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3 Things Students Should Have

Before They Leave High School 1

January 17, 2015 by George

There is a great commercial on TV right now, where a candidate for a position goes
in for an interview to become an engineer, and as the interviewer is asking him
what makes you qualied for this position?, which then follows him sitting down
and breaking the chair. The person applying then comments about the design of
the chair and how it is not made to hold someone with all that weight. Obviously,
the interview is over immediately after that, with the point of the commercial being
that it is not enough to just have the skills to do the job, butthere are so
manyother skills for any position. You can understand all of the elements of being
a great teacher, but knowledge is not only important, but also the skills todo the
job, and the ability to even obtain a position in the rst place.

So how are schools helping students create opportunities for themselves both
during their time in school, and after as well? In my time in school, I remember
going over how to make a resume, and looking at how to create a paper portfolio.
Both were relevant to me at the time, but not necessarily helpful to our students
today. Mashable has an interesting article on The 10 Reasons Why I Ignored Your
Resume, and a lot of the tips deal directly with a persons digital footprint and
networking:
 Job hunting is hard, so dont make it harder that it has to be. Do yourself
a favor and dont give a company a reason not to hire you before you
even get to the interview. Marketing has changed, adapt your job search
strategy accordingly!

Although this article is geared towards marketing, there are many elements that
would be applicable to a wide range of careers.

Irecently saw educator Joti Jando share an article about her business students
taking part in a Dragons Den activity, which went way beyond creating
something and becoming engaged in the classroom, but giving them real world
skills and understanding of the opportunities that exist:

Students presented their business ideas including a breakdown on

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, competition,
management and operations, related government regulations and
nancial analysis for assessment by the panelists.

This type of real-world exercise raises the level of student engagement,

Jando has found.

Textbook and theoretical lessons dont generate the same kind of

enthusiasm or practical experience, she (Jando) suggested.
Furthermore, an opportunity to meet and network with successful
business people and entrepreneurs may hold as much value as this
project-based learning.

So although the examples I have sharedseem to be specic to business, there

340
are a lot of takeaways for all of our students in helping them to not only learns
Shares

content and skills in school, but actually helping them to create opportunities for
themselves
106 in our world.
Here
106 are three things that I would like to see all students have by the time they

graduate from our schools to help create opportunities for themselves.

97

1. Students should be connected through a social network with other people

in their
61 eld of choice.

Teachers
26 love Twitter, and although there is great learning that happens there, many
educators have created opportunities for themselves simply being connected and
networking with other people. I know several teachers that have obtained positions
in new schools because they had someone interested in their work that they shared
through Twitter. There are a lot of possibilities for anyone. For our students though,
Twitter may or may not be the place. YouTube, Instagram, Vine, LinkedIn, Google
Plus, or probably ones that I dont even know about, have a plethora of
communities in any given profession. Students should not only be able to learn

Contact Me
from people in the eld, but also network and create connections with others. I am
sure we have all heard the saying, it is not what you know, but who you know.
The adage hasnt changed, but the opportunitiesand ease of access to one
another has. We need to help students connect.

2. Students should have a digital portfolio.

There have been a lot of articles shared that the resume is dead, and that our
social networks are more crucial than ever. Although a resume has a place in many
institutions, a digital portfolio denitely can be seen as giving someone an
advantage as it gives a deeper look into someones skill sets, and is accessible
24/7. Recently having my own wedding, if you were a photographer that did not
have a digital portfolio of your work, we were not even going to consider hiring
them. They didnt even exist in our considerations. Being able to nd someone
online is one thing, but having the opportunity to look deeper into their actual work
is crucial. Whatever the format, or the medium (written, images, video,
podcasts,and so on), it is necessary for an employer to go beyond the resume.A
resume can be a part of this, but it only tells a small part of the story.

3. Students should have an about.me page.

About.me is a great way to share a digital business card, and I have likened it to
your Internet cover letter. It is not overwhelming with information, but it has links to
much more. (Here is an example of a students page that was actually featured on
the about.me homepage!) Having your about.me link as your email signature is a
great way to not overwhelm future employees with some LONG quote at the end of
each email, but also gives them the opportunity to connect with more information if
they are interested. The other reason Ireallylike the thought of students creating
their own about.me pages is that it actually links to their other social networks,
which if they are thoughtful about it, probably be a lot more appropriate if they know
potential employers or post-secondary institutions are looking at what they are
sharing. In a recent article from US Today,Marymount University coach
BrandonChambers was quoted as saying, Never let a 140 character tweet cost
you a $140,000 scholarship. Having an about.me page is sending a dierent
message. It is saying, here are my social networks and I encourage you to look at
them. What impact would this have on students not only on their future, but their
digital footprint today? I think having the ability to bring everything together could
be very powerful for our students.

