Blogging Assignment #6 - Societal Relevance

Think about the examples that Ms Propst showed you in her PowerPoint presentation on Friday.  She talked about how her profession is important to our society.  She gave examples of how her profession affects people in our community.  She had many quotes that told about the importance and relevance of her profession throughout history.  She told why she thinks her profession is important to others and why it is important to herself.

In this blog post you will make connections between your topic and the world.  You will tell about the relevance of your career to the society you live in.  Answer at least two of the following questions.  Give examples, quotations, or specific reasons to back up your claims.

What is the relevance of your chosen career?
How does it affect our world, our nation, our community, your family, or yourself?
How does your career benefit your society?
How is your career important in your community? 
How is it important in the world? 
How is it important to your family and to you?

DUE DATE: Friday, November 19, 2010

Final Career Project

Exploratory                 

Final Career Project              

 

Almost everything we have done in Exploratory class this semester has been designed to help you decide on a career that will be interesting and fulfilling for you.  Your final project will be a presentation designed to be used at a career fair to let other students learn about your career of choice.  

It could be in the form of

• a display board,
• a pamphlet or brochure,
• a power point presentation,
• a multi-media presentation,
• a t-shirt,

or any other appropriate form for getting your message out.  It may include any information you feel is important, but must include at least the following:

 

A.  Written Component

This must be an effective summary and description of the following for your chosen career:

    1.  the type of work involved

    2.  the education/training/experience required

    3.  working conditions

    4.  salary information (current and future)

    5.  job availability (current and future)

    6.  type of person best suited for this career

    7.  the value of this work to society or our community

 

B.  Data Component

At least one of the above sections should include a chart, graph or other appropriate presentation of data. You must cite the source of your data or graph.

 

C.  Visual Component

The overall project must include a visual graphic.  Make your presentation inviting so people want to look at it.  Include photo(s), clip-art, a design related to your career, attractive borders, etc.

 

 

Due Dates

 

The first draft of this project is due on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010. 

 

The final project is due on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010.  

 

Late projects will not be evaluated by other students and will be docked 10% for each calendar day they are late.

 

Your project will be scored based on the scoring guides you have been given.  Be sure to cite your sources.

 

 

Blogging Assignment #5 - Career Fair

In this post you will write about the Career Fair we attended Tuesday at U-City High School.

1. What did you learn at the Career Fair?  What did you see?  What surprised you?  Was there anything that made you think about what you might like to do or not do for a career?  Was there anything that made you think about what you might want to do or not do for your project?

2. What was your favorite booth at the career fair?  Why?

3. What are your plans for your project for exploratory class?  Describe what you plan to do or make for our Career Fair.

Remember these dates:

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 – First draft of your project is due.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 – Final projects are due.

Blogging Assignment #4 - Understanding Data

In post #4 you will show that you understand how to find and use data when you are researching a topic.  You will be using some of the skills we practiced last week when we were looking at data. You will demonstrate how to analyze data found in graphs, charts, and tables.

Do you remember the four questions we asked about the data we looked at?  If not, check the posters in the hallway to see what we did.  Look at the questions, then at the examples we all did together.  There are a lot of examples for each question. Review what we did together, and then get ready to practice it on your own for this new post!

For this assignment you will look for a variety of data about your topic.  You might find a graph, a data table, a map, or a chart. Your data might have information about salaries, occupation trends, or perhaps the future needs in your career goal.  Your data might show something about the required topics in your project:

1.  the type of work involved

2.  the education/training/experience required

3.  working conditions

4.  salary information (current and future)

5.  job availability (current and future)

6.  type of person best suited for this career

7.  the value of this work to society or our community

When you find your data (graph, chart, table) be sure to write down or note the website address where you found it so that you can get back to it.  You will need to cite your source in your blog post, as well.  You may include a link (see bar above) to the data or import the data into your post.  You must have at least one (but may include two or three) graphs, charts, maps, or tables to discuss in your blog post.

When you have found your data, here is what to do:

1. Describe your data. Tell what it is about.  Look at the title, the headings, and the labels.  Summarize what information is given in the graph.

2. Generate questions about the data.  What do you see that brings questions to your mind? Pretend you are a teacher and ask questions about the graph.  What questions can you think of that can be answered by looking at the graph?  What questions can you think of that the graph does not answer?  What questions do you have that can be answered by comparing or combining information from two or more of your charts or graphs?  You will want to ask questions that require some thought as well as the “right there” type of questions.

3.  Look for patterns and relationships in your data.  Describe the trends.  Do you see increases or decreases? What relationships are shown in your graph? Does anything recur?

4. Make some conclusions based on your data. What conclusions can you draw based on what your graph, chart, or table shows.  Think of your own career.  Does this data have any impact on your choices?   Think of what is in the chart or graph. What generalizations, opinions, conclusions can you make based on what you know and what is on the page?

5. Find connections between your data and what else you know.  If you have more than one source of data, what connections can you make between each of your graphs? How does what each shows relate to the information in the others?  How does this data connect to your own life?  How does it connect to what you have found in your previous research?  Is there any connection to the work you did for blog posts #1, #2, or #3?  Describe the relationships and connections you can think of.

When you have finished all of your writing, be sure to proofread. Use spell check.  Find and fix any problems with capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.  Read each sentence out loud to yourself and listen for any missing words or missing word parts.  Have a friend (a real friend, who will give you real constructive criticism) read and tell you what parts are unclear so that you can fix them.

The last thing you need to do is PUBLISH YOUR POST.  Remember, publishing your post is handing it in.  If you do not publish, your teacher cannot read your post, and your assignment will be Missing. 

