Monday, January 25, 2016
Tell Me What You See: KTC Students Offer Constructive Criticism to Classmates about Interviewing Skills and Weaknesses
This week at KTC, the students are practicing with each other to help each other find out what they are doing with their bodies and the things they need to work on. The students are to ask each other the common interview questions and observe their classmate in 4 areas; eye contact, projection, posture, and response quality. They are then to record this information on their sheet so that they can then respond in class discussion. This was a great practice in constructive criticism for our students who sometimes don't take to redirection well and see all criticism as negative.
Also, the students were to watch either a classmate and myself go through an interview at the front of the room and for us as a class to help the student interviewee do better or watch a clip from YouTube and critique what that person had done in the video.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Intro to Interviewing, Body Language, and Naming Strengths
This week, the students started thinking about how they are supposed to behave in an interview. The students took a pre-test and a post-test and then we took notes and acted out how to behave in an interview.
The students learned how they should introduce themselves and what various scenarios would say to an interviewer. We talked about how slumping or slouching gives a negative impression and then showed them how they should be sitting that shows that they are engaged and interested in the conversation. We also talked about eye contact and offered alternative areas of the face to focus on if direct eye contact makes us feel uncomfortable. This was such a fun lesson and I really like it because I get to act out things for the students and they get to show me how to behave or suggest what I should do.
Lastly, we had our students think about how to answer the question about what their biggest strength was. Using a site I found on an adult education website, I had them circle things that they do well from a list of skills that are applicable to many jobs. After circling them, we also brainstormed other skills that were not on the list that are good to have on a job and put them into an "I am ___________ because _________________," statement. At KTC, while the lessons are fun, they are always focused on getting the students to formulate responses that would be appropriate for job interviews, resumes, and so much more needed to help them secure employment.
Links:
Strengths Worksheet
The students learned how they should introduce themselves and what various scenarios would say to an interviewer. We talked about how slumping or slouching gives a negative impression and then showed them how they should be sitting that shows that they are engaged and interested in the conversation. We also talked about eye contact and offered alternative areas of the face to focus on if direct eye contact makes us feel uncomfortable. This was such a fun lesson and I really like it because I get to act out things for the students and they get to show me how to behave or suggest what I should do.
Lastly, we had our students think about how to answer the question about what their biggest strength was. Using a site I found on an adult education website, I had them circle things that they do well from a list of skills that are applicable to many jobs. After circling them, we also brainstormed other skills that were not on the list that are good to have on a job and put them into an "I am ___________ because _________________," statement. At KTC, while the lessons are fun, they are always focused on getting the students to formulate responses that would be appropriate for job interviews, resumes, and so much more needed to help them secure employment. Links:
Strengths Worksheet
Monday, January 4, 2016
"Applying" Themselves: KTC Students Fill Out Practice Job Applications
In this lesson at KTC, we wanted the students to know the basics of filling out a job application. Job applications are like reading Greek to students. They don't know what the sections mean, they don't know what the words are, and they definitely don't have dates of the awards they've gotten, addresses, or phone numbers. At KTC, we are trying to walk them through the parts of an application so they can then do it themselves.
All the students took a pre-test and a post-test on applications and how they are alike and different from a resume. From there, we gave them an application and told them to complete it according to a rubric provided. The students thought that an application would be easier than a resume, but many of them struggled more with the application rather than a resume. I believe that this occurred because an application is not as flexible as a resume.
With a resume, a student can adjust the font size, the font type, spacing, and so much more whereas with an application, it is fixed and can't be changed. The students tried their best to complete the application according to our standards. It was so exciting to see students who were going to leave a blank spot on their application before telling their classmates to fill it in with N/A for non-applicable. Many of our students struggle with the paper applications because it is so dependent on handwriting and lack the fine motor skills to make their writing small and neat enough to be legible.
For those students, we also have an online option for their application, which is the online option. I found this website that will allow the student to complete the information online and even let them
practice uploading their resume or documents to this site. I was really happy to have stumbled upon it. I hope that all the preparation we are giving the students proves to be beneficial in the future.
All the students took a pre-test and a post-test on applications and how they are alike and different from a resume. From there, we gave them an application and told them to complete it according to a rubric provided. The students thought that an application would be easier than a resume, but many of them struggled more with the application rather than a resume. I believe that this occurred because an application is not as flexible as a resume.
With a resume, a student can adjust the font size, the font type, spacing, and so much more whereas with an application, it is fixed and can't be changed. The students tried their best to complete the application according to our standards. It was so exciting to see students who were going to leave a blank spot on their application before telling their classmates to fill it in with N/A for non-applicable. Many of our students struggle with the paper applications because it is so dependent on handwriting and lack the fine motor skills to make their writing small and neat enough to be legible. For those students, we also have an online option for their application, which is the online option. I found this website that will allow the student to complete the information online and even let them
practice uploading their resume or documents to this site. I was really happy to have stumbled upon it. I hope that all the preparation we are giving the students proves to be beneficial in the future.
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