Stuck on Sticky Learning? November 20, 2009
Posted by brightfuturespress in 21st century skills, Bright Futures, Career Academies, Career Academy, Career Clusters, Career Exploration, Career Pathways, Career and Technical Education, Educational Trends, Integrated curriculum, Life Skills, Programs That Work, Project-based learning.Tags: Bright Futures Press, Diane Lindsey Reeves, Sandy Mittelsteadt, Sticky Learning, Wally Holmes Bouchillon
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Project-Based Learning isn’t new. Some of education’s most prominent
voices — Rousseau, Piaget, Dewey — were advocates of various aspects
of it for decades and, in some cases, even centuries ago.
When thousands of British children were evacuated to the relative
safety of makeshift boarding schools during World War II, innovative
teachers made up for the lack of textbooks and other traditional
resources by using project-based learning to effectively teach
history, literature, science, and math.
In more recent days, study after study has found compelling evidence
that it is an effective way to engage students, cut absenteeism, boost
cooperative learning skills, and improve test scores.
Even though project-based learning has been advocated by brilliant
educators, tested by time, and validated under the scrutiny of
academic research, there has never been a better time to put it to use
in classrooms at every level and with students of all ages.
Why?
According to Sandy Mittelsteadt and Wally Holmes Bouchillon, authors
of a new book called Sticky Learning: A Make It Real Planning Guide
for Engaging Students in Project-Based Learning, project-based
learning becomes a springboard for launching incredibly effective 21st
century “sticky learning” experiences when it blends four key
ingredients:
1. Integrated curriculum
2. Action-based inquiry
4. Real world application
the pursuit and authentic application of knowledge.
In short, sticky learning works because it sticks!
To order copies of Sticky Learning Toolkit, go online to http://www.brightfuturespress.com/Item186/Sticky_Learning.aspx.
Career Exploration from a Corporate Perspective August 21, 2008
Posted by brightfuturespress in Career Exploration, Corporate Partnership, Life Skills.Tags: Career exploration resources, Employer expectations, Workforce readiness
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By Melissa Kerlin and Susan Schneider
The articles and initiatives are everywhere. People from all walks of public and private life are calling for adults to step up and teach kids the basic, relevant life skills they will need to have independent, productive and fulfilling lives as valued members of the workforce.
In speeches he gives across the country, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, underscores the need for marketable skills training. In one speech, entitled, ‘Getting the Skills to Compete,’ Gutierrez said:
“If there is one piece of advice you can give people today, it is to increase your skills. The bottom line is that when you have more skills, you’re making more money…It could be a vocational skill. It could be an electrician’s skill. It could be the skill to fix air conditioners. Something. But you need skills.”
Well-known MSNBC.com career columnist Eva Tahmincioglu, wrote in a recent essay titled ‘Tough Love: Help your Grown Child Get a Job:’
“Is there a twenty-something unemployed kid lying on your couch?
If so, you’re not alone. Quite a few parents write me about their struggling adult children, many who are fresh out of college, who just can’t get on the right career path or any path at all.
Many found the professions they had hoped to break into weren’t as easy to break into. Others haven’t quite figured out what it is they want to do, biding their time in the rooms they grew up, in waiting for the career fairy to show them a sign.”
And Paul Graham, the successful computer entrepreneur and philanthropist, delivers a popular speech to new graduates entitled, “What You’ll Wish You Had Known” that includes this sage piece of advice:
“If I were back in high school and someone asked me about my plans, I’d say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You don’t need to be in a rush to choose your life’s work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.”
But how do adults open kids’ eyes to the wide world of exciting jobs there are to choose from? How do they excite kids about their schoolwork and connecting-the-dots between the subjects they love and finding a fulfilling career? Most adults only have their own narrow career paths to draw from, so the ways in which they can help their child discover his or her unique calling is narrow too.
Two former human resources marketing executives, Melissa Kerlin and Susan Schneider, co-founders of Tailwag Studio, Inc., have recently published a line of very creative career exploration and employment preparation materials that address these challenges. Their ‘CareerWise, Grow Up. Get a Job.™” materials help kids explore, prepare and become excited about joining the work-a-day world by discovering their inherent talents, interests and natural abilities.
