Mentor Program Provides STEM Options

I greatly enjoyed this article, which details the ACE (architecture, construciton and engineering) Mentor Program and how it gives high school students an opportunity for career exposure, mentoring and scholarships to enter one of their fields.  I've spoken before on this blog about my feelings regarding preparation for the work force, and to provide this type of on site knowledge is invaluable to students who may never have considered these careers prior to the program.  The majority of this service takes place as an extra-curricular activity after school, which does take initiative from the student and parents to utilize, but even if the child decides these careers are not for them, they at least are making a more informed decision.  I know my high school didn't have much in the way of work mentoring programs, unless it involved shop class, but it would have been extremely eye-opening for me to have had a peek into the "real world" as a workforce.  I may still have chosen music as my undergraduate degree, but many students enter college simply because that is part of the American Way, not because they have any idea as to what they are going for, or what they will be doing afterwards to pay off all the loans they've accrued.  While my idea of what the purpose of education is and should be is evolving as I myself become further educated, there is still the unavoidable fact that one must work in order to live, no matter how well they can theorize on Plato's cave allegory or recite the dates of each battle in the Civil War.  Unfortunately Taco Bell pays by the hour, not test score. 

Experts Zero In on Nonacademic Skills Needed for Success

I found this article quite interesting.  It focuses on the need for students to be socially and emotionally prepared as well as academically to succeed in a college setting.  This is especially true for students who didn't take AP courses in high school; attempting to switch into the higher gear needed for the quicker paced courses, longer and more detailed papers, and more frequent testing without this type of preperation can easily be overwhelming.  While I've ranted on this blog previously regarding the necessity for all students to attend college, I certainly believe that those who wish to should be given the tools and psychological preperation to do so.  This article mentions several ways to connect the data from local high schools to colleges so students can be tracked and trends noticed, which would hopefully lead to an early warning system of sorts to identify the students who may have issues in college before they even get there.  Then high school teachers and conselors can provide them with additional academic and psychological assitance that would then boost their success rate. 

Simulations Helping Novices Hone Skills

This article detailed the use of classroom simulators, TeachME and simSchool, to help train pre-service teachers in the art of classroom management.  I love this idea, since, as the article points out, real children don't forget when you make a mistake, and this type of environment allows a budding educator to work out some of the kinks in their lesson plan before presenting it to an often tough crowd.  While I agree that it can't replace the student teaching experience, I know I'd feel much better going into the field with several hours in this type of simulator.  The simSchool is fully programmed children avatars, with complex emotional, perceptional and cognitive profiles that have two million combinations to work with; TeachME, on the other hand, utilizes avatars of five actors in a separate room to react in character, live, to the teacher's lesson.  Either option seems to work well, giving the student teacher an opportunity to fall on their face a few times without being laughed out of the building, and I believe this is definitely a viable option for future teachers.  The uses for technology are endless, and this proves that gaming technology can be fitted for educational purposes with little stretching needed.  What I found extremely interesting is that a middle school class took a field trip to the TeachME lab at the University of Central Florida to give it a shot, and many left with their minds changed about how to treat their teachers.  Empathy is a strong medicine, one our "me first" society could use a whole lot more of, and I applaud this foray into role reversal.  That may even be a good idea in a live classroom; something to ponder, surely.