Block 4 of the Education program had amongst its roster a course titled EDUC 401: Career Education. The course was instructed by Sheila Monkman, who was able to bring an empathetic nature along with her excited and engaging attitude to create one of the best classes I have ever taken online. Her encouragement, acceptance of our cohort, and availability to meet and discuss questions and ideas outside of class time really helped me to engage and stay on top of requirements through some very difficult times.
One of the first “A-Ha!” moments that I had during this class was a lot like adding color to a grayscale photo. What was then existing as somewhat of a bitter resentment for the 4 months of “CAPP” that I had taken in high school rapidly (literally within minutes) transformed to an excitement for the leaps forward career education has made since then, but also a childlike wonder as I began to grapple with the notion of career education as a cross curricular subject.
For me, taking any and every opportunity to prepare students, and encouraging students to prepare for the eventuality of their careers is such an important and useful thing that I can do for them. Arriving at the understanding that I can synthesise curricular content of career education into the other classes that I am teaching, like social studies for example, opened my eyes to so many ideas for generating student interest. Now I want to keep thinking about ways of accessing that intrinsic motivation humans achieve as they begin to create connections between real life careers and the content they are being taught in school.
In my experience, Sheila did a remarkable job of presenting relevant content, really pulling it apart, and bringing it back to experience. More than this though, she showcased an awareness of the individualities across the cohort which she used to inform her understanding of us as individuals. She approached meetings outside class time with an open mind and an extremely helpful attitude. Clearly, this course and its instructor have become a positive experience that I will look on with fondness and inquiry for many years to come.