Preparing Students For The Ever-Changing Future of Work

Providing students with skills that will allow them to be versatile and competitive in an ever-changing future of work. 

1. The problem we are committed to solving is providing students with necessary skills that we feel will prepare them for a world of uncertainty regarding the future of work. 

2. The solution we are proposing involves six components, with each component keeping students in mind. First, we believe that every child should have strong foundational skills provided during their educational experience. This includes content, curriculum, Common Core and NGSS standards. Having a strong foundation provides our students with the necessary base that they'll need to move forward in the world. The next component we believe is necessary is providing students with needed social and emotional skill development. Using our Social and Emotional program (Sanford Harmony), our goal is to have our students enter the workforce and be productive members of a group or organization because they have developed the skills of empathy, respect, critical thinking, listening/speaking and so forth. Next, we believe students should have the opportunity to develop presentation literacy. This idea is rooted in the belief that all students can be successful at speaking in front of a group of people, especially when the topic is something that they're interested in and passionate about. Because of this, our school is starting it's first ever "Ted Ed" club where our students will have the chance to share their ideas with others in the form of a Ted Talk. Our next component is that we feel all students should have the opportunity to discover and explore their passions and interests. Using a learning software program (Thrively) we've purchased, students are able to identify their strengths and interests via a survey and then can continue to develop this interest by researching and practicing with activities, projects, etc. Next, we believe our students should have the chance to learn and practice coding. Having students grow their understanding of computer science through a coding program (Scratch) will allow them to be better prepared for an ever-changing future world. Finally, we feel that our students should have the opportunity to practice and demonstrate empathy towards others. Each of our classes at school has the opportunity to work individually or collectively with other classes on a service project. The goal is to have our students understand the viewpoint and situations of others while providing a service for others. 

As stated earlier, the world we live in is constantly changing. Educators will now have to pivot from what education 'was' and adapt to the way it 'is' and 'will be'. Throughout the year, teachers will have the opportunity to attend training's/professional development both in person and online. 

3. Our solution will help change the world because we specifically focus on skills that students will not only need now but also in the future of work. These skills, we feel, will allow them to be more adaptive, versatile, and competitive in an ever-changing and unpredictable world of work. 

Our solution is innovative because we are incorporating previously existing technology with skills that we believe will allow our students to be competitive, adaptive, and versatile in a future of uncertainly in relation to the world of work. 

Technology is integral to our solution. Each of the components previously listed either uses a website and/or application. So yes, technology is vital to our solution. 

The goal over the next 12 months is to: 1. Have this solution be successfully implemented at our school site 2. Using our school sites success, having other schools in the district use our school site as a model to implement our solution. 

The goal for our solution in the next 3 to 5 years would be to have our solution implemented throughout California and eventually into other parts of the United States. 

The goal is to provide students at our school site (Del Sure Elementary) with our proposed solution. We will deploy this across the school site with the goal to eventually expand other other schools in the district and then on to other schools throughout California. 

The current amount of people being served is our school population, which is 1,200 students. Each of our students will be impacted directly by our proposed solution. 

In the next 12 months, the goal would be to serve other schools in the Poway Unified School District. Moving forward, the goal would then be to serve other school in California. 

We believe we can attract different resources needed to succeed because we are a committed group of educators who are passionate, driven, and self-less in our quest to provide students with the best possible learning opportunities. 

We are positioned for long term sustainability because some of the resources provided are free. In addition, we have a group of educators who provide extra instruction to our students which is a cost that is already provided by the school district. The remaining costs are minimal and are provided either by our site budget or from our PTA. 

I'm applying to Solve because I believe that our solution can be advanced at scale. Solve has the necessary connections and platform to make this solution accessible for many.

The main barrier for us is that any change in the field of education is met with resistance. Having Solve as a partner to assist in making this solution available to others will be extremely beneficial in continuing to evolve and innovate in the field of education.