HirePaths Meets K-12 Library and Information Literacy Instruction for All Ages

As the director of the K-12 school library program at Quinter Schools, I manage various reading and information literacy initiatives across the entire district. Our school is always seeking innovative ways to improve information competency and reading skills among our small rural student population. The role of the school library director is to provide unique opportunities to discover topics across a wide range of curricular areas, including career exploration.

Working with every student in the district allows me to provide students from ages 5 through 18 with engaging career content and exploratory activities. Another important aspect of my job is to collaborate with all teachers to provide enriching support for their classrooms. Using the HirePaths resources has enhanced my instruction and given me a variety of materials in many formats. I plan to expand my career-focused lessons now that I have successfully used HirePaths in my library classes, and I will continue to recommend HirePaths materials to instructors throughout Quinter Schools.

Links with Library Themes Enhance Cross-Curricular Collaboration

One of the ways we promote a collaborative spirit at Quinter Junior-Senior High School is to invite students and teachers to participate in monthly themes. As the school library program director, I often tie these themes into teen pop culture. Perhaps the most engaging career activities in 2023-2024 centered around the recent phenomenon of Barbie. And since Barbie has had over 200 careers, what better way to showcase a huge variety of career opportunities?

We began by transforming the library into a Barbie dream world, complete with life-size Barbie and Ken boxes for students. I developed a curriculum guide for high school teachers with multiple opportunities to tie the Barbie theme into their own curricular areas. This is a comprehensive guide to the Barbie theme in school, and our students were tickled pink with the activities! You can download the guide, which includes many links to HirePaths resources, here.

I used the Barbie theme to develop career research worksheets using Canva, then guided junior high students through the HirePaths website and other sites to help them find information on the career paths they chose to research. 

We decorated the school with Barbie career posters, offered students the chance to create their own Barbie career bookmarks, and gave away Barbie stickers to those who completed career-focused short readings or watched a career video on the HirePaths website. Students who completed Barbie-themed activities throughout the month were entered into a prize drawing for a cupcake party!

Careers in the STEAM Lab

After the Barbie extravaganza, we could hardly bring ourselves to move on to a new theme, but it was full STEAM ahead, as we began to investigate science, technology, engineering, arts and math careers (aka STEAM) using a part of our high school library called the Michael Tilton STEAM Lab. Two years ago, a local family donated a generous sum of money for a complete renovation of a large room adjacent to the library to honor their son Michael, who died in a tragic accident in the late 1990s. This STEAM Lab provided the perfect space to explore careers in a hands-on environment.

Our STEAM Lab is set up in steampunk style, so our accompanying activities channeled that industrial design spirit as well. In collaboration with the science and math teachers, groups of students created projects centered around various careers, using templates developed using Canva as guides. Students researched their chosen careers using these resources on the HirePaths website.

Students prepared a final project using equipment and supplies in the STEAM Lab. Their options included a podcast, video, poster, slideshow or 3D representation. This activity created a great opportunity for teachers and students to investigate the HirePaths resources while also collaborating with the library staff, who ordered a new selection of career-related books and resources to support the activity, which we plan to continue next year.

Hats People Wear

Since I am involved with library and information literacy instruction throughout the entire district, I am able to provide career resources for even our youngest students. Kindergarten and first grade students come to library class once a week, and during that time, we read a variety of picture books about jobs and complete a hats activity.

A couple of children’s books focus on the hats people wear in different careers. I use Whose Hat Is This?: A Look at Hats Workers Wear by Cooper and There’s a Hat For That by Fleming to launch the unit. Also, hundreds of individual careers are represented in picture books for children. One handy list is here, but there are so many books not mentioned on this resource. Librarians are helpful in curating lists tailored to your classroom or child’s collection. Having many book options for students to check out is important, as kids not only like to pick out their own books, but they are also more successful and motivated readers when they get to choose. Displaying more than enough books for kids to take home is an excellent strategy.

While the career unit is not new to our elementary library curriculum, using Cool Careers videos is! These videos seamlessly coordinate with the reading of selected career-related books. For example, the Season 2: Episode #11 video about pilots pairs well with The Airplane Pilot: Jake Wants to be a Pilot by Parkar or Could I Be a Pilot?: Evie's Journey to Becoming a Pilot by Settles. Or I Want To Be a Teacher by Driscoll can pair with the Season 2: Episode #7 video. The options are many; this is a lesson that you can tailor to your audience.

One way to add interest and a really fun element is to have the students choose the daily career exploration by voting on which career hat to wear for the day. At Quinter Elementary, I laminated hats coordinating with the HirePaths videos. I made templates of many different hats using Canva (you can download those here). Students enjoy either voting or drawing — appropriately enough, out of a hat! If a visit from a career representative is possible, this is a fabulous wrap-up to the hats theme.

Reflections On My HirePaths Year

As my year as a HirePaths Ambassador draws to a close, I can reflect upon a positive experience — a real learning journey for my students and for me. I am eager to see what the other ambassadors will share and continue to use these resources at my school.

Valerie Brown-Kuchera is in her 31st year of education. Prior to taking on the position of K-12 school library and STEAM Lab director at USD 293 in Quinter,  she served as a high school English teacher, a gifted facilitator and a college instructor. She was a 2023-2024 Dane G. Hansen Foundation HirePaths Teacher Ambassador. She uses HirePaths curriculum and materials to enhance library instruction for students of all ages, even early elementary. Ms. Brown-Kuchera enjoys reading, remodeling her Victorian house, and traveling with her husband and three children.