Kerlin and Schneider developed these products after working for almost for almost 20 years apiece as ‘behind-the-scenes’ executives for agencies that provided recruitment and retention programs for employers across the country. They helped create employment brands for companies ranging from Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft and Nokia to Jack in the Box, The Walt Disney Company and AOL.
They frequently heard from hiring managers that new graduates are not prepared with basic work-world skills such as how to articulately discuss their career goals or why they should be hired. Nor are they comfortable with basic employment practices such as job interviewing and discussing a compensation package.
Kerlin and Schneider decided to apply their experiences to the development of materials that are based on what employers wish kids knew and thought about before they enter the workforce. It is a perspective that is very different from that found in most career exploration/employment preparation materials.
CareerWise Grow Up. Get a Job. materials also help kids hone reading, writing, presentation, research and interviewing skills and help them become familiar with the employment worlds’ jargon, practices and employers’ expectations. The exercises and activities do not ‘spoon feed’ kids any answers. They have to figure things out for themselves – an important life skill in itself.
Besides helping kids understand the reality of what employers’ expectations are in the real world, CareerWise Grow Up. Get a Job. materials get parents and kids sharing dreams, plans, hopes and fears. They help everyone plan for the day when kids can leave their parent’s nest with the confidence and skills to go out and feather their own.
Visit www.GetCareerWise.com for more information.
They Must Have Been Doing Something Right July 10, 2008
Posted by brightfuturespress in Bright Futures, Career Clusters, Career Exploration, Career and Technical Education, Life Skills, Programs That Work, Uncategorized.Tags: Old Salem
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By Diane Lindsey Reeves, Bright Futures Press
A couple years ago my daughter and I visited the Old Salem village in Winston-Salem. Old Salem is a historical museum portraying the day-to-day life of early Moravian settlers in North Carolina. One of the first things we learned about the inhabitants of this village is that they had an average life span that was several years longer than the national average at that time.
Hmmm…I couldn’t help but wonder why. Surely, the quality of their lifestyle had something to do with it. But what were they doing that was so different from other communities?
My conclusions are far from scientific–perhaps based more on the musings of a mother and educator who would like more for her children and grandchildren. But I suspect these people made it easier for their offspring to succeed by doing three things:
- Surrounding them with a caring community that was completely committed to helping them find their way toward responsible adulthood
- Equipping them with a solid education that emphasized both academic and practical life skills
- Providing real world training opportunities that empowered them to survive and thrive on their own with marketable skills
In other words, they provided the ultimate “leave no child behind” experience—without the end-of-grade tests!
One of the most powerful examples of this premise was evident in the Single Brother’s House. By the age of 14, the village’s young boys were brought here to begin a seven year apprenticeship. Essentially, this is where they learned to be men, where they learned how to be productive, contributing members of their society, and where they learned to how to make a good living. In addition to providing relatively comfortable room and board for many of the boys, the House also included a school, a chapel, and a variety of occupational training opportunities in fields considered high-demand in that era. On-site was a fully functioning bakery, slaughterhouse, tannery, and brewery. In addition, master craftsmen shared their expertise to help prepare a new (and highly skilled) generation of tailors, joiners, clockmakers, shoemakers, tinsmiths, and other viable trades.
And, get this…
There were equal educational opportunities for girls! Quite a radical concept for the late 1700s. Girls received the same offering of well-rounded academics, arts, and music. Their training differed in that, instead of official apprenticeships, they were trained in crafts more associated with home-making such as weaving, fine needlework, and laundry. But prior to marriage, they too were offered opportunities to put these skills to work as teachers and workers in the Single Sister’s weaving shop, laundry, and other enterprises.
The common denominator for both girls and boys was this–nobody was pushed out of the nest before they were ready to fly!
While there are many aspects of those bygone days that are best left in the past—like their match-making tendencies! —, these people were obviously doing something right. What can we learn from them? How can we give today’s young people the same strong foundation for succeeding in life and work? And, for that matter, are there programs out there that are already doing this sort of thing in imaginative and effective ways?
I suspect that there are and that’s what this blog will explore in the coming weeks and months.
So share your discoveries! Toot your favorite program’s horn! Let us know what you think! Most of all, come back often for inspiration and ideas about how we can get it right and give this up-and-coming generation their best shot at bright futures!
