Kathryn Laurentius

I work hard in my classroom to share all kinds of professionalism lessons with my students. It is more than just professional dress and I enjoyed learning in this unit. 

I think the power of learning from failure is super important to emphasize. It is hard to feel failure, but the learning and growth from it can be so powerful for everyone. 

Technology can help increase interactive learning and communication more efficiently. 

Setting norms, each time a group is working together, is so important. And I think it can also be challenging because the norms then require group members to hold each other accountable. Even adults struggle with this part of team work. 

Critical thinking is an essential skill for all of our students. The more critical thinking I can incorporate on the daily the better my students will get at building that 'muscle' and be better prepared for the work force. 

The idea of building student agency is so important. Focus on the process, not the outcome is a key takeaway I have from this lesson. 

I liked the activity example where students were presented with the real world example and then had to defend their strategy. I think this is very applicable to many areas of CTE instruction. I also like the SWOT analysis, I use that often in my business classes. 

One of the key takaways for me was the idea of the teacher as the facilitator. This helps me in my marketing classroom as students are working on different group projects, which are real life events. I have not varied my seating lately which is something I want to take away from this lesson. 

Students understanding the three key questions "Am I interested?, Can I do this?, Does it matter?" feels validating and important for CTE. I get all ability levels in my classroom and part of the challenge can be increasing their confidence that 'yes I can do this'. Also a huge key to engagement that I have seen in my classroom is making it relevant (am I interested?), this is so helpful for students. 

I intend to be more aware in my everyday interactions with students on how trauma may be impacting their actions and reactions. It is important to me to keep a safe environment for all students.