A few nights ago I was patting myself on the back for having found on-line from the
Occupational Outlook Handbook the "Top Thirty Fastest Growing Occupations". I copied the chart showing the list that included the numbers of jobs expected from 2006 to 2016, percent increase, and the generally accepted amount of education it takes for each occupation.
Of the thirty jobs, about two-thirds were related to providing direct health care (or support) and the others were related to the computer industry. I easily came up with five questions to accompany this chart and it all looked very nice in a Word document.
I have been doing similiar things for 14 years now and I'm a pro ( I thought proudly) - or so I thought.
I passed the sheet out yesterday to my 1st period (very capable class compared to later periods) and we discussed some of the job titles briefly of the ones they might not have known. We had a similiar brief discussion about some of the education required, explaining what a vocational award was, or terms like short-term vs. moderate on the job training.
"Okay, answer the questions on your paper, it should go pretty fast, five minutes or so and then we'll discuss it."
The students began quietly without complaint, interested in accomplishing these 5 questions quickly and efficiently. Five quiet minutes went by, then ten, and at maybe the twelve to fifteen minute mark, I walked through the class and saw that it was taking more time than I thought. At TWENTY-FIVE minutes I began discussion as maybe still 20-30% of the class was finishing the last question.
Oops!This 5-10 minute warm-up or icebreaker into our lesson had become an onerous, busy-work task, dull and mind-numbing to the point of missing the point(s) I was trying to make.
If I had bothered to answer the questions myself, I would have realized that the students didn't need to write out the names of the jobs related to health care, computer management, or those that took two-years of education or less. Those three questions alone had them writing out the names of over 40 jobs, many of them twice.
My questions should have read something like:
What do numbers 2, 3, 7, 9, 12, 14, 18-20, 22-24, 28, 29 have in common?
Though this grievous error was made for first period, I modified the questions for all the later classes so it wasn't an entire day lost. Yet, if I had bothered to really read the questions I wrote and tried them myself, I would have realized the process was unneccesarily tedious.
THE LESSON LEARNED for me is to be more careful now in the future when making up new lesson plans. That's why relying on old tried and true lesson plans are good but we as educators must continually refine old material or bring in fresh ideas for our changing world and students.
Sorry kids, that was truly a first year teacher mistake.
As a health teacher, I discuss with my students relationship and dating violence. I use something called the Teen Power and Control Wheel. Here, it's a click away. 
