenges such as the older generation taking you seriously, as well as trying to prove yourself worthy of the job. You have to work harder to prove that you are there to work hard and do the job right. You have to have a strong first impression and show that you aren't there jsut for the money. Social intelligence is something that plays a big role in a job interview. If you are good with social intelligence, saying the rights things and being able to seperate work and play, you have a good chance of leaving that strong first impression. It is important to be good with social intelligence, because without it you won't be successful in a work enviornment. You will mix up work with what you do out side of work. You might even bring drama and gossip, which results in unhealthy work relationships. As the article states, Further, youth often tie too much of their identity to appearance traits like tattoos, hair length, wardrobe, etc. This conditions them to believe that the “cosmetic” or the superficial is a central source of their identity. They don’t want to give these elements up when a supervisor asks them to for the sake of customers." This stuck out to me the most, because although the youth shows personality and character through the clothes they wear, most of us are willing to wear what is expected of us when in a work enviornment. We try and follow the rules when we are trying to make money and work towards college and future jobs. As a result of all of the information provided, the younger generation should be taught more about social intelligence and first impressions to be able to have more success in the future. |
|