Flash Cards Week 3

Hello!

 

On Monday, I took a small group to the EmployABILITY Job Fair at City Place Conference Center. This was a huge job fair with more than 50 companies, resume workshops, and mock interviews. The students that I took spent the entire morning networking with companies and participating in various mock interviews. I think it was a positive experience for all of us. At first, they were a little shy, but as the morning passed the kids got very involved and talkative with the representatives. Here are a few pictures from the job fair:

 

This week our job skills were trustworthy, interested, and improvement. We worked very hard all week to learn the meaning and importance of each of these traits. Understanding the difference between interested and improvement has been a challenge for some of us, but we will keep working at it! These are the flashcards from this week:

The presentations are going so great - I am so happy with how they are turning out! The students seem to be learning a lot from each other during their presentations. Here are a few of the presentations from this week (we are working on talking louder during skits, so I apologize if you can't hear the videos very well): 

Trustworthy

Interested

Improvement

Trustworthy

 

 So, as you can see the kids are getting more and more creative every week! I am so excited for what the rest of the year has in store for us in employability skills! Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments -- I love to hear from yall! 

Have a great weekend!

Flash Cards Week 2

Hello!

This week we have been working on our second set of flash cards. The traits this week are proper grooming, alert, and stamina. We have spent a lot of class time talking about why these traits are important to have and how to show that we have these traits. Here is a picture of this week's flash cards:

 The groups have been working so hard and I am so happy that they have been working together and being extremely creative! Here are a few pictures of them in action:

Here are a few of the presentations from this week:

Stamina

Alert

Proper Grooming

Alert

Proper Grooming

Stamina

 

 I am really enjoying the presentations so far, and the kids seem to be learning a lot from their classmates! Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or comments! I love hearing from yall!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 



Flash Cards Week 1

Hello!

This week we started a new lesson segment. We are making flash cards of job traits that employers view as desirable skills. Every week we will have 3 new job traits and we are breaking up into groups and creating presentations to teach the class about a particular trait. Here is a picture of this week's flash cards:

We have been spending a lot of time talking about why these traits are important to possess, and how they can help us get/keep a job. They are then responsible for creating some sort of presentation to teach the class - whether it be a collage, skit, poster, song, etc.  I am so excited about the group work the students have been doing and the presentations are going so great!

Here are a few of the presentations from this week:

Puncutal

Appropriate Dress

Good Attendance

 

Punctual

 

So, as you can see your students are having a lot of fun with the presentations and they are being so creative! I love to watch them work in their small groups and figure out how to work together. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!! I love to hear from yall!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Week 3: Strengths & Interests Inventory

Hey y'all!

This week we have been continuing to work on our strengths explorer activities and have started various interest inventories. We have been spending a lot of time talking about what interests us and what are our hobbies. This has been an interesting exploration time for your students - they have really seemed to enjoy thinking about what they like to do, and how this can connect with what type of careers they might be able to have.

Every Tuesday our class will be held in the computer lab. We will be working on various technology skills such as resumes and applications. This week we put together a rough draft outline of a resume. I let the students do this independently, I was just there as a guide. We had three sections to our resumes: Work Experience, Skills, and Extracurricular Activities. I am very pleased with the results of the resumes so far, and I can't wait to get everyone back in the computer lab to polish them up.

Your students have expressed a lot of interest in working on application skills and interviewing skills. We are going to be working on interviewing skills in the next few weeks, if you have anything specific you would like your student to focus on in regards to interviews, please let me know!

Feel free to email or comment at any time! I love to hear from y'all!
Have a great weekend!

Week 1&2: Strengths Explorer

Hey everyone!

To get our class started off, we have been talking a lot about personal strengths and weaknesses. As a class, we have been discussing how we can utilize our strengths in the workplace and why it is so crucial to understand what your talents are, and what you can work a little harder on sometimes. We've discussed in depth how knowing your strengths is crucial to effective interview skills.

There is a program that is utilized a lot in the professional world called Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. This is an awesome program where you take a test online and it gives you your top 5 strengths and how to utilize them in every day life. I was beyond excited the other day when I discovered a similar program called Strengths Explorer for youth! It is so perfect for the students in this class. Earlier this week, we took the test in the computer lab as a class. It was a challenge for most students; they had to think really hard about their personalities and character traits. We got awesome results from the tests -- I couldn't be more pleased! Here is a link to the website if you want to check it out for yourself https://www.strengths-explorer.com/   They have great resources for parents that could potentially help you understand your child's strengths in a different light. I strongly urge you to check it out! Here is a list of the strengths that the program tests for (click to enlarge):

Can you guess what 3 strengths your child possesses? I have the results to everyone's test - please let me know if you are interested in getting those from me, I would love to share them with you! Throughout the next couple of weeks, we will be using these strengths in various activities. With these activities, I will be pushing the students to be more metacognitive. Here are a few examples of our first activity (show me a creative example of your personality with your strengths explorer results):

I am excited for what the future brings for this class! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments, I love to hear from y'all!

The ABC's of Employment

Hello!

As you all know, we are starting a brand new class this year at Notre Dame in the vocational center called "Employability Skills." I am beyond excited to get this started with your students! This class is crucial to the success of our student's careers. Throughout the year we will be learning how to get hired, how NOT to get fired, and everything in between! I have come to think of this class as sort of a "senior seminar" type class, which most college students have to take in their last year of undergraduate studies. We will be learning effective interviewing skills, proper behaviors to portray in the workplace, and various techniques to conquer tricky social situations they may encounter in their careers. I am going to be pushing your student to think more about themselves - including their strengths, weaknesses, skills, and abilities - and how to use all of these things to be as productive as possible in the workplace. 

I hope this blog can serve as an open communication board between parents, students, and teachers. Please feel free to leave comments or email me if you have any questions or comments! Lets have a great year!!