Career Exploration in the Library
As an elementary school teacher, I’ve been integrating career-based education into my classrooms for the last eight years. When I moved into the library four years ago, I was excited because I knew it would allow me to reach more students with important information about their futures. HirePaths helped me implement new career-focused lessons and inspired fun activities for my students. I even applied and won a local grant to bring dramatic play centers into the library for younger learners!
Reading and careers have always gone hand-in-hand in the library. I enjoy showing career ideas to younger students by introducing a read-aloud story and activity. One of my favorite stories to read to students is Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet Collins by Michelle Meadows. We then discuss the career of being a performer (singer, dancer, actor, comedian and so on). We also talk about how these careers take school smarts (planning, time management, math and more) along with talent. This activity leads into a unit on biographies and career research.
When students in 4th and 5th grade visit the library, they learn about careers and experience the basics of those skills. I teach a month-long unit on coding and robotics. HirePaths has great interviews with professionals and Cool Careers videos that showcase jobs, including a robotics engineer. Because Wichita State University is close by, it’s always nice to invite college students to stop by and have students hear firsthand what made them go into a career path like coding or robotics.
HirePaths has really pushed me this year to think about how to encourage career exlploration with all of my students. On the HirePaths website, there’s an activity idea about dramatic play that families can do with their kids at home. This got me thinking about how students could play and learn in a library setting. I started with the basics: reading a book about the career and introducing the skills needed to be successful. The first one we did was an elementary teacher — I had a lot to share with them! — then we highlighted jobs like construction worker, doctor, dentist, vet and cosmetologist. I encourage you to do the same with your students, or to discover a way to implement this exploration in your own classroom. After all, kids can’t dream about becoming something until they know it’s out there!
Brittany Horning is a library media specialist at Allen Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas. She was the 2022-2023 Kroger HirePaths Teacher Ambassador.