JA Biztown

Starting my first year with fifth graders was nerve wracking. I have followed my learning support students starting in third grade and now they are in fifth. To get students prepared to be more responsible in the middle school and in the future, our entire fifth grade class goes through a program called BizTown. The students start by electing a mayor. Students write speeches and do the speeches in front of the entire grade. After selecting a mayor, teachers introduce every job and the description of the job.

Students then have to fill out an application on which job they would like to have in JA Biztown. Then members from the staff, including myself, interview the students individually. We then sit down and put students in jobs based on their interviews and skill level. The students are then split up into different classrooms with the people that work in the specific shops. The people in the shop then work together to prepare for the day at Biztown. The students make their shop poster, their slogan, and create a radio ad to be played throughout Biztown. Students also are told how much money they will make at their job and have to prepare by writing checks to the bank in order to get their money. They even have to pay taxes to the town. The shops include: The Restaurant, The Radio Station, The Television Station, The Construction Zone, The Realty Office, Planet Earth, City Hall, The Wellness Center, The Bank, The Distribution Center, The Print Shop, and The Newspaper Center.

On the day of Biztown, there is a town hall meeting and a volunteer in each station. The students are to find their folders with their labeled title and follow the instructions for the day. Students are given breaks depending on their jobs for food and then to shop. If students do not sell enough of their materials they are not able to make their rent for the day. This year, thirteen out of thirteen stores made their rent after a long day of work. The owner and director of Biztown said that it does not happen every day. We were so proud of our students.

This program was new to me and made the day stressful, because chaperones are there to assist, but not complete the students’ jobs. However, I took a step back and had the students complete the jobs themselves. It was a successful day that all students should go through. We debriefed after and the students could not believe how tough the day was. They kept asking,  “Is this what real life is like?” Students got to experience what a job is like first-hand. It was a great opportunity for our students.

Changes in Career Development

     In this week discussion post each person has spoken about their experiences in how they attained their competencies through school. It appeared that a few people, like me, did not have much assistance in becoming competent in many career areas through school, but did so on their own. It was also evidence that many others had great success in becoming competent in their career development due to amazing programs through their schools. Some examples of these programs include job shadowing, taking college courses, and touring vocational schools. We each took different paths to become competent, and because we took different paths, we succeeded on different timelines.
     I think what really stood out to me was reading a classmates post about being older than most people in our class and experiencing her career development more different than any other classmates. When she was finding her career path, she did not have the Internet, and they did not even regard gender roles as a thing to break. I could not imagine trying to navigate careers without the assistance of the Internet. We have the answers at our fingertips just by accessing O*NET. Googling a simple phrase or key words can produce a mass amount of information. I utilized the Internet when I found myself on a career path I was unsure of and I was able to find answers and determine what I wanted to do. Without the Internet, I am not sure how I would have gone about finding the answer.
     I think it is extremely important that the other student brought up gender roles in career development. Thirty or so years ago, gender roles were things that most people accepted. Most people probably simply accept gender roles now. But I think more and more individuals are breaking out of those stereotypical gender-specific career paths and it is great! It allows for individuals to have those options without feeling stuck or wanting to go into another career path, but felt confined. The simplest example I think of is a man wanting to be a nurse. Many people see nursing as a woman's profession, but this idea is evolving. I think you can still see gender roles being prominent in that it is hard for women to break into CEO roles, but this too is slowly changing.
     I think it is important to recognize that interventions and ways about finding a career path will change over time because of changes in technology and the changes in society in general. I think that the career development process will be an ever-changing one to keep up with the times. I believe that it is important to recognize that what people in the generation after us will go through a different career process, and that the generation before us went through a different process as well. It will be interesting to see how changes will occur.

ASCA Model and My Experience

The theme for this week’s discussion topic is “Designing and Implementing Comprehensive K-12 Career Development Programs within the Framework of the ASCA National Model,” (Brown, 2005, p. 256). The ASCA Model of Career Development contains what are thought to be the “essential elements of a quality and effective school counseling program,” (Brown, 2005, p. 258). The model includes a concise description of effective ways to implement an inclusive and effective school-counseling program. The model also contains a listing of competencies the student should have acquired from the school-counseling program (Brown, 2005).

The ASCA Model made me reflect back on my own personal K-12 career development experience.  However, unlike most of my fellow peers and classmates, my K-12 education was unique. My K-12 career development experience is not the result of the strengths and weaknesses of one school system, but five different school systems, in four different states, ranging as far apart as Maine to Virginia.

