On the QT: Jobs with a Cherry on Top

 

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On the QT Newsletter, Jobs with a Cherry on Top

 

Attachment: Jobs with a Cherry on Top

 

February 16, 2010

Did you know? In a world in which more and more average work can be done by a computer, robot, or talented foreigner for faster, cheaper, “and just as well,” vanilla doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s all about what chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and cherry you can put on top ... contends Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind<http://www.danpink.com/whole-new-mind>. It’s all about the ability to imagine new services and unique ways of combining talents and skills to produce more and better. It’s all about using one’s creativity to generate added value. Creativity and innovation<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html> are skills students must develop to live, learn, and thrive in today’s global knowledge economy. With our classrooms filled with students clamoring to find jobs or to move up on the job, today’s activity calls on them to think creatively by identifying and combining their individual talents and skills into new configurations and encouraging them to add a cherry on top!

 

Try This:

 1.  Write the opening quote from Daniel Pink on your whiteboard and ask students about their chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and cherry.
 2.  Distribute today’s activity, Jobs ... with a Cherry on Top<http://www.wblconnections.com/PDF/JobswithaCherryonTop.pdf>, review directions, and have students complete the exercise.
 3.  When finished, have one member of each team describe their team’s product or service.
 4.  Ask students to explain how they will use what they learned today in their everyday lives.

Add an Experience: View Tina Seelig’s video<http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2268> and discuss how her students used their skills and the opportunities to create unique products and services. To take today’s activity into a “real” world learning experience, give your students the same challenge Tina Seelig gave hers. Ask them to compete to see how much money their team could earn with only $5.00 and 2 hours. Provide some significant and meaningful motivation, extra credit, replace another assignment ... to get your students to accept the challenge. Have competing teams report their results at next week’s class session.

Quik Quote: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Einstein



This email was brought to you by a grant from the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office VTEA 1-B Work-Based Learning Collaborative (#01-157-011).
Please contact Susan Coleman (scoleman@occ.cccd.edu) or Rita Jones (rjones@occ.cccd.edu) of Orange Coast College Career Education with any questions.
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