O*NET: Free Career Source

by Renee Tonquest
CTE Cluster Specialist
Health Science

Working over the past few months with the development of our new Career Portals materials has allowed me to become more familiar with the O*NET website.  O*NET is the nation’s free source of occupational information which contains hundreds of occupation-specific career descriptions.  This site is much more than a tool for the Career Portals course.  You can search for careers by keywords, your interests or you can browse over 900 career options sorted by specific industry. It may be used throughout your life in the event you decide to change jobs later on. 

Listed below are just some of the many resources you can access through the O*NET site. 

Career Exploration Tools http://www.onetcenter.org/tools.html

You can use these tools for self-directed career exploration tools to plan career options. These tools are also a great resource for students who are thinking about their future career plans. 

O*NET Work Importance Locator  http://www.onetcenter.org/WIL.html?p=3

The O*NET Work Importance Locator is a self-assessment career exploration tool that allows you to identify what is important in a job. It will help you identify occupations that you may like based on the similarity between your work values and the characteristics of the occupations.

Green Occupations  http://www.onetcenter.org/green.html

You can also specifically search for green increased-demand occupations, green enhanced skills occupations, and green new and emerging occupations on the O*NET website. 

Bright Outlook  http://www.mynextmove.org/find/bright

The Bright Outlook section highlights careers that will grow rapidly over the next few years; will have large numbers of openings; and are new and emerging. 

Professionals face aggressive competition for the most desired positions in the workforce.  It is essential to be able to use a variety of online tools to research careers and occupations.  Take a few minutes to explore the O*NET website; it may be perfect for you classroom or your personal life. 

Resource

O*NET OnLine. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2015, from http://www.onetonline.org/

The Practical Practicum

By Holly B. Smith

Cluster Specialist

Business Management Administration and Finance 

Have any of you taught your practicum in the last year?  Will you be teaching it next year?  If so, pull up a chair because I think your life is going to get easier very soon. 

For 18+ months, we, on the UNT Educational Excellence grants, have been working on an entire year’s worth of practicum lessons.  They are all alike and all unique, sharing many of the same attributes you’ve come to know and love with UNT lessons while differentiating themselves within each cluster’s specific content requirements.  

If you are in Health Sciences, then you already have a practicum that easily laps most others, including the Practicum in Business Management.  I know it’s been sorely lacking for a long time, and that makes me even more excited and eager to share the new practicum with you.  In fact, Kristin Firmery Petrunin (Marketing) and I are going to present the socks off the practicum project this summer at our July conference.  Go to this link to learn more about the TCEC Summer Conference:  http://tcecconference.com/summer.   

The layout of practicum looks like this:

1.  Introduction 
2. Prep (classroom tips, useful websites, a general practicum, house keeping details, training station orientation) 
3. Curriculum

Each cluster’s curriculum will look different from this point.  For instance, Business will cover the History of Office Administrators; then, our lessons will lay out according to the scope & sequence document.  This is traditionally how our lessons flow and that will continue through the Practicum lessons.  We have worked in some presentation opportunities, some projects for both individuals and groups and both Leadership and Advanced Leadership lessons. 

Additionally, you will find useful supplemental lessons.  We used an “above-and-beyond” approach to rounding out practicums.  Our Business practicum doesn’t have any TEKS that specifically talk about a digital portfolio, how to search for scholarships, how to understand and work in a global marketplace or understanding general project management, time management and personal management.  

YET, we know that these are vital skill sets for out students.  For that reason, we included them.  We spent a lot of time, on this project, putting down the basics and then asking “what else?” What else do practicum students need to know, need to practice, need to understand?

 

I, too, kept asking myself, “What else? What else is there to offer students during practicum?”  I suggest reading some of Jeff Haden’s submissions, as Contributing Editor, to Inc.  He has written insightful articles that fall in the “soft skills” arena.  My particular favorites are:  “7 Traits of Exceptionally Charming People” and “Habits of Remarkably Giving People”.  

www.inc.com is full of useful articles written from a young and fresh perspective about the trials of the workplace.  Any practicum teacher can use one of these articles on a weekly basis to preface an upcoming unit of study.  (Please preview any articles or videos prior to using them in your classroom.) 

Here’s to a practical, “above-and-beyond” practicum for us all!

