For Teachers

Let’s imagine!

Demands on your time and on the time for specific lesson in your classroom can be trying. Why is it important to spend time talking about the future? About careers? So glad you asked!

Understanding how information is used and who uses it makes the information more meaningful and more likely to be retained. The old adage, “When am I going to use this?” applies here. Inspiring your students to dream about the future is fun and will engage them in learning.

There are many great teacher resources out there for free or little cost to support learning about the Career Clusters/Pathways. Check out Teachers Pay Teachers or do an internet search. Let me give you some ideas of how to integrate career education into your everyday instruction.

• When presenting concepts in your class, discuss who uses this information, i.e. fractions are used by chefs, builders, chemists, nurses, etc. What happens if the fraction conversion is incorrect, i.e. cake is a flop, building could be unstable, person could become sick and even die. This basic discussion sets the stage for learning, ups the ante for importance of this concept, and provides multiple means for understanding and recall.
• Read Adventures from Granny’s Basement: Exploring Careers in…to them! Or listen to them read the series to you, and ask them what they think about each of the career clusters/pathways. This will be a fun way to provide a foundation for discussions and references to careers.
• Have speakers talk to your class about what they do in their career, how they learned to do their work, what they dreamed of doing when they were a child, and the importance of learning and preparing for the future. OR view a video on the “day in the life of…” There are many of these on YouTube.
• Take a field trip to visit people in their careers.
• Encourage your students to ask others about what they do in their jobs (there’s a sheet to support this activity in the kids’ section – click here to access)
• Play pretend with them in class!
• For students who finish an assignment early, give them opportunity to research careers and find connections between what they have learned in class and what they need to know in a future career.
• Discuss the importance of their current work to their future work. Work ethic is important no matter the job.
• Talk to your students about the value of work: what would happen if no one picked up the trash, drove the bus, grew food to eat, cared for sick and elderly, taught students, or played music or sang a song? We NEED the valuable work that each person provides.
• Read Adventures from Granny’s Basement: Exploring Careers in…to them! Or listen to them read the series to you, and ask them what they think about each of the career clusters/pathways.

Always imagine!