Teachers face many challenges when incorporating meaningful career planning lessons into classroom learning, but the most daunting is time. In their article, Career Exploration and Soft Skills: Preparing Students for Success, authors Loup, Kornegay, and Morgan identify three of the ways that time challenges career planning instruction:
Most of all, time is in limited supply as graduation looms near. However, with the right resources, and a creative approach, teachers
can incorporate meaningful career-planning activities that complement their classroom curriculum and empower students as they enter life after high school. Focusing on career planning is time well spent and can provide opportunities for teachers to connect with students, support the development of a growth mindset, and ease the anxiety students often face as they plan for post-secondary opportunities.
Career Planning Supports SEL
In June 2019, the Department of Education and Workforce adopted the Social and Emotional Learning Standards. These standards encourage the development of self-awareness, goal-setting, and self-management skills. In her article, One Size Does Not Fit All, Ana Homayoun recognizes these skills as pivotal to supporting students as they transition from high school to career opportunities with ease. To learn more about how INFOhio resources can support social and emotional learning for students in grades 9-12, read this Teach With INFOhio Blog post. Confident in a growing sense of self-awareness, students can make the most of their high school experience by selecting the courses they need for career success using DEW's Career Connection Framework.
What can high school teachers do?
Supported by the Department of Education and Workforce, the Career Connections Framework is a planning tool for districts to provide students with opportunities to develop realistic plans for their futures. Below is a list of suggested career activities for Grades 9-12 classrooms.
Implementing Career Planning in the Classroom with INFOhio
According to Loup, Kornegay, and Morgan, educators can make career planning meaningful by providing students time to explore resources, practice employability skills, and share their learning with a larger audience. Let INFOhio help you streamline this process with our career exploration and planning resources.
Allow students to explore trending topics in top career fields. EBSCO's Career Collection includes articles from trade and professional publications to support a variety of career exploration needs. Let your students learn from researchers, writers, and professionals in the field about the challenges, developments, and expanding opportunities available in business, medicine, and technology.
INFOhio's Educator Tools is a repository with more than 9,500 premium instructional materials. Use the filter, content area, and select career & technical education to find eBooks about planning for post-secondary education and careers.
Use the filter grade level to narrow results by grade level.
Click the heart to save items to a list. Share individual eBook and video titles with your students.
Engage students as they read each eBook with reflection questions and activities. Open the Gale eBooks Independent Book Study document to support students as they use eBooks in your classroom.
Students can browse for eBooks and videos about planning for post-secondary education and employment. INFOhio's Grades 9-12 eBooks and Videos collection includes more than 3,500 eBooks and videos to read or watch for education or enjoyment. Students can search the list using the filters. Click the filter icon to open menu of filters.
Help students find the filter content area and select career & technical education.
Students can click or tap to open the eBook or video.
Career Planning Lesson Plans
Open Space: Career Connections Collection
Discover freely available lesson plans, tools, and resources for bringing career planning into the classroom with the Career Connections Collection located on INFOhio's Open Space. The resources in this collection encourage students to research careers, develop employability skills, enlist in the service, or develop a plan for post-secondary employment. The learning material in this collection has been reviewed by the Ohio Department of Education's Office of Graduate Success and supports career-connected education of K-12 students. These resources have been grouped together to help educators locate materials for instruction, but this collection does not constitute an endorsement by the Ohio Department of Education.
Conclusion
When students enter high school empowered with a growing sense of self-awareness, they can select classes and engage in meaningful career-planning activities that will support their career goals. But career planning activities can be just as rewarding for the educator. Educators can use classroom instruction time to illustrate the real-world applications and occupations of their classroom content. Educators can play a vital role in supporting students as they develop the employability skills needed for success in the workplace. As graduation day approaches, students can leave high school feeling confident and ready to embark on post-secondary study or enter the workforce with the same drive and energy to accomplish the career goals they started dreaming about in elementary school.
Mary Rowland is a Senior Instructional Specialist with INFOhio. A former high school English teacher with 14 years of teaching experience, Mary is an accomplished leader who facilitated professional development in her previous district on integrating web-based tools into the classroom, Google Apps for Education, and writing across the curriculum. During her career, Mary mentored student teachers and served on both the district and building leadership committees. She has earned a BA in English, an MS in Education: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, and is a Google Certified Educator Level 2. Mary is passionate about supporting INFOhio’s mission to help Ohio’s educators integrate the tools and resources to strengthen education for Ohio’s students.
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