My career development educational experience can be described in two words: diverse and adaptable. I began my educational experience in Springfield, Massachusetts.   After only one year, I moved to Bethel, Maine, a very small ski resort town, where I was one of nine students.  Next, I moved to Dayton, Ohio where I attended one year in the Centerville County Public School system.  For the next six years, I was a student in the Springboro County Public School System. My final move and the farthest south was to Richmond, Virginia.  I spent the next five years in one of the most challenging school systems in the state of Virginia, Hanover County. I would come to call Atlee High School my home until graduation in the spring of 2011. I was, then, honored to attend college in Farmville, Virginia at Longwood University.

 I always knew I would go on to attend college after high school.  However as I reflect back on my diverse and adaptable career development, I began to wonder how exactly did I get there? Was the national ASCA Model for school counseling designed, implemented, and effectively delivered in all my school systems? My answer is yes, but in varying ways.

The ASCA Model contains four components: foundation, delivery, accountability, and management system (Brown, 2005, p. 258).  I believe the foundation, accountability, and management systems for all five of the schools was rooted in the same beliefs, missions, and principles. However, I believe the delivery systems were different. In some school systems, the guidance counselors developed their own plans and others it was incorporated in the teachers’ lessons. (Brown, 2005).

My K-12 educational experience could be summarized as that of an “educational melting pot.”  However thanks to the national ASCA Model, my education may have been diverse, but very consistent and beneficial to my career development.

Career Portfolio

The career portfolio seems to be a common practiced for high school students. In my own high school as part of our graduation project we were required to complete a career portfolio. I thought the project was helpful in researching a career that I was interested. Although I found it to be a helpful project others did not. I know a lot of my peers just did what was needed to pass. The article that I read talked about some things that occur when students (middle -class) are required to complete the portfolio assignment.

            Researchers had several findings. One finding was that students in this specific study where able to understand their environments and the ideals that go along with it. This meant that students were more like to select a career that was expected of them for their career portfolio. Instead of students using the career portfolio to investigate the students possible interest they instead chose an “easy” or “expected” career. This didn’t always align with their interested and instead just fit into the ideals of their environment.

The portfolio project can be helpful when it is done “correctly”. It can be an opportunity for students to explore and learn about what is required to enter a certain profession. I know personally I was able to find a lot of information about the field of psychology by completing my own career portfolio. I guess this study brings up the question, what can be done to get students to take full advantage of the career portfolio assignment? Also, how can we get students really interested in the project and for them to research something that they’re interested in versus what is expected of them by others? 

Blog 12

            After this week’s discussion post I felt that for this blog it would be relevant to spend some more time discussing my high school experiences with career development services. When I reflect back on my high school experiences I find myself wishing that there had been more services that allowed students to explore career options. My high school did do some things very well, but they also dropped the ball in critical areas.

            First, the positives. My high school did allow students to choose elective courses. These courses ranged from a foreign language, to home economics, to technology education, to psychology, and many more. My high school also had a variety of sports programs, clubs, honors societies, extracurricular activities, etc. that students could sign up to participate in. The combination of these factors did allow students to explore different areas of interest and potentially make decisions based off of their experiences. When I was in school I took full advantage of what was offered to us. I played volleyball, managed the basketball team, was in both Spanish Honors Society and National Honors Society, participated in our school pride club, and chose many different classes to explore many options, one of which was psychology. These opportunities did help in the decisions that I made to go to college and pursue a Psychology degree.

            However, despite the positives, through what I have learned in this class, there was a lot my high school did not prepare us for. Although they offered these various elective courses and many after school programs, there was not much done beyond that. I never took any interest inventory, we did not have any career days or visitors that discussed our options, I could not even tell you what the guidance counselors names were, and there were no options for experiential learning. Many of my peers talk about a senior project involving volunteer work. I wish my senior project was more future oriented, but my assignment was to reflect back on my time there. I look back and wish that my school had done more to allow a more expansive exploration process.

            This class has made me feel conflicted about my experiences. On one hand, I wish that I had more services while in high school, and on the other hand I feel grateful to have had the experiences I did have. I often wonder if anything was different, would my path had been any different? 

