First, some context. I am a first year teacher in California teaching a brand new careers course at my high school's ninth grade academy. Basically, it is a semester-long course where students are working through various activities (including meeting and discussing with professionals from various fields in my community) in order to answer three fundamental questions: Who am I? What do I want? How do I get it?

So far it's been a fun and insightful way to get to know my students as well as the community in which they live. By the end of the course they will have created a plan for where they want to be in ten years. This plan details their passions, work values, and skills; their desired lifestyle and the career(s) that they feel will best satisfy their needs; their plan for how they will graduate high school (my district has a very high drop-out rate that we are working on reducing by targeting ninth graders), and their plans for their post-secondary life. And while the curriculum is not without some faults, I feel it's an important class for first-year high school students.

Okay. Now a question. What is happening at your high school in regards to career planning? I'm curious to know what other high schools around the country are doing to get their students to focus on their future not just beyond high school, but beyond college. I have a feeling that career courses like mine are being rolled out in most states. Please share with me, a brand new, first year, slightly anxiety-ridden teacher!

 This is in response to this mornings discussion of education on Meet the Press.   I felt after viewing this that I just needed to exercise my right to speak.    Just yesterday another talk news show was interviewing an executive in California about why a bided job went to a Chinese company instead of American - the answer... “We needed good welders and they are in short supply in America”.  

Academic education is very important, but ALL children will not go on to college and be college graduates.  We need to focus more on life skills for those students that have a desire to “work with their hands” while in high school.  Reading, writing and math are very important to succeed, but we need to be teaching vocational skills for those, as we did in the 60's, 70’s and 80's.   America needs mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, welders, office assistants, cooks, electricians, farmers,  etc...  Those skills many of us learned in high school have kept us in the American/Alabamian workforce.   Don't get me wrong, college education is important.  However, America needs to get back to educating those that will not go on to college for whatever reason to be productive in an American workforce and bring jobs back to America!    There is no reason why we cannot educate today’s young people to be a productive part of America and help build a better America.

 Wake up AMERICA...   we need welders, plumbers, carpenters, cooks, mechanics, electricians and farmers.  Let's put VOCATIONAL EDUCATION back in our schools and teach life-skills that will make America better and keep an American workforce in our U.S.A.

          As a teacher and widowed mother of 3, I became so concerned with this that I stopped waiting for everyone else to fix this. I started to build a bridge between what schools/can and should offer to better prepare our kids to taking the reigns of their life as adults and building success for THEMSELVES.
       I started in my classroom (and my dining room table with my own tweens and their friends) asking honest questions, gathering TONS of research and listening to it all of it around how to BEST motivate all kids to do their best in high school. To stop seeing it as something to endure and begin seeing it as what it is...a strong foundation for successful life!

I got my school to pilot an elective called Foundations for Success and the outcome of my decade long obsession and work with thousands of teens is a workbook project, called Get totally Real! a journey of self-discovery and life planning for 21st century teenagers. I self-published it originally to save my school money on copies and then teachers/schools/parents began asking for more info. A few schools are using it now and we continue with great success, decreasing failure and increasing test scores in all areas for kids who participate.

         When parents began reaching out and asking for ways to be more involved in the transformation their children were experiencing, I created a Parent Companion that gives parents tools to parallel alongside and actually participate in this process. A win-win situation.

         I know I am just one parent/teacher with one tool, but I know that it is working for my students and many others. My students for years have been telling me I need to find ways to share this with ‘the whole world’. I hesitated because I feared people might think I was trying to make money (which teachers aren't supposed to do). They told me to do what was right and not worry what other think. So…I am sharing the success.

Keep in mind, a college career does not have to be just academia, you can learn trade skills in community colleges. High schools need to collaborate with middle and high schools so that maybe students can take skilled courses, while earn some credits.