sandbox

10/14/11
 * It looks like we're just about through the article. I see some themes emerging:
 * A curriculum-wide integration of career material is best
 * Starting out as young as possible is important, because:
 * kids develop interests early on
 * this allows for a long time of exploration and exposure
 * kids can develop the skills needed over a long period of time
 * The primary goals of career counseling in the elementary years are:
 * exposure to job opportunities (start with known, move to unknown)
 * development of key capacities for employment/good citizenship
 * responsibility
 * respect
 * reliability
 * etc.
 * The workshop must be:
 * Fun
 * Relevant to where the students are at (maybe incorporate parents' jobs as starting point)
 * Interactive
 * Offering broad exposure to many jobs
 * Those are my thoughts. What else are you taking from these articles? Can you add information to this outline?

Looks great Nate! I didn't know if we wanted to add anything in about Gottfredson's Stage Development Theory (Stage 2 - Sex roles and Stage 3 - social valuation) just to back up the critical developmental time of the students we are dealing with. I also thought this excerpt from Blackhurst and Auger was good. I cited it in the Bibliography although there is no direct link as I don't know how to link with HTML articles. Sorry about that! Anyone know? I think I have two like that in our Bibliography. I liked the a-f list below as it seemed comprehensive and was in line with ASCA ideas. Third paragraph also talked about the importance of exposing elementary aged children to nontraditional careers. I am going to try and work this in a little to my station. For example, I might talk about a nurse and refer to the nurse as a male and I am trying to expand the students ideas of careers in some basic fields. For example, if you are interested in Farming for example you could also consider Forestry or Geology and still be working outside and with nature. This article also goes on and talks about the important influence that parents have in their children's career development. That could be an additional piece too or these things could just be incorporated into our workshop. Let me know if you have any questions. Just email me or call me! Lisa

Implications for School Counselors
Given school counselors' responsibility to assist pre-K-12 students with both their career development and their academic development (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2005), the results of this study have important implications for school counseling practice. In particular, the findings underscore the importance of implementing elementary and middle school guidance programs designed to assist students with (a) developing a broad range of interests and abilities; (b) understanding the relationship between learning and work; (c) understanding how school success and academic achievement enhance future career and vocational opportunities; (d) developing an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests, and motivations; (e) identifying postsecondary options consistent with interests, achievement, aptitude, and abilities; and (f) learning about a variety of traditional and nontraditional occupations (ASCA). Developmental guidance activities designed to expand children's awareness of career possibilities and broaden their own career aspirations may be particularly important at the elementary level. Research on children's career development suggests that younger children's aspirations are more amenable to change and that children who are encouraged to keep their vocational options open continue to broaden their vocational interests as they age (Mullis et al., 1998). The results of this study combined with recent research on gender differences in career aspirations (Bobo et al., 1998; Junior Achievement Inc., 2003) suggest that boys identify a narrower range of career choices than girls and are more sex-typed in their choices. As a result, school counselors may need to intensify their efforts to educate boys about a range of career options and encourage boys to have high but realistic career aspirations. The apparent success of programs designed to broaden girls' aspirations and expectations (Conlin, 2003; Poe, 2004) can serve as a model for similar programs addressing boys' career development needs. Beginning in elementary school, classroom guidance lessons can include activities that help reduce students' fears, correct their misperceptions, and broaden their awareness of career options. Students may be particularly accepting of nontraditional career options when presented with nontraditional career role models (White & Ouellette, 1980). Therefore, inviting speakers with nontraditional occupations, reading stories whose characters hold nontraditional jobs, and taking field trips to view workers in nontraditional settings may help dispel students' gender and cultural stereotypes. Depicting nontraditional workers on career posters and establishing mentoring programs for children interested in nontraditional careers are other tools for widening career aspirations (Lee & Cramond, 1999). The most influential role models for elementary school children are often their own parents. Whether by example or through their expectations for their children's futures, parents exert a powerful influence on their children's early educational and career aspirations (Ramos & Sanchez, 1995; Trice & Tillapaugh, 1991). Because parents may be unaware of their influence in this area, however, they may need education about their role in their children's career development (Whiston & Sexton, 1998). To encourage parents' involvement in career guidance activities, school counselors might include home-based projects such as family trees highlighting family members' occupations, or collages about family members' occupations and/or aspirations. Inviting parents into the elementary classroom and encouraging parents to invite students into their work environments are other effective means of capitalizing on parents' influence as role models. At both the elementary and middle school levels, children may benefit from increased information about the various postsecondary options and the benefits of postsecondary education. Given that the male-dominated jobs requiring only a high school diploma (e.g. truck driver, construction worker) pay much higher wages than the female-dominated jobs requiring only a high school diploma (e.g. customer service, day-care provider), girls may see a financial incentive to college that is not immediately apparent to boys (Glenn, 2004). Educating children about the lifetime financial benefits of attending college (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003) may therefore be particularly important for boys.

Hi Everyone! We are out of power and have moved into my Dad's house...crazy weekend. My sister and her kids are here too! Don't know if the above info. helps at all. Let's think about some times the four of us can meet before Thanksgiving break and plan our schedules out on Wed. night we when see each other. Lisa

Hi Everyone. I just had the chance to add feedback to Nate's rough draft. I was in Harrisburg this weekend and we were out of power the entire day. Nate-you did a great job with the draft. I noticed that you mentioned the importance of beginning career development at an early age. In the article, The Career Development Needs and Rural Elementary School Students, by Wood and Kaszubowski, it spoke a lot to this topic. They mentioned how the lack of attention of career development is evident in professional literature. They then bring up the fact that this inhibits the building of a systematic career development. With this happening, career aspirations are decreasing which suggests a need for increased career development. Another part that I found important in this article was that Wood and Kaszubowski brought up Super and how he views career development as a lifelong process discussing the stages of growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and disengagement. Finally, the article included a study where elementary school students were given the Childhood Career Development Scale that assessed the students in the nine dimensions of Super's growth stage of career development. In addition, they asked the students to list careers they were considering. file

The second article, which was the Career Activity File: Counseling Tools for a Guidance Program. This gave several ways for career development to be implemented at an early age. This shows that it is never too early for career development to be introduced to a younger population.

Kim and Lisa--

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Both of these ideas are excellent, so I will add in those changes to the literature review this Friday. If there are any other suggestions before then, please let me know __before Friday, November 4, 2011__ so that I can be finished on that day with the final draft. I will make the changes, post the second draft, and ask for final confirmation from you guys that it is complete, and then I will post it to blackboard (hopefully by Saturday?). That way, we can move on to the planning stage for our workshop. We need to make sure to incorporate most (if not all) suggestions from our literature review into our workshop so that we can justify why we did certain things during the course of our presentation. I really think that this is shaping up to be a solid "A"!

Chris--

Any thoughts on things that Kim and Lisa may have left out? Any revisions that you noted?

nate