ESTES Leaders, A new college and career readiness program is being implemented at Estes Elementary School in Owensboro, KY. The purpose of ESTES (Engaging Students To Emerge Successful) Leaders is to expose students to different industries and lead them to college and career paths based on their experiences.
Students will be exposed to the following industry areas: public health, education, agriculture, media relations, public safety, tourism, entrepreneurship, advanced manufacturing and trades, and STEM. By traveling to and participating in hands-on activities in these industries, students will be enlightened on what each arena has to offer.
Funded through a special Innovation Grant through the Kentucky Board of Education, this is an innovative way to discuss career paths with the students. They will experience real life situations and present those situations to others. It is our belief that elementary students need to think about how they will become college and career ready by the time they graduate from high school. By introducing them to these various areas, students will start to develop their own career path and show others, including peers and community members, what steps they will take to achieve those goals.
Our students need to have these experiences and and learn these skills to level the playing field, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty. Our students need to see the possibilities and what they can start doing now, at the elementary level, to become successful in those areas. In a recent 2013 survey of parents at Estes Elementary, only 17% graduated high school, and only 6 out of 387 respondents (.01%) had some college experience. This program is designed to allow students to learn how to begin with the end in mind so they can be first generation college graduates.
All teachers in the fourth grade level will be collaborating to meet project needs. In the beginning there will be 24 students participating in this program. These students will be creating Problem-Based Learning projects for all students in fourth grade to eventually participate. Additionally, every teacher and student in the school will be impacted because these 24 student leaders will present their experiences and planned college/career paths to the entire student/teacher body.
The culmination of this project will be a community wide job fair that will be held, where the 24 students will present their findings and experiences. At this fair, adult members of the community will have an opportunity to interview and receive job placements with our community partners working with our program.
This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.
No comments:
Post a Comment