The Personal Orientation Project (POP) gives students the opportunity to dive deep into their interests and aptitudes and start seriously considering their career options. POP is self-directed with teachers there to help the students along their individual journey of discovery. Teacher resources are plentiful, as you will find under the links below.

Teaching and Learning Tools includes the material created by LEARN, the DEEN-CREATE sub-committee, and the Career Development teaching community. It includes the Graphic Organizers and Activities, Getting Started, brief videos which will walk you through the KPOP process, and a placemat that lays out the KPOP process on a single page. Professional Learning includes material from webinars, workshops, and conferences, as well as information about upcoming PD events. Curated Resources consists of links (with brief descriptions) to useful, vetted external resources. Finally, the MEES Resources section includes links to the program documents, the frameworks for the evaluation of learning, and other related resources co-created by the Ministry such as the POP Index and POP Links.

Career Community News

Career Community News* highlights school and community activities, events, and projects related to the Career Development subject area, as well as information, resources, tips, and tools for teachers of POP, Explo, and EN.

Please report any broken links immediately to the website coordinator.
For information about the POP please contact Marsha Gouett.

*Career Community News is published by DEEN-CREATE in collaboration with Ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supérieur (MEES) Direction du soutien au réseau éducatif anglophone (DSREA), and is funded by MEES, through contributions from the Canada-Québec Agreement on Minority Language Education and Second-Language Instruction. coming soon . . .

Teaching and Learning Tools

Numerous resources have been developed for teaching POP, especially Graphic Organizer templates, Activities templates, a "placemat" that captures the KPOP highlights on a single page, the POP Index, POP Links, Getting Started (What am I supposed to teach and evaluate?,  What does POP student work look like?, and How do I put these pieces into a term plan?), POP-ePearl which is a digital portfolio option, and a 5-minute video that guides you through the KPOP process.

Graphic Organizers

A graphic organizer (GO) is a visual learning tool that helps students organize their thoughts, either alone or in a group. A graphic organizer visually chunks a task into manageable segments or steps, guiding a student to think through each step in the process. In terms of artifacts, GOs make visible the invisible thinking processes a student uses at various points in a career exploration. Completed graphic organizers become evidence, artifacts, of student learning as they are engaged in their various tasks. These artifacts represent the learning processes students engage in. The graphic organizer resources are available in two formats:

PDF - Intended to be printed and completed by hand

Word - Intended to be downloaded to be completed in Word

*Please note that these documents are copyright protected and cannot be altered. The purpose of the Microsoft Word version is to allow the user to type directly into the text boxes of the document and save an electronic copy.

Activities

Activities are targeted, purposeful teaching and learning moments. They usually lead into, or are timely, to where students are in an exploration process or in a project. Activities can be completed in a short period of time. They should not stand alone; the activity completed should be put into the context of student work. They target specific key features, and program content. Activities target one phase of the learning and evaluation process, but may touch on other phases. Activities are context independent; context is provided by student explorations and/or projects. They often leave traces of learning, or student work, which facilitates the evaluation process. Activities build competency.

Know Yourself

  • Graphic Organizers

  • Activities

    • Know Yourself Collage - Class brainstorm, Collage - PDF 
    • Top 20 Careers - Know Yourself and Plan, Career Matchmaker - PDF

    • Starting a Personal Career Profile  - Know Yourself: Areas of Interest  - PDF

Plan

  • Graphic Organizers

  • Activities

    • Breaking It Down - Class brainstorm, 2 Graphic Organizers - PDF
    • Establishing Good Criteria for Planning - Information for planning - PDF

On-Task

Ponder

  • Graphic Organizers

  • Activities

    • Evaluation of a Career Exploration Process - PDF
    • Taking Stock of Career Exploration Progress - PDF
    • Newspaper Saturday - PDF

Getting Started with POP

  • The POP Placemat. Download
  • POP Index. Go to site
  • POP Links. Go to site
  • Q. 1 What am I supposed to teach and evaluate?

    • There are 2 competencies in POP
      Competency 1 | The student...carries out a process of career exploration.
      Competency 2 | The student...contemplates his/her learning and work possibilities.
      Graphic Organizers and Activities build KPOP competencies.

    • Watch the KPOP video for an overview of the KPOP Learning and Education Process.

    • Use the Framework for Evaluation of Student Learning. Go to site
      New Orientations in Evaluation and Reporting, 2011 (PPT) Download

    • Checklists: Checklists contain evaluation criteria that describe the expectations for a task or a collection of artifacts. The expectations are those of the program and guided by the teacher’s knowledge of the development of the two competencies as well as the evaluation criteria from the Evaluation Frameworks document. The teacher uses questioning to guide students in identifying criteria. Criteria are stated in simple language so that students and teachers are clear on the expectations and share a common language.

      The criteria in the checklists below are for example purposes only. Please download the files, and change the criteria to those established with your students. The document Building criteria | Brainstorm Criteria as a class will help you do this. Download

    • Reflection Questions: Reflection, in its simplest form can be defined as the act of seeing one’s own work or of making visible the invisible internal processes used when engaged in competency development.

    • Table of Competency Development: The developmental table provides a place to document student competency development in a more global fashion. Download

  • Q. 2 What does POP student work look like?
    • Introduction to Mati's Learning and Evaluation File. Download
    • Mati's Term One Work Sample (Artifact) Collection. Download
  • Q. 3 How do I put these pieces into a term plan?
    • Step 1: Count the dates when you will see your students in term 1 before marks are due.
    • Step 2: Identify your evaluation criteria, methods of evaluation and evaluation moments.
    • Step 3: Select activities across KPOP
    • Step 4: Fill in other resources or information that students will require

POP-ePearl

POP-ePearl (Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning) is a digital portfolio tool designed specifically for POP. It is a component of the ePearl digital portfolio tool developed by Concordia University’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) in partnership with LEARN, MEES and others. POP-ePearl leverages the