Michigan's Got Talent: Michigan Works helps KTC students learn more about Michigan Works and how to search for jobs online

Michigan works came to the Kent Transition Center to help our students understand how to use the www.mitalentconnect.org portal to find available jobs within the state of Michigan. Mr. Josh Adderholt came from the Michigan Works office located on Straight St. in Grand Rapids, MI to talk to our students and to help me walk them through the process of enrolling and beginning to search for jobs using the website.

Mr. Adderholt sent me the presentation and paper materials prior to his presentation so I could walk the students through the enrollment process.  Mr. Adderholt talked about what Michigan Works does for job seekers, mentioned additional services in Grand Rapids they should know about, helped walk students through the enrollment process, and even showed them how to search for jobs posted on the portal.

Some of the additional information that Mr. Adderholt informed them helped them answer questions that were given to them during my class.  Since we try to prepare students for working in entry-level positions and help them take the step into adulthood,  we prepare them with showing them where and how to look for jobs, making a resume, and interviewing for the jobs they want.  Many of our students know what they should wear to an interview but are unable to afford the cost of a proper dress outfit.  Mr. Adderholt informed students about how Jubilee Jobs in Grand Rapids will provide people with students if they need one.  It was really amazing.

Overall, it was great to have Michigan Works come to KTC and tell the students about what they can do for them.  Many of our students are scared about the future and are so accustomed to depending on an adult for help.  Thanks to places such as this, the students can get some assistance but also start working independently to find the jobs that they want in life.

Reflection:
It was very hard to get Mr. Adderholt to come in for 4 days in one week.  I think we may want to require this as a guest speaker session and have the teachers schedule him to come in when they have time.  I could prepare the students to have their information written down on their paperwork he would provide ahead of time so that it would go faster.  I also believe that there may be a need to do a coordinated effort to use both Career Cruising and it's features such as looking for jobs or training around the areas in which they live as well as having them look for jobs with Michigan Works. I think I would also need to get with the Michigan Works presenter ahead of time so that he can incorporate our speaker questions into his presentation.  He also brought along Mr. Cason (a worker in youth services) who also talked to the students.  It would be great to bring him in as a guest speaker to talk about the services that Michigan Works provides to students to help prepare them for adulthood such as anger management, managing behaviors, etc.


Links for more information:
Jubilee Jobs 
Michigan Works--Straight Street--GR

What is Michigan Works?--Preparing for our Guest Speaker

This week, we prepared for our visit from Michigan Works.  Many of the students had not heard of Michigan Works before so it was good for them to have this mentioned in class today.

They started out taking a pre-test about different things Michigan Works would do.  After the pre-test, they watched a video from the NorthWest Michigan Works office in Traverse City, MI about the many services that Michigan Works provides to people to look for a job.  After watching the video, the students took the pre-test and had retained much information about what Michigan Works was, the name of their online system, and all the services they had to offer.

Overall, it was a very informational day for our students.   Next week, we will have Josh Adderholt from Michigan Works coming to KTC to talk to the students  more about West Michigan Works (Michigan Works for Grand Rapids and the surrounding areas) and getting them set up on the online job search portal, MI Talent Connect.  Also, Michigan Works so graciously gave us the paper version of the enrollment process so that students could do it by hand first instead and then doing it on the computer. 

Resumes: KTC Students Promote Themselves on Paper

This class week, the students had a pre-test and post-test that asked them what a resume was and what was all mentioned on a resume.  After that, we had the students begin to construct their own.  The students were given a template of my own design.  It was put on my Moodle page, the students were to download it, and then upload it into their Kent ISD Google Drives.

KTC Resume Template

The students began constructing their resumes with Google Docs and shared the document with me when they were done at the end of the day.  The resume format that I have had the students use is featured below.  In my years here at KTC and while using this template, we have had businesses hire and be impressed with the neatness and readability of this resume template.  

The resume rubric for the final draft is also provided here.  The students should not tell their teachers, homeschools, or parents that they do not have a resume.  All students have created a resume and they have been encouraged to revise it as they gain experience, to keep an electronic copy, and have others look at it by sharing it with others.  

How Do You Learn Best?: KTC Students Find Out Their Learning Style

Quarter 1 Lesson 4

Example of the ELA Pre and Post-Test for Learning Styles

At the Kent Transition Center, our students completed the Learning Styles Inventory on Career Cruising.  Their pre-test and post-test was seeing if they knew the meaning behind the words that were used on the inventory; words such as tactile, auditory, and visual.  

Once the students completed this assessment, they would get a pie chart that informed them about their various percentages of learning style they predominantly used.  

The students now know what way they learn best.  This will help them in their futures because they will know what way they learn best and use that learning style in their workplace to learn their work tasks. 

Example of Learning Style Pie Diagnostic Page from Career Cruising

We also provided the student with basic writing support.  If you may not know, every day the KTC students participate in self-reflection on their work behaviors for the day.  They grade themselves on their dependability, professional behavior, initiative, and following directions.

Along with grading themselves with a 1-3 scale, the students also write sentences about what they did for the day or why they gave themselves the score the did in their journal.  I wanted to make sure that our students could write a proper sentence, so we covered the 5 things a sentence would need in order to make sense.   They then practiced a few sentences on the board, had to label what was the subject and verb, capitalized what needed to be capitalized, and ended off with punctuation.  Every teacher has signs in their classroom to support this idea and the students strive to write proper sentences every day.