You still have a few weeks before the Expo. You don’t need to subscribe to In Focus Careers News, just put some work into preparing your students for the Expo and give them some tasks to help them to focus their attention and to recall what they learned. 
Jobs on offer are both operational and administrative.
In January 2020 I was on holiday with my family at a BnB in Dunsborough. We were sitting on the deck overlooking the bush when we first heard about a virus in China that would go on to cause chaos in our lives.
My oldest grandkids were only 9 at the time and they were off in the bush building cubby houses. Their lives were about to be thrown into turmoil.
There is now a bubble of middle school students who may not remember life before COVID. They will not know how middle school students used to engage with life beyond childhood.
We are still creating that “new normal”.
At the Career Teacher Master Class at Murdoch this year, Dr. Chad Morrison explained that:
My 11-year-old grandkids have now started high school in the most disrupted academic year ever experienced in WA. Teachers have been off work with COVID. Relief teachers have tried to cover the gaps. My grandkids have been off school, then got into trouble from relief teachers for not having completed work.
I suspect that any middle school students who had minor social and mental health issues two years ago, will not have had opportunities to engage in activities that would have helped them to work through their issues at their own pace.
Life is tougher for middle school students in 2022.
Teachers are burnt out. They don’t have the energy to build a village that will support middle school students.
Promoting existing services is an easy step that can be taken.
School Chaplains
If you have a wonderful school chaplain, help them to engage with your students.
Community Services
I got in touch with the Department of Communities. They said that:
It takes a village to raise a child
As I am becoming more aware of the bubble of COVID affected middle school students I have written:
In this final post I have a Mentor and Support Services map. I will continue to build that as people let me know of additional services which students can tap into to create their own village.
These opportunities will help students to create their own village as they move into adulthood. Getting started is the toughest step.
I will continue to look for ideas that will help them to make the transition.
Subscribe to In Focus Careers monthly magazine for West Australian schools.
The latest edition of In Focus Careers News is out.
The History Careers Mind Map identifies careers supported by the knowledge and skills history students develop.
Download the Mind Map to access the links to the different careers.
In most cases the links are through to the information provided by the Good Universities Guide Career Ladders. Where information wasn’t available on the Careers Ladders I have added a link to the most useful information I could find.
MyFuture has videos and great information about careers. It may be worth subscribing as all States and Territories contribute to that central store of information. It costs about $15 a year to subscribe.
I wrote a post recently with updated links to all of the key careers sites.
There is a lot of duplication in these sites, particularly in the government ones, so find which ones work best for you.
M: 0434056412
