TCAPSLoop 5.18 Career Exploration with Shelly VanderMuelen

Episode 5.19

Hello and Welcome to another potentially useful episode of the TCAPSLoop Podcast!! Like Tom Holland, her Career Exploration is Uncharted, It’s Danelle Brostrom joining me on the pod along with the STEM Career Sherpa of Northwest Michigan, It’s Shelly VanderMuelen.      

 

TCAPSLoop Moment of Zen:

“If You Aim At Nothing, You Hit Nothing.” ― Zig Ziglar

 

The Agenda:

• What does the STEM Career Sherpa do?  

1. 1. 1. Support counselors and educators in career exploration-lessons, resources, events
      2. EDP’s and school improvement legislation
      3. Promote and help teach/implement EiE, PSTL, Coding, etc.

• How have career outlooks changed since WE joined the workforce?

1. 1. 1. Awareness of what was ahead- Technology Changes
      2. Number of jobs, length of stay at a job

• What can teachers (and parents really) do to encourage kids to think about careers?

1. 1. 1. Replace, “what do you want to do when you grow up?” with, "What problems do you want to solve? what are you curious about? what interests you? what are your skills?"

• How can you help teachers in our region do this work?

1. 1. 1. Integrating discussions of skills versus interests
      2. Redefining “success.”  Not just salary, but growth and learning, impact, and work values
      3. Connecting subjects to careers- making learning connections more relevant
      4. Encouraging questioning- how do you use math, language, etc in your job?

 

• We talk a lot about the ISTE Standards on this podcast (in Michigan remember…the tech competencies are called the MITECS). How is the work you are supporting and encouraging teachers to do in the classroom connected to those ISTE Student Standards of knowledge constructor, computational thinker, global collaborator, etc. 

1. 1. 1. Empowered learner–Encouraging students to become problem solvers…ALL students 
      2. Knowledge constructor, innovative designer, computational thinker–Use the design process when exploring careers
      3. Employers are looking for communicators, problem solvers, reliability/responsibility, teamwork
      4. Global collaborator/life long learner. K-12 education is only beginning for a life-long learner

• What tech tool would you recommend to our listeners?  Do you have something that you love that makes your life easier?

1. 1. 1. Xello- Secondary
      2. VIrginia Career View https://www.vaview.net/k5/check-it/kids-search/

• Tell me one thing you are working on that you are totally jazzed about. :)

1. 1.  Career Profiles–integrating with events, math, Michigan Works
   2.  PSTL- Integrating learning and engagement, SEL, Careers, STEM and more

Tech Tool of the Week:

Professional Learning Courses!

https://plp.michiganvirtual.org/  - some are free.

 

Go Open Michigan

#GoOpenMichigan is a collaborative initiative that enables educational entities throughout Michigan to create, share, and access openly-licensed educational resources (OER, also known as open education resources). OER are free digital materials that can be used or modified to adjust to student needs; they are openly-licensed unhampered by many traditional copyright limitations. #GoOpenMichigan encourages all Michigan educators and learners to create, share, and use digital resources with the end goals of providing equitable access to great learning materials throughout the state, and supporting new approaches to learning and teaching for all Michiganders.

Feel free to visit at https://goopenmichigan.org

 

In closing, you can find us on Twitter @TCAPSLoop and @brostromda. 

 

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Thanks for listening and inspiring!