learning and leading from a teacher's perspective, Part ii

I have enjoyed putting this blended unit on Professional Presentations as part of the Professional Communication course.  This has always been my favorite part of being a teacher, designing an engaging and meaningful learning experience!  Professional communications is a required course in our district and I believe it should be.  Students have so many valuable lessons and  learning experiences they can gain from such a course.  Then, when you add in the career clusters where they look at communication from their career choices/interests it adds even more meaning.    When a course is required, I think it is imperative that the learning meets the students where they are.  I have designed this course with that in mind.  I have included a variety of resources in our online learning space in Schoology that will help support student learning.  And, because they will also be meeting face-to-face I included a folder in each section called Class Notes.  The class notes are not going to be prepared for this course as the focus is on the online instructional design.  Still, I have included a Skype connection with a human resources officer at a bank to model how to interview professionals for students and for students to practice asking interviewing questions.
 
When the students have completed this unit, my desired results are:
 
Students will know:

• The importance of professional communications through the exploration of a career cluster of their choice.
• Various communication processes in professional and group contexts.
• Professional etiquette and protocol when communicating in the workplace
• How to plan and craft a message for an intended audience and purpose

Students will be able to:

• Conduct interviews with career professionals with/without technology
• Locate reliable, credible electronic resources on a topic
• Collaborate with others to plan and produce a documentary for an authentic audience

Through these learning experiences, students will have a variety of assessment types.  There are quizzes and tests online through Schoology that will give them the opportunity to learn the terminology and the important communication and career cluster concepts.  There is also a class observation where the instructor can use the observation rubric in Schoology as a way to assess student application of communication skills while collaborating in a group project.  One of the culminating projects is a documentary that gives them the opportunity to construct meaning from what they've learned through research about a career cluster within a group.  Finally, students reflected on the learning experience by creating a blog post and assembling a portfolio.

I almost wish I could go back into a classroom to share this experience with students!