Insights of Standards and Competencies

From my own personal experience, I believe I have met all of the standards and competencies. The career developing process began in middle school where I went to school. My middle school was just for seventh and eighth grade. We were offered a multitude of classes to decipher our own interests and skills. We were also taught the differences in traditional and nontraditional classes. These classes included home education, technology education, along with the other typical courses such as math, reading, history, and science. During this time, I could cancel out any of the technology education courses and the home education courses because I was not interested in them. I focused more of my time on sports throughout middle school. I started sports when I was about four years old. I started dancing, then moved to gymnastics, then finally volleyball and basketball. I was able to develop hobbies and balance my time between work and my hobbies; it took great amounts of planning to make my schedule and create a balance. All other competencies were learned from either my sports teams or other teachers and the guidance counselor. By being on a team, I recognized the importance of working as a team and setting goals. I was able to learn about these skills and apply them right away since it fit my interests.

High school was where the actual planning began for a future career, specifically in ninth grade. With all of my sports teams, I believe many of the standards were met. I gained employability skills such as working on a team, organizational skills, and task management skills. I was able to learn the importance of responsibility and punctuality; my team counted on me and I was representative of them. I needed to show them respect in order to gain theirs. I learned to respect other individual’s uniqueness and could transfer this skill to any context. I always had a positive outlook on working. When I was young, my father would take me into his office and I would pretend to work for him. As I got older, he trusted me to answer the phones on the days I did not have school. I loved being able to learn and use set skills to help my father and his business. The only standard that was not met in ninth grade but was met in eleventh grade was creating a resume.

Moving on to tenth grade was where the search for careers began. We took an online quiz that produced three different careers that matched our personalities and interests. I cannot remember all of my outcomes but I remember interior designer was one and another was occupational therapist. Later, we needed to research one of the careers and present the information to the class. I chose to report on the occupation of occupational therapy. A couple months later I actually needed physical therapy for an injury and I loved the atmosphere and everything that came with the job. This became my ultimate goal at this age. I recognized my abilities for this career and shadowed multiple places to find comfort in the profession. With this goal in mind, I chose a university that offered a physical therapy program. Unfortunately I did not find happiness in that school so I transferred and ended up at Millersville. While at Millersville, I still had the goal of becoming a physical therapist. During a class, I was given an opportunity to intern with kids over summer and this is where I changed my career goal. I then catered my schedule to fit the needs of becoming a clinical psychologist.

Through all of my job experiences and the help of this class, I have gained the knowledge and met all competencies of Standard C. I can appropriately resolve conflict, use high quality interpersonal skills, and understand success and satisfaction. I believe all of my experiences in sports and previous jobs along with my education will lead me to reach success in my career.

K-12 experience and competencies

When reading over the competencies, there were a lot of things I experienced that I was not necessarily aware of. I always think doing discussion posts that require you to reflect make you realize more about career development then you thought occurred. Looking at these competencies, I realized that career development actually starts young and progresses as students get older. I also think these competencies show that learning does not only happen in the classroom, but also continues as the student goes home and by things outside of the classroom.

In kindergarten, personal abilities, skills, interests, and motivations are learned through things like show and tell. I also learned these things at home by the things I liked to play with or do in my free time. Motivation was also learned at home by doing things like chores to get a new toy at the end of the week or by something as small as having ice cream. Even things such as who can run the fastest at recess can facilitate abilities, skills, interests, and motivations.

Later on in elementary and middle school, I learned a lot about respecting individual’s uniqueness in the classroom. I learned that everyone is different and has different opinions and they still need to be respected whether in the classroom, at an extracurricular activity, or even at work. This also allowed me to handle conflict when arguments did occur during discussions. I also learned to work on a team when teachers would place us into groups for either discussion or for a group project. This also helped with organization skills and communication skills, because I was not always in a group with my best friends. Being in extracurricular activities and attending school allowed me to learn the importance of responsibly, dependability, punctuality, and time-management.

By the time I was in high school, it was more clear cut that all the things I was learning was geared toward career development, college readiness, and the workforce. We were required to take a senior class on career development where we would learn to write a resume amongst many other things. A part of our senior project was also to research an intended career and interview someone in the field. One of the things I found most valuable was allowing us to take college classes for credits our senior year at the local community college. It allowed me to get my feet wet and know what a college course is like on top of going to college with credits already.

Many things are done throughout our K-12 experience geared toward career development. Back then it did not seem like it, but as I approached high school and by doing this discussion post I realized that.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed., p. 14). Boston: Pearson.