Of course, there are no absolutes in what a student should walk away with, but if
schools focused on these three areas as part of what a student would leave a
school with, would it not also help tremendously with many of the digital footprint
issues that we are seemingly having in schools? By placing an emphasis on using
these tools that are at our students ngertips, we hopefully can not only help them
share their abilities, but help them make the connections to utilize those same
abilities to their fullest.

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61 97

Posted in: Embodying Visionary Leadership, Understanding and Responding to the Larger
Societal Context | Tagged: about me, Alberta Education, digital portfolios, entrepreneurial spirit,
joti jando, shark tank, social media, The 10 reasons I ignored your resume, twitter

9 Comments
 Audrey Watters
January 17, 2015 at 8:48 pm

I dont recommend About.me. Instead, I think students should own their

own domain. Why use a third party provider that might shut down, get
acquired, sell your data etc when you can actually control your own
space and design your own About page? This connects to the digital
portfolio, of course, and it can become a site to demonstrate professional
work as well as schoolwork.

George
January 17, 2015 at 10:37 pm

I actually have wanted to do that myself. My blog you can get to

by going to georgecouros.ca but it automatically forwards you to
georgecouros.ca/blog. I have been saving that for the magical
space that I have never created. I should get on that.

Do you think there is any benet in being listed on the about.me

space though? I wonder if being connected to that network actually
creates any opportunities? I actually get a lot of emails through that
medium, which surprised me at rst.

John Bennett
January 18, 2015 at 2:05 am

I like very much your three suggestions, for sure. But Id add a fourth and
maybe rank it most important: the skills of eective learning and eective
problem solving along with the experience using them.

Lifelong learning will never be an option. If a signicant number of jobs in

ve years arent known, that would suggest that existing jobs will likely
change as well. Eective learning skills AND the experience using them is
essential.

Likewise, the nature of work in this time of rapid change means success
will depend upon being able use the prior knowledge, experience, and of
course newly developed knowledge (eective learning) to address
situations or assignments faced i.e., eective problem solving.

Ideally, development of these skills and their use to gain experience

should begin as young as appropriate, certainly by high school graduation
(not often accomplished based upon my anecdotal evidence from 30
years as college faculty member). Until changes occur in K-12, colleges
indeed should facilitate skills development.

Without any details, I might also suggest that communication skills and
teaming skills are very important as well. Six things students should have
they leave high school??? That would be my recommendation but,
again, I believe eective learning and problem solving skills are most
important.

George
January 19, 2015 at 1:15 am

Great thoughts John!!! Thank you for sharing.

 Robert Schuetz
January 20, 2015 at 2:22 am

Hello George,
Based on our earlier conversations you know I am all for the students
connecting, self-publishing, and self-branding. Even though I use
about.me, I think Audrey is on the right track with the personal domain. Im
just trying to get my head around the logistics of making this happen for all
of our students.
In one of your earlier posts you asked what are the roadblocks to digital
portfolios?. Your recommendation for these three things for students
should also be applied to educators. I know that I am preaching to the
choir, but teachers and administrators should also connect, learn and
share transparently. They need to clearly understand the benets and
pitfalls of learning in a web 3.0 world. More than just modeling, educators
should venture into socially networked learning with their students. Walk
the walk, and talk the talk. Thanks & talk soon, Bob

Random Things <b>3 Things</b> Students Should Have Before They

Leave High School <b></b>
January 21, 2015 at 2:57 am

[] George Here are three things that I would like to see all students have
by the time they graduate from our []

Akdemia 3 cosas que debes saber antes de graduarte

January 22, 2015 at 9:18 pm
[] artculo original dehttp://georgecouros.ca/ []

Jodi
January 24, 2015 at 8:49 pm

Charles,
I read the above article for an assignment for my doctorate program and I
have a few questions I was wondering if you could answer.

You started out talking about a variety of skills but the three suggestions
focus more on networking, is there a correlation between the two which is
why you switched gears?
What do you feel is more important; networking or job skills?
Could you be more specic as to what job skills are most likely to be
relevant in todays job market?
You spoke about Joti Jando utilizing Dragons Den in her classroom to
motivate students to think less theoretically and more about real-world
experiences, what have you learned from the students perspective about
this type of teaching?
Do you really feel that the students will gain an upper hand in the
development of their skills by being exposed to more real world
experiences?

Thank You,

Jodi
 Streaming
February 11, 2015 at 8:03 pm

I like very much your three suggestions, for sure. Your recommendation for
these three things for students should also be applied to educators.
thanks!

Comments are closed.

About Me

I am a learner, educator, and Innovative

Teaching, Learning, and

Leadership consultant. I
am also the author of
"The Innovator's
Mindset". I believe we
need to inspire our kids to follow their
passions, while letting them inspire us to
do the same.

You can contact me at

georgecouros@gmail.com

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