Wow! You have done a lot of work so far, and we are about halfway there! Are you up for the hard work to come?  Don’t give up yet…the fun and creative part of your project is just ahead!

Four Questions for Data Analysis

These are the questions we need to work on to improve our understanding of data analysis and our scores on the data analysis tests. Check the wall in the hallway for more information and examples of what this looks like.

1.  What questions can we generate based on this data?

2.  What patterns/relationships do we see?

3.  What conclusions can we draw?

4.  What connections can we make (to our own lives, previous research, between and among these graphs)? Be sure to have them find the relationship between the last two items.

Blogging Assignment #3 - Your Research Questions

So far, you have identified your learning style and personal strengths. You have looked at 3 jobs that might fit your personal profile, and you have chosen one of them to research in depth for your project.

In your next post you will need to list some questions for your research.

Here's how to get started:
1. Get a Question Sheet from Mr. Holden's room.

2. Put your Research Topic at the top of the page (the career you have decided to research)

3. Use the grid to list as many questions about your topic as you can.  If you get stuck, look at the list of required items from the Assignment Sheet (the one with all the pictures) and think of questions for each of those items.

4. Pick 3 or 4 of your best questions to blog about.  You will use the title "My Research Questions" or "My Research Plan".  List your questions on your blog.

5. For each of your questions, think of a plan for finding the answer.  You may need to look at websites, ask folks who are doing that job, or look in books or newspapers.  You may find the following websites helpful:

US Bureau of Labor Statistics     Employment Projections  http://www.bls.gov/emp/
US Bureau of Labor Statistics     Occupational Outlook Handbook    http://www.bls.gov/oco/
        This gives the following information for many different jobs:

• the training and education needed
• earnings
• expected job prospects
• what workers do on the job
• working conditions

You will find other websites, such as Naviance, quite useful as well. Ms Callahan also has some excellent resources you may find useful in your research, so be sure to check with her.   Be as specific as you can in your research plan.

6. Your blog will be scored based on the number of questions you have listed and on your DETAILED plans for finding answers to your questions.

A REMINDER AS YOU GET STARTED:
As you begin your research remember that you will need to list your sources on your final project.  BE SURE TO KEEP A LIST OF YOUR SOURCES. You will need proper citations for every bit of data you use.

Also, your assignment requires you to use a graph or a chart in the answer to one of your questions, so keep your eyes open for a good graph or chart and good illustrations for your project. If you use someone else's information, picture, or chart or graph, you MUST have proper citations and permission to use it.

Have a great time as you get started on this important step in your project!

Blogging Assignment #2 - My Career Choice

In this assignment you will log into Naviance and look up three careers in your top clusters.  You will take notes about those careers, such as what they do, what skills or traits are needed, or any other information that you think shows that this might be the career for you.
BE CAREFUL!  You do not want to list Clusters or Pathways. You must dig all the way to specific jobs.

Next, you will get onto Blogger and write a five paragraph essay based on your notes.  Here is a suggested format for the essay:

    

PARAGRAPH 1 - Introduction.  Tell that you looked on Naviance.  Tell the names of the careers you looked at.

      PARAGRAPH 2 - Tell about the first career you looked at. Use your notes, but put your information into complete sentences.  Tell what people in that career do. Tell what skills are needed for that career.  Tell what personality traits and talents are needed.  Then, tell why you think you would be successful in that career. Use your green sheets to find things about you that match this career.

     PARAGRAPH 3 - Tell about the next career.  Use the same format as Paragraph 2.

     PARAGRAPH 4 - Tell about the next career. Use the same format.

     PARAGRAPH 5 - Conclusion.  Tell which career you have decided to research for your Exploratory Project.  Tell why you think this will be a good career for you.

This assignment is due and must be published by Monday, October 25.

Have fun!

Blogging Assignment #1 - Profile Summary Assignment

Profile Summary Assignment

Our first Blogging assignment for Exploratory Class is to use the two green summary sheets to write a description of yourself as a learner. 

First, use your notes from the light green sheet to help you describe your learning style and how that affects choosing a career path.  Your learning style may have an affect on the kind of post-secondary education you choose in preparing for your career. (Later on, you will also be exploring schools and colleges for your chosen career path.)  For example, if you are a person who does not learn well from words and books and you decide that a four-year college is not for you, you will need to look for careers that do not required bachelor's or advanced degrees.  If you are a person with an auditory learning style who learns best through listening and discussing, a correspondence college would probably drive you nuts.

Next, you will describe what you found out about your strengths using the multiple intelligences survey.  You will need to think about how these strengths fit different careers you are considering.  How would each career utilize the strengths you have? On the other hand, would you be happy and productive in a career that does not utilize your strengths?

Another part of your description will include the preferences and profiles that you discovered on the Naviance program.  The dark green summary sheet will have information from questions you answered about those profiles. You may want to go back now and think about the "extra credit" questions on this sheet; they should help you as you write this part of your profile.

You will be able to take most of your information from the notes on your green sheets, but you will certainly need to make some changes; use complete sentences and good grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Ask a partner-reader to find out what is unclear in your writing and revise so that others will understand what you have to say.

The last paragraph of your post will be the conclusions you have drawn about your future career. For example,

I need to find a career that allows me to be active, move around and use my hands.  It should be one that requires only two years of post-secondary education that uses learning by doing rather than book learning.  I want a career that uses my strengths in working with other people and with art.  I want to find a career in the human resources or manufacturing clusters.  It should have pleasant working conditions and a high salary, and allow me freedom to decide my own schedule.

Finally, you will publish your post.  This will be how you turn this assignment in, so make sure that your exploratory teacher has read and responded to the post. 

Have a wonderful time on your first blogging assignment.