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Child Care
with a Future Preventing
Teen Dating Violence Conflict
Resolution Southwestern
Food Factory On
the Bridge |
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Orientation
to |
Created by: Mary Sue Burkhardt Results and Impact “When
one door closes, another opens. But
we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do
not see the one which has opened for us.”
Helen Keller The History of “Orientation to Life and Careers” Approximately
12 years ago, I had the opportunity to see the door which had “opened
for us.” My principal and
vocational director asked if I would be willing to attend a workshop
sponsored by AIT (Agency for Instructional Technology) in Bloomington,
Indiana. There were grant
monies available and we could get some teaching materials and audio-visual
equipment if I went to the training workshop on Workplace Readiness. I said I would be willing to go even though it was during my
Spring break. After
spending a week in intensive training at AIT, I came back to school
“fired up” and ready to try out the program.
With full support from the administration, I promoted a class
called “Workplace Readiness” and eleven students agreed to be my
“guinea pigs.” It was
offered the second semester as an elective Family and Consumer Sciences
class and more than 20 students signed up for the program. Each
semester the enrollment doubled until it became necessary to recruit
another FACS teacher in our department to teach the class as well. Surveys from students indicated an interest in more career
information and I developed another complimentary semester class that I
called “Career Skills.” Both
of these classes continued several years with enrollment continuing to
grow. With
extensive positive student surveys and community support, I believed it
was time to approach the School Board and request that this course be
required for graduation (a radical step!).
With administrative support, and buy-in from the counselors,
faculty and staff, the “Orientation to Life and Careers” program was
born. At that point, the course became a graduation requirement for
ninth and tenth grade students (the majority of students enrolled are
freshmen). A
strength of the program is the diversity students experience
(valedictorian to moderately mentally handicapped students could make up
any particular section of the program).
This is also a challenge to instructors but one we have accepted
and dealt with successfully. As
lead teacher, I have had the opportunity to team teach with instructors
from other disciplines including agriculture, business, health careers,
and technology education. Corporation
budget considerations precluded an additional Family and Consumer Sciences
position; but, on the other hand, teachers in other disciplines whose
positions might have been eliminated were retained to teach this class.
This
program has been an excellent
recruitment tool for all disciplines involved, especially our FACS
department. Consequently,
this sustains enrollment and teaching positions.
Not only did this program increase the percentage of students
taking a FACS class (100%), it increased enrollment in all of the other
FACS classes by approximately 27% overall.
As
of the 2003-2004 school year, eleven sections of approximately 220
students are enrolled in Orientation and Careers.
Two FACS teachers (I am now only teaching one section each semester
due to enrollment demand in other FACS classes) will teach the course, one
business teacher and one agriculture teacher.
Teachers who taught the class in the past indicate they would be
very willing to teach the class again and believed it was a very positive
experience for them professionally. Mrs.
Mary Sue Burkhardt, CFCS |