Professional Development for Educators; Businesses Needed Too!
By Allison Ricket, BECAN Director & Education Engagement Specialist
This year BB2C is taking Educator Professional Development to the next level. BB2C has been busy this fall visiting local schools to talk with middle school and high school staff about Community and Career Connected Learning. Educators play an important role in helping students understand what career choices are available to them. When students demonstrate an interest in a subject, we want educators to be able to connect students to examples of specific jobs and career fields.
At BB2C, we facilitate dialogue between businesses and educators to talk about workforce needs and the ways those professional skills intersect with content area knowledge teachers are required to teach. When we build relationships across sectors, we strengthen the learning experience of our students and benefit our local businesses by helping students understand the skills needed to excel on the job.
One of the specific educator professional development opportunities we offer is the Real World Problem Scenario. We pair a business or community partner with a classroom teacher to develop a real-world problem that is then “solved” by the students. The business partner meets with the teacher three times: once to develop the problem during the BB2C training, a second to come into the classroom to introduce the problem, and a third time to evaluate the students’ solutions.
Students learn about a real, local business, the career path of the business partner, and use their creativity and newfound community knowledge to come up with solutions. Past Real World Problem Scenario teachers rave about the depth of student engagement and quality of work produced by the students, and our businesses are always impressed by students’ ingenuity and capacity.
The Real World Problem Scenario training for Washington County educators will be on October 12th & 13th. The implementation training on October 12th will be entirely virtual and educators will meet their business partners at the Epicenter on October 13th to design the problem. The Real World Problem Scenario training is available to educators outside of Washington County on October 20th & 22nd. No matter what county in Southeastern, Ohio, we’ll find a local business partner for a teacher wanting to implement The Real World Problem Scenario in their classroom (virtually or in person!).
REGISTER for the Washington County RWPS Professional Development
REGISTER for the Southeastern Ohio RWPS Professional Development
Email us if you know of a teacher or business who may be interested in RWPS