New Framework for CTE

by Kristin Petrunin Marketing Cluster Specialist

This fall I had an opportunity to attend the Association for Career and Technical Education Research conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference was full of great ideas for CTE students, educators, and administrators. Across all of the information presented at the conference, one specific idea seemed to answer CTE’s most pressing need. What is CTE?

Dr. Jay Rojewski and Dr. Roger Hill (2014) created an evolutionary framework for 21st Century CTE. The framework was not cluster specific and did not promise to contain all of the answers for the field. It was a solid starting point for addressing what CTE needs to become. Three components were suggested to create lasting and durable outcomes for students in the 21st century workplace. 

Final Thoughts
CTE is often accused of cluster loyalty instead of holistic career success. What if we started to address this framework within all career clusters? Have we become engrossed in relaying course content instead of preparing students for individualized career decisions? Is it possible to include this framework within current coursework?

Superlatives: Absolutely the Most Terrible Plague to be Visited on American Culture in the History of the World…EVER!!!

by Holly B. Smith
Cluster Specialist
Business Management and Administration


I first began noticing our society’s abuse of superlatives from an old “Seinfeld” monologue:

“People love to recommend their doctor to you. I don't know what they get out of it, but they really push them on you.

"Is he good?"

"He's the best. This guy's the best." There can't be this many "bests." Someone's graduating at the bottom of the classes. Where are these doctors? Is someone somewhere saying to their friend, "You should see my doctor, he's the worst. He's the absolute worst there is. Whatever you've got, it'll be worse after you see him. The man's an absolute butcher."

And whenever a friend refers a doctor they say, "Make sure that you tell him that you know me." Why? What's the difference? He's a doctor.

"Oh, you know Bob? Oh, okay, I'll give you the real medicine. Everybody else I'm giving Tic Tacs."

A superlative is the form of an adjective or adverb that, in general, means something of the highest quality or degree; surpassing or being superior to all others; or, excessive or exaggerated.  

 

One of the most accurate barometers for pop culture society can be our television. Go ahead and watch some rerun episodes of “Friends” and count the superlatives. It carried on nicely through its comedy cousin, “How I Met Your Mother”, but superlatives gained speed in that, by the time HIMYM writers opened their superlative vault, they found two superlatives in abundance to use because everything was the BEST EVER.

 

Then, we move on to the distant, Chicago cousin of “Friends,” the short-lived comedy “Happy Endings” in which the writers took it upon themselves to create their own superlatives, like “crazyballs” or “amazeballs” as in, “I just tasted the MOST AmazeBALLS cheesecake”. And, when something like superlative abuse is prevalent on television, we know it runs rampantly through the culture like a cute Daddy-daughter twerking video on Facebook.

 

There are many reasons why teachers can, and should, move students away from the often unconscious misuse of superlatives. First, using superlatives too much renders them pointless. If every movie is the best movie ever, then by that same logic, no movie is the best movie ever. When we overuse these terms of praise, they have less and less meaning and this translates into our thinking. The bar is continually reset lower and lower when we can no longer decipher what our standards for measuring quality are.

 

Secondly, superlatives have become the lazy brain’s thesaurus. Who among us has tried to describe something, and when our brains couldn’t find a suitable adjective, we used “Really” or “the most” or, the ultimate cop out, the phrase, “SOOOO so much”. Years ago, we believed texting short-speak to be harmless until it invaded classroom essays and test answers. Do we now find it acceptable for students to spell “please” with a “plz” – an ingenious way of not only shortening a five-letter word, but misspelling it in the process? No. But, when we are asked to describe something, and we supply a “great”, then follow up with a “totally!” then we have to wonder why haven’t we been punched in the faces?

 

Finally, we want our CTE students to have vibrant portfolios, to fill out eye-catching and interesting job and college applications and we want them to have rich vocabularies that put them above the competition in interviews. We do not want our students to answer a question about their first work experience as a teenager with, “Oh, my first job was the best job ever! And, my boss, I loved her. She was absolutely the most amazing boss anyone could hope to have. Really.” 

 

The Johnson O’Connor Research Center offers us four basic steps to build a better vocabulary. (After all, we cannot try to remove one habit if we don’t replace it with a more positive one.)

