EDUC 401: Career Education, and EDUC 402: Diverse Classrooms

For my project, I did some career mapping. After the learning in these courses, I could see how events, people, or other factors influenced my decisions. The theories became more applicable after I traced out my own career path, because I could see where I could have used information. This tells me that students could use similar information and it will help me explain why they should learn what I’m teaching. While trying to remember the things that affected and influenced my own career path, I really had to get in touch with my past self. So the picture you see here is a rendition of what my high school self probably would have created if I was asked to make a career map. As you can see, it’s just a tad unrealistic – with rainbows, unicorns, coconut fruity-drinks and a tropical island adventure ending in with a large box of treasure.

Predictive Career Map of a (theoretical) student

There is no struggle or strife, but this is probably similar to what a high school student would show us. Even if they could predict what some of the problems they will face might be, I wonder if they would be willing to put them on paper. Some of them might be realistic, mature, or brave enough to admit the potential of scary things, but many will not.

Most teenagers are dealing with unforeseen circumstances, and big, uncontrollable emotions daily. They are learning to navigate these problems, and with some help from educators, they can learn to predict and plan for successful outcomes. As a teacher, there is no need to point out the unrealistic nature of this map, but I might ask a student, “What is one obstacle that you might encounter along the way?” and “How will you overcome it?” Questions like these might have alleviated some of the blind sidedness that I felt as a young person.

Although this project resulted in a lot of learning, my biggest takeaways included:

  • Ask for help when you need it (because self-advocacy is so important) https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-students-how-ask-help
  • Build a support network (you can’t do it alone)
  • Commitment: Know what you need to give up to get what you want, and then let it go without regret. Know you are gaining something more valuable.
  • If I did it once, I can do it again.
  • Be kind.

There seems to be a shift away from “What should I be?” toward “Who am I?” The part I liked most about this project is that it asks “Where have I been and where am I going?”

“Since continual change is rendering redundant the practice of predicting occupational destinations, we must take great efforts to help people better fulfil their values, beliefs and interests with every decision they make. 
 focusing on the journey means people move away from feeling a need to correctly make ‘the’ decision (‘What should I be?’) and move toward examining the immediate and enduring effects of virtually all decisions.”

— Dave Redekopp, Barrie Day & Marnie Robb

With the learning from these 2 courses, focusing on Diversity and Career, I feel like I can see purpose to some of the random events that seemed purposeless at the time. I have been able to attribute meaning to aspects of my life that I was previously unable to conceptualize, so that has been helpful in allowing me to generate ideas for some of my future classes. With that in mind, I know that I will continue to change and grow. I began this path toward teaching certification as a means to get a job with financial security as a TTOC, but it has become so much more. I am now pursuing certification because I love working with young people and seeing their potential develop.

Another interesting development of this project is that I now know that I’m not stopping there! I have dreams of going on to Art school and becoming a knit and crochet designer. I’m going to keep on dreaming, and encouraging my students to dream. It is important not to crush students’ dreams, no matter how unrealistic they may seem to us. Because the world is changing so rapidly, the measure of what is realistic is changing with it, and we have no way of knowing what might or might not be possible by the time the young people we teach become adults. As an educator, I want to promote the idea that

“dreaming is normal, natural and appropriate 
 People can move towards their dreams when provided with the tools and strategies to do so. ”

— Dave Redekopp, Barrie Day & Marnie Robb

So, with that in mind I would like you to think back to the career map at the beginning – the one that was unrealistically optimistic.

Treasure map with different obstacles.

This one above is slightly more realistic, but only in that it includes problems and challenges with seemingly insurmountable odds. Personally, I’m glad that most high school students don’t see all of this, because they might decide not to take the journey. Hardship and realism will find its way into our students lives, and even though it’s our job to prepare them for it, part of that means that we have to allow them space to see what they want, instead of what is realistic to us.

With new innovations every day, are we really in a place to tell them what is possible?

My answer is to let them tell us.

References:

Anna H. . (2016, February 3). Resume writing 101 – teacher-created lesson plan. Common Sense Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/lesson-plans/resume-writing-101.

Guiding principles of career development. CERIC. (2021, April 15). https://ceric.ca/publications/guiding-principles-of-career-development/.

Horianopoulos, S. (2021, July 22). Educ 401 Resource Sharing Assignment. https://gounbc-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/horianop_unbc_ca/Ec_rxmb_IH9JknXkw47vDFwBSxYm2GdDSBF3haR-zyJj_Q?e=5aMJml.

Novorésumé. (2021, July 21). 101 career paths for every personality [2021] Guide]. 101 Career Paths for Every Personality [2021 Guide]. https://novoresume.com/career-blog/career-paths-for-every-personality.

Redekopp, D., Day, B., & Robb, M. (n.d.). The “High Five” of Career Development. https://learn.unbc.ca/bbcswebdav/pid-213206-dt-content-rid-1984966_1/courses/30085.202103/High%20Five.pdf

Sullivan, J. (2019, July 18). Teaching students how to ask for help. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-students-how-ask-help.

Vaz-Oxlade, G. (2020, December 4). 2020 money master class with Gail Vaz-Oxlade. Hoyes, Michalos & Associates Inc. https://www.hoyes.com/money-master-class/.