New Ways of Teaching Careers

If you’ve ever listened to us speak, you know we have several soapboxes that we feel passionately about.  This topic may be one of our favorites!  In this article we’re going to share what made us start thinking differently about teaching careers and how to transform your career lessons to meet the changing needs of the 21st Century Learner.  And since we’re so much better together, you’re going to be hearing from both of us as we go through this post “interview style.”

What made us change the way we teach career lessons?

Kim: We were asked… can I say “ASCA-ed?”

Laura: Please don’t.

Kim: We were asked to present at a conference in our state about teaching career lessons.  We took our favorite career books like How Santa Got His Job and Whose Tools Are These? and some career costumes and tools to show how we teach careers.  When we got there all the other presenters were doing the same thing!  I made the comment to you that this is how we’ve been teaching careers for the past 25 years!  The only thing that set us apart at that conference was we did a Google Meet with someone who works at Disney World and allowed participants to ask questions.

Laura: After that we attended a technology conference and one of the featured videos was a rap about the characteristics of the 21st Century Learner.  I distinctly remember asking you to stop rapping along with the video.  You were making a scene.

Kim: I remember that, too.  But you know I’m a good rapper.

Laura: That inspired us to dig deeper.  We found a statistic from the computer company Dell that said that 85% of the jobs available in 2030 have not even been invented yet!  Going further we found that 60% of careers that students are learning about will be automated or gone in 10-15 years.  So why would we hold up a tool and try to generate interest in a career that may be gone by the time this group of students has to pick a career?

Kim: When we spoke to some students of a school counseling program at a university in Alabama, we asked them to think of all the tools that their cell phone has replaced.  They were shocked when they really stopped to think about the number of jobs the cell phone has replaced.

Laura: Yes!  Your phone can be a flashlight, a compass, a level, a calculator, a gps, etc.  In the same way, jobs will be automated or eliminated.

Kim: And I think Covid has expedated that.

Laura: Hold on, I can’t let this go.  Did you say “expedated?”

Kim: Expedited… But I do think expedate makes me sound smarter than you.

Laura: You are right though.  Covid has shown us that so many jobs can be done differently than how we’ve done them in the past.  In Boston we had our audience think of all the jobs that will be eliminated or look vastly different in the future.
Kim: Oh yeah.  I remember one counselor said he was going to quit, and another felt like we were wrong to put “farming” on that list.  All we were saying is careers will look very different.  For example, truck drivers in other countries have already been replaced by automated trucks.  Actors and actresses may not be as needed in the future, as production companies can use CGI technology to make an actor’s image “act.”  Even farming, which turned out to be a hot button during our conference, will be more automated and look very different in the future.

Laura: Careers will change, and that reminds me of the reaction of one of the teachers I used to work with. You know I love to tell this story!

Kim: I do know that!

Laura: During one of our monthly data meetings we were discussing a student who could easily jump to the next quartile. I asked, “what motivates him?” The teacher said, “Video games, and we all know there’s no future in that.” If you search “confused” on your gif keyboard, my face looked like any of the options that come up.

Kim: Oh I’ve seen that look before!

Laura: Gary Vaynerchuck in his book, “Crushing It,” says that her response and other similar responses we’ve heard before regarding our hesitancy to allow students to explore careers related to video games, e-sports, and youtube, “show a total lack of understanding about what kind of world we live in.”

How can we expose students to careers outside of our communities?

• Virtual Meetings

Laura: This led us to consider how we can expose our students to careers that are outside of our communities.  When we first spoke about this it was 2019, pre-Covid, so some of these ideas seemed far-fetched.  Now we realize how easy it is to connect our students to a marine biologist, even though we may live in a land-locked area.  Using Google Meets, Zoom, Skype, etc., we can show our students “a day in the life” of the careers they are the most interested in.

Kim:  Yes!  This pandemic has shown us that the world is our “oystah!”  (That’s “oyster” in her Boston accent).  People seem more willing to Zoom and meet with students.  Use this!  You have Skype a Scientist and Nepris that will connect your students with people who are volunteering to speak to student groups.

Laura: And I think that people are more than willing to do this.  I think it’s rewarding for them.  We know now that it’s easy to go beyond our community because we’ve done it for the past 8 months.

Virtual Career Fairs

Laura: We talked about doing a virtual career fair back in 2019.  Can I call you out on this?

Kim: Do it.

Laura: When we were putting this presentation together back in 2019 you said, “A virtual career fair?  I don’t understand a virtual career fair.”

Kim: I think you’re lying.

Laura: I’m not!

Kim: But I’m going to go with it.

Laura: Since then we’ve done two podcasts on virtual career fairs because school ended around the time of year that a lot of us do our career fairs.  Kim, your career fair is massive and a whole other topic, but we had to answer the question, “How are we going to make our career fairs virtual?”

Kim: And even this year, a lot of schools are still virtual.  Even schools that are back in person are hesitant to bring large groups of people together at an event like a career fair.
Laura: Just to give a few “rubber meets the road” ideas.  If you listen to us, you know that’s one of our phrases and one of our goals each time we speak.  Here are two easy ways to host a virtual career fair:

• Have people in the careers you are wanting to feature submit 10 minute videos showing exactly what they do each day on the job.  Create a slide presentation where participants can click on the career they’re interested in and watch the video.
• Host something like Zoom rooms where students can be put in a room hosted by people in the career they’re the most interested in.

