Richardson West Career Day

Careers were in focus recently at Richardson West Middle School as students conducted Career Bytes video interviews and participated in classroom dialogues with Nortel New Grad Program participants.

Nortel LearniT's Career Bytes segments are short, student-produced videos published online on www.NortelLearniT.org.  At Richardson, students created interview questions and used digital camera and production equipment to learn more about careers in technology and about using technology itself.  

On the same day, Nortel New Grads--themselves recently out of the classroom experience--dialogued in five classroom visits with the middle schoolers.   

Learn about:

• the  Nortel LearniT 21st century e-Learning initiative at Richardson West

• what the students wanted to know about Careers

• what the students learned, what their teacher learned

• Nortel New Grad participants and what they learned

View a slide show of the day's events--both the Career Bytes video shoot and the classroom discussions. Or, view a detailed video chronicling the excellent career information exchanges that took place.

Nortel LearniT 21st Century e-Learning Initiative

A key part of the Nortel LearniT outreach is communicating career opportunities and information to students worldwide.  Information is delivered lots of ways, including, as at Richardson West via small group and classroom discussions and through Nortel LearniT's Career Bytes segments -- short, student-produced videos published online on www.nortellearnit.org.  At Richardson, students created interview questions and used digital camera and production equipment to learn more about careers in technology and about using technology itself.  

What the Students Wanted to Know--Questions-- LOTS of Questions??????

Before the Nortelians even arrived the students brainstormed an impressive list of questions.  They sent them to Nortel ahead of time.  This got both the students and the New Grads thinking about careers even before the big day.  And, it prepared the Career Bytes student interviewers with a good list of things everyone wanted to know about!  See the full list of Career Day questions (**Helpful tool for future outreaches) Questions ranged from:

• paths to choose ("What's the best technology career?" "What classes did you take in college?" "What should we study today for a future technology career?"
• work environment and challenges ("Do you all get to work internationally, travel, work from home, etc." "What hours do you work?" "What is the salary range for a computer engineer?" "What is your job in the project you are on now?"
• impacts ("Do you like your job?" "Do you get frustrated?" "Does your job have an effect on the community?")

Some Ideas the Students and their Teacher Took Away

In the vision and words of Richardson West teacher Jennifer McCauley

"It was a WONDERFUL experience for them as you each brought your individual talents together to show how a great company such as Nortel hires people from all cultures, degrees, and skill levels. This was an eye opening experience for my students..
	A student from my web class came up to me moments ago and said, "I used to want to be a teacher but now I think I want to be an engineer".  She then began to ask me more about Nortel and the software y'all create and she said, "Do you think I could do that?"   I am so excited their eyes have been opened to the career opportunities within telecommunications. ....getting to talk to "real business people" was a great opportunity for them to learn what it takes to make it in today's world.
I could tell by the look in their eyes, by the questions they were asking, and the silence in the room as you each spoke that they wanted to know as much as you had time to share.  I thank you all for sacrificing your morning. I thank you sincerely on behalf of my students and the Richardson Independent School District. We would love to be a part of future Nortel LearnIt endeavors...

 Richardson West Career Day Slide Show!