Using Modern Workplace Skills as a Filter to Inspire Students
Traniece Brown-Warrens, M.Ed, School Counselor turned Principal
One of my mom’s favorite cartoons was The Jetsons. Do you remember this show? If not, pause and YouTube the show — you will be quite impressed by their take on what the future would be like. Some ideas we haven’t seen (yet), but did you see any inventions from the show that you might own today? Do you think Apple Watches and FaceTime were inspired by this show? Or how about robots working in plants instead of humans?
You may be wondering what the television show The Jetsons has to do with education and school counseling. Well, let me make the connection: The Jetsons inspired young inventors who wanted to create the world they saw on the television. A passion was sparked, new possibilities could be dreamed, and they would be willing to take a risk into the unknown.
As School Counselors, we can become a passion spark for our students like The Jetsons was for some young inventors. Do we know what the future will look like? Nope, but we can bank on technology becoming more advanced. What we do know is students will need certain 21st century workplace skills to be successful. According to researchers Musa, Mufti, Latiff, & Amin (2012) from the University Kebangsaan Malaysia these 21st century workplace skills include: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation. I think this where School Counselors can play a pivotal role in our student’s futures. It is now time to reexamine and reimagine our lessons, small groups and one-on-ones through the lens of these 21st century workplace skills.
As an elementary school counselor, this research inspired me to rethink how my small groups could infuse these 21st century workplace skills. On my campus there was a high interest in Scratch, which is a coding program created by MIT. In class, students would talk about what they created and share their games they made on Scratch. With input from teachers, I started a Scratch group for K-2 graders. The goal of the group was to provide students with a safe space to build their 21st century workplace skills. Here’s how the program supported 21st century skills:
21st Century Skill: Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Skill in Action: Group choose Scratch coding cards to complete at the start of the session. A student led the small group through how to complete the coding card first. Then students worked individually to complete the task on their own profiles.
21st Century Skill: Communication
Skill in Action: Students used sentence stems to help them to have structured conversations. This taught students how to ask questions, provide their peer with encouragement and how to share the air space.
- Why did…?
- How did…?
- What if…?
- How come…?
- I wonder if…?
21st Century Skill: Collaboration
Skill in Action: Students learned the power of coming together to not only create, but also share and celebrate each other. Before the time was up students got a chance to share what they created, and their peers cheered for them and celebrated their success. For many this was the first time they felt comfortable sharing their work.
21st Century Skill: Creativity
Skill in Action: Students were able to master the skill of the day and then add own backgrounds, change the characters to make their piece their own. I loved watching their creativity take over.
21st Century Skill: Innovation
Skill in Action: Our Scratch club was an opportunity for these young minds to see there are many different ways to solve a problem, create a project and/or enjoy school.
The structures we put in place during our small groups, lessons and one-on-one sessions can allow our students to have the opportunity to practice these skills and then feel more empowered to utilize them in the classroom and beyond. This is how we can become the inspiration for our students like the Jetsons were for so many young inventors.
Traniece Brown-Warrens, M.Ed is an Assistant Principal in Portland, OR and is also pursuing her Executive Ed.D. at Baylor University. Her purpose is to empower, inspire and encourage students and teachers to become the greatest version of themselves. She believes to become the best versions of ourselves we need the proper tools, knowledge, and practice time with the content to build their skills. Find her on Twitter at @BrownWarrens.
References
Musa, F., Mufti, N., Latiff, R. A., & Amin, M. M. (2012). Project-based learning (PjBL): Inculcating soft skills in 21st century workplace. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 59, 565–573.
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To be reminded why your work is so very important and for more stories and advice, visit our collection of teacher perspectives at The Art of Teaching.