 

1. Be aware of words. Post them more around your room. Make students highlight new words in articles. Create lists. Review a new word once a week. Give bonus points for the use of new words. Be especially conscious of bringing in new adjectives and adverbs, the words that superlatives most often are replacing.  
2. Read. Use the NPR app, for example, and find articles worthy of a group read in the classroom. Assign more reading. 
3. Use a dictionary for the class that you select and of which you approve. Let your students see you using the dictionary in class during a lecture. Don’t be afraid to show them that you can always learn a new word, too. 
4. Study and review. Keep a classroom list of adjectives and adverbs that you all want to use. Let your students name it…maybe something silly and tongue in cheek. “Business Management’s “Cray-Cray-Amazeballs” Vocabulary List”. 

You can, if you’re feeling very industrious, also find many quick and free exercises online about how to incorporate comparatives and superlatives. But, that is creeping over into English, and not CTE.

 

Having to do that, well, that would the biggest and most completely ridiculously awful ordeal that any teacher has ever had to do in the whole history of teachers around the entire world. Ever. For real.

 

References 

 

http://www.leedberg.com/seinfeld/monologues.html
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/superlative
http://www.jocrf.org/resources/EffectiveWays.html
 

The Call for Classroom Global Awareness

by Holly Smith
Cluster Specialist
Business Management Administration
Finance, Marketing

Without checking the answers, see if you can identify the cluster by the following TEKS:

1. The student understands professional communications strategies. The student is expected to:
   (A) adapt language for audience, purpose, situation, and intent
   (F) listen to and speak with diverse individuals
2. The student integrates knowledge and presentation skills related to diplomacy when representing the United States to host-country officials, media personnel, and traveling officials. The student is expected to:
   (A) demonstrate the ability to provide host-country officials with information on United States government and culture
   (B) organize exchange programs to enable future host-country decision makers to acquire familiarity with the United States institutions, customs, and culture
3. The student explores concepts related to cultural diversity. The student is expected to:
   (A) identify significant similarities and differences in international culture
   (B) explain the variety of world markets
   (C) describe marketing factors and practices that impact other cultures.

ANSWERS:

1. Arts, A/V Technology and Communication
2. Government and Public Administration
3. Transportation, Distribution and Logistics

When I talk to CTE teachers about the impact we can make on our students by teaching global etiquette and global awareness, I always ground the discussion by referencing TEKS beyond the scope of my clusters of Business Administration and Management and Finance. While global awareness certainly fits best in the class Global Business, the topic is also covered in almost cluster explicitly; and, in every cluster in a general statement for at least one class.

Here are some quick ways we can infuse some global awareness into any class:

1. Use the professional development, 2-part series found here on our site to introduce our students to cultural etiquette in a select number of countries. http://cte.unt.edu/business/best-practices.
2. Consider getting a copy of Kiss, Bow or Shake Hands by Terri Morrison. You will be hard-pressed to find a better reference book for learning etiquette of every culture, from the tipping policies to how to hand out business cards.
3. If buying a book doesn’t fit your classroom budget, try using the CIA Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
4. Use Journeysinfilm.org and incorporate their free lesson plans that accompany their global documentaries.
5. Need some apps? I suggest these free apps (in both Android and Apple versions).
   API Study Abroad – app is a peer-to-peer information exchange with current, former and future exchange students.
   World Flag Currency Converter – convert dollars into any currency around the globe
   Subway Maps – Subway maps of the world

Want some games for global awareness? Use worldlicenseplates.com to create flashcards of 20+ countries. On the back, put facts about each country.

Or, send your students on a journey from Texas to the L’Ouvre. When they have their trip planned, including travel costs and logistics, exchange rate for their funds, how to travel around Paris, then have them go to the L’Ouvre’s website and take a virtual tour. Ask them questions about how to tip their waiter, the best method of traveling the city, how people greet each other, etc. For even more global awareness tips, find my presentation at TCEC this summer in Houston, Texas. For more information, click here: http://www.tcecconference.com/summer.

Virtual Concierge

Holly B. Smith

Business, Management Administration and Finance Clusters Specialist
How many of us have wondered, “What more can they do with technology?” Let me introduce you to Virtual Concierges, making their way to a hotel, office, hospital, stadium or mall near you.

While the idea of a concierge isn’t new (it stretches all the way back to those helping kings and queens out of royal carriages and fetching things for them) today we think of a concierge as one who tells us what local restaurants are better and helps us hail a cab.  

Concierges also expand into the realm of personal assistants. If you shop in a high, high end store, you may be assigned a concierge to bring your clothing options to you in a private dressing room. This often happens at high end wedding gown shops…accompanied by champagne and snacks. If concierges were ever thought of as something for the higher echelon, then consider technology to be the great equalizer.

