Our department is highly in the curriculum writing phase. We are using the International School Counseling Association model and subsequently the ISCA content standards. A month ago our department completed an audit of the content standards. During that process, as a department, we identified which standards were most important to our student population per grade level.
After that long process (we are a K-12 school), I went back to see what I felt was needed. The standard "Apply decision making skills to career planning, course selection, and career transition" made me feel that this process needed to be tightened up. Yes we already do this, but it is not as explicit as I wanted and I knew it could be made better (isn't that what all educators are doing?).
I began my Google search for "career planning". I wondered if there were actual formal steps I was missing and what did those steps look like?
The images I found were cyclical in nature but all were absolutely different. Each site had their own cycle with very similar steps. As I wrote common steps found in the images I noted that they lined up quite nicely with the IB Design Cycle.
Side Note: When I need to scan information quickly in a Google search I typically click on Images. If you haven't done that, it really can change your life. It can quickly summarize information, as you know, visuals tend to do.
Now our school is a full IB school offering PYP, MYP, and DP. A huge Design Cycle banner is up in the hallway where I do morning duty each week. The Personal Project Cycle is used in our Personal Project Student Friendly Guide. What I'm trying to say is, I see this thing all the time. I've never been trained in teaching the MYP, but I know when it's everywhere, it'll mean something to your students.
I decided to construct my own cycle. I call it the Career Planning Cycle.
Thank you to Stephen Taylor (@IBiologyStephen) for making his graphic editable!
Download the cycle below.