Kim: I like the second option because it offers a more personal approach to something that’s not in person.  It allows for a question and answer segment.  As we have said throughout this whole virtual school situation, “If there is a way to do this in person, there is a way to do it virtually.”

Laura: Another benefit to doing this virtually is that you are saving drive time for your participants and allowing them to get back to work sooner than an in-person career fair.  Even though everyone we’ve ever asked has been honored to participate.

Kim: Well, and like you said, we’re not going to be able to get a marine biologist out in “our neck of the woods.”

Laura: Well, they definitely can’t bring their dolphin.

Kim: They’re not going to bring their dolphin.  We’ve tried that.  It was very unsuccessful.

Laura: Should I do my dolphin call now?

Kim: Yes.  Do it.  Right now.

Laura: (belts out a dolphin call that is spot-on).

Kim: Please.  Stop wasting your time in this career and begin a career as a dolphin caller.

Laura: If you’re near the beach, I’m sorry for the amount of dolphins that will be beaching themselves after hearing that.

Kim: Yes, they’re all thinking, “It’s mating season!”

Virtual Reality Expeditions

Laura: This is one of our favorite topics, virtual reality expeditions!  We had the most fun with this in Boston.  We brought our virtual reality goggles.  How many security checkpoints did we take those through?

Kim: That was a job!  If our luggage got lost, that was fine, but we could not lose these goggles!

Laura: We do these career expeditions through Google Expeditions.  Google Expeditions has made this so simple!  If you search career expeditions, they have tons!  They also have virtual college tours.  They give you a script, points to look at with your students.  They make it so simple!

Kim: People always ask us about what is needed to make this work.  There are the hard goggles, cardboard goggles, goggles with phones already included.  We suggest talking to your school system technology department.  These expeditions work for social studies, science, etc.  There are so many topics that these cover!  

Laura: Many vendors have an educational department that can help your school system purchase these. It may be through a grant or through technology money, etc.  Lots of departments within your school can use these, so talk it up that way. 
Kim: That’s not the only option though!  You can also use cardboard goggles.

Laura: You will need to put your own phone inside the cardboard case.  You may want to have phones donated.

Kim: Or students can use their own phones.  It can’t be a flip phone.

Laura: Who uses a flip phone?!

Kim: You!  These expeditions work even if you don’t use the goggles.  The goggles give the effect that you are immersed in the scene, but if a student is prone to motion sickness, they can still view it without the goggles.

Laura: The teacher guide allows you to see each student’s icon so you can see who is following along with you and who is looking in another direction.  Kim I’m guessing that feature would have been helpful to your teachers when you were in school.

Kim: And my principal even now!  I’d encourage you to look up videos of students using these goggles to do an Expedition.  The looks on their faces are priceless!

Virtual Pen Pals

Laura: Lastly, we’d like to talk about virtual pen pals.  Who doesn’t love getting mail? But now we have the opportunity to connect with others through Zoom, Google Meets, etc.  Just this week I saw a school counselor ask other school counselors, “Hey, who wants to create pen pals between your students and mine?”  This teaches them the 21st century skills of communication, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking.  You can connect with students in another country!  I can’t even imagine how exciting it would be to host a show and tell between the classrooms.  It could become cross-curricular as it extends to social studies and math as you talk about the value of currency and the exchange rate between that country and ours.  What careers are those students interested in?  What careers are our students interested in?

Kim: We love hearing about the differences even with the people you and I have had the privilege of talking to within the United States!  It’s always interesting to hear about what’s going on where they live.  This could expose students to different ways of thinking and different ways of doing things.  Those are the essential skills!

Laura: That was one of our biggest moments of realization.  We need to teach 21st Century skills instead of just holding up a tool or a chef’s hat.  Having said that, there are careers that will be with us forever.

Letting Students Learn Through Playing

Kim: Let me encourage school counselors to think outside the box.  We don’t always have to be in front instructing.  Sometimes it’s important to let students explore and critically think together.  If we think about careers differently, we may set up centers.  You may not think that’s the counselor’s job, but just allowing your younger students to play in centers together, or allowing your older students to debate a career-related topic will cultivate that curiosity and sharpen those critical thinking skills.  It may not look like the traditional counseling lesson.

Laura: You just hit on so many 21st Century learning skills!  We can set this up, and then stand back and watch them do exactly what they’ll be doing in their careers as they collaborate with others to find creative ways to solve problems.

Kim: We do a lesson where we talk about how a lot of jobs will be related to filling needs.  We ask our students to think of a need, and I’m always astounded at the needs they come up with and the solutions they give to meet that need.  This goes along with volunteering, caring for others, and asking, “how can I help?”  These are questions that will lead to inventing jobs.  Entrepreneurship.  It’s going to be huge!

Laura: We hope that these ideas help transform your career lessons and inspire you to continue teaching that ASCA domain of career development, no matter what your educational setting looks like this year.

Kim: And maybe even take it to the next level!

Laura: You’re determined to get the last word in, aren’t you?

Kim: I always do!

This is Laura. Since I’m typing this, it’s kind of like I get the last word! This blog post has a few tech tools that might help you teach some amazing and interactive caeer lessons. Let us know what you come up with!