“(A) virtual concierge is an interactive application that allows you to utilize a digital sign in replacement of or as an enhancement to a traditional concierge or guest service representative. It gives your guests the convenience of finding all of the information they are looking for through an interactive experience much like a blown up version of a smart phone.”  

Virtual concierges are popping up around the country, but think beyond the check-in at your favorite airport. Stadiums, hospitals/long-term care facilities, hotels, shopping malls, corporate lobbies and residential complexes are all joining the virtual concierge revolution.

Take, for example, a company like Gee Bo by JCS Enterprises, Inc, and their virtual concierge options. They offer every service from buying your team’s favorite jersey in the gift shop while sitting in the stadium watching the game to paging the on call doctor while in your hospital room to walking into a mall and, using the free Gee Bo app, locating all of the stores with sales for the items you came to purchase.

Image from: http://www.gee-bo.com/jcsNet/jcsNet.html

 

Gee Bo currently has its virtual concierges in Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, where patrons can order their concessions from their seat (on their Smartphone) and even swipe a credit or debit card for payment (with a handling fee charged).

From a hospital bed, you can make your meal choices for the day, watch a video on psoriasis, fill out a survey complaining about the quality of your food, and make a donation to the children’s wing. Virtual concierges aim to bring any consumer with a Smartphone or tablet access to more information and options in a quick and convenient format. Virtual concierges won’t bring you champagne, but they can tell you what stores are having sales. And, if you scan the proper QR Code, a virtual concierge will also give you coupons for your purchase.

Finding the CTE Application

If you are looking for a brainstorming topic for CTE classes, present information on virtual concierges to the class; or, have them research the topic. Then, break the class into groups and have each group come up with their own virtual concierge for your school. What would students find helpful with such a system? Teachers and staff? Visitors? 

Then, have the groups identify the areas of CTE in which the virtual concierge cover. Guide them to discuss entrepreneurship, business, technology, marketing, etc.

(2012, November 20.) What is a concierge anyway? Retrieved from http://blog.thevirtualconcierge.com/2012/11/what-is-a-concierge-anyway/

Retrieved from http://www.fourwindsinteractive.com/applications/virtual-concierge/

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaqH2kfW3KU

Retrieved from http://www.gee-bo.com/jcsNet/jcsNet.html

Financial Reality Check

By Holly Smith
Cluster Specialist
Business Management & Administration
Finance

If I could teach my seven and nine year-old girls something, it would be a greater understanding of money.  While they aren’t teenagers, they would spend  money like teenagers.  We implemented the Dave Ramsey soup cans of “save” “give” and “spend”, but that wasn’t capturing their attentions.  Then, we took them to the bank and they opened savings accounts and received their very own debit cards for deposit and withdrawals only.  As you can imagine, we now are scouring two messy bedrooms for those cards.

If you think about it, my girls aren’t much different than our teenager students.  Most of them want to spend money, may lose interest in saving money, and often lose track of money.  Where does a CTE teacher begin to wade through all of the available information out there to implement some practical information about personal finances?

I suggest starting with “The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy” http://www.jumpstart.org. The emphasis is from pre-kindergarten through college age, and promotes lifelong financial success.  This site has a “rich” list of free resources which include single lessons and learning games as well as comprehensive courses.  They show you the National and State Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education.  They have also listed their best practices for any teacher who would like to submit for publication.

 

The best tool for a teacher to implement in the classroom is their “Reality Check”. 

While it isn’t a precise budgeting tool, it will give students (especially your seniors) a valid assessment of what it will cost to live the life they want.  Have students go online, fill it out and look at their reality check.  They will be told what their average weekly salary needs to be after taxes, given some jobs that make that average salary, and then given the average salary earned according to degree of education achieved.

To keep the conversation going, ask the following questions:

1)    By a show of hands, how many of you need to make more money?

2)    How many of you need to reevaluate your luxury expenses? (i.e. haircuts, manicures, eating out)

3)    What are some other luxury expenses that you don’t feel you can live without? (answers will be type of car, clothing, happy hours, hair color treatments, etc.)

4)    If you have a luxury item that you refuse to lose, are you a bad person?  What are your guidelines for luxury spending?

5)    How, if at all, have your plans for your future changed based on this reality check?

I hope you will find this reality check fun and useful. 

Retrieved from May 14, 2001, from http://www.jumpstart.org/reality-check.html