Business Bulletin Board Idea - Award Winning

Hello Teachers,

"Dream It and Do It" for the classroom helps you teach career paths in a way that has never been done before. Using topics you are already teaching and tools you already have in the classroom, “Dream It and Do It-career role models” helps to teach elementary aged kids that there are so many possibilities that are based on the things that they love to learn and study.

How this program works:

STEP 1: CREATE BACK TO SCHOOL BULLETIN BOARD - Create a blank bulletin board using colored paper and abels for the various subjects that you will be teaching in your class. 

STEP 2: EXPLAIN BACK TO SCHOOL BULLETIN BOARD- The point of this blank bulletin board is to have kids HELP you fill it in with the careers that are of interest to them. The goal is that by career day in April, kids will have placed enough cards on the board to help them see if there are certain areas of study that will be important to them as they work towards their dreams. Many kids would like to be pilots, but understanding that math is critical to this career is something that most kids don’t understand until much later in life.

To make this happen, you will need the FREE “Career Role Model Trading Cards” download from Teachers Pay Teachers printed off and cut out. Usually 1 stack of cards per every 8 kids is enough, you can always print more later if you need to.

Explain to kids that as part of your math, science, social study and art (and maybe a little business?) curriculum, you will be reading stories that showcase how the things you are learning can lead to a future career choice. As you read these stories, kids will be able to request “trading cards” for the careers that interest them. They will write their name on the card and put it on the board. 

STEP 3: INTEGRATE STORIES INTO CURRICULUM

This is where the magic really happens. As you are teaching math, you can show kids that they can become an engineer, software developer or an architect. Math can seem a lot more fun when kids realize that the person who develops roller coasters for a living relies on math to do so. Same for science, social studies, business and art. Start each lesson with one story and inspire kids to pay attention to the lesson you are teaching that follows. With each story end with a discussion of three questions: 

1.     How do you think this person uses math, science, business, social studies/government or art? 
2.     What do you think would be interesting about doing this job?
3. What lesson can we learn from this person?

STEP 4: CAREER DAY

After spending most of the school year building up your bulletin board, you will now have an easy way to bring this day to life without digging around on Teachers Pay Teachers for some clip art program that is unlikely to inspire action or inspiration. Invite parents into the classroom, make videos or create a project to send home that helps explain what careers and subjects each child is drawn towards and why.  I have seen this done really well where kids research one of the jobs they chose and each child gives a “day in the life” presentation to the classroom. Another idea is to identify certain careers that a large population of the classroom has expressed an interest in and bring in real-life role models to talk about their job and answer questions. The possibilities are endless now that the kids have spent all year expressing their interests visually (all while helping you keep your bulletin board fresh and relevant!)

BONUS: If you found this program through hearing my talk on the news or a podcast, you may have heard me talk about “career personalities. This is another way for you to help kids find career paths that are the right FIT for them. This process basically looks at a child's interests and talents and helps them understand their personality type. Research shows that we are more likely to be satisfied in our jobs if we choose one that is a fit for our personality type. To learn more about this please listen to one of the teacher podcasts I am featured on that can be found at www.dreamitanddoitkids.com/teachers.

Using this process is a little bit more complicated than teaching by “subject”, but the impact can be substantial. In the index of every story packet I have listed the career personalities next to the person's name. Instead of building your bulletin board by subject, simply build it by personality type. This helps kids see if there is a pattern in the jobs they are choosing and how that might reflect their personality. 

You can also access a free classroom-ready quiz that allows kids to answer 15 questions that help them access their personality based on their current interests and talents and compare it to the cards they have been putting on the board all year. You can access it at dreamitanddoitkids.com/teachers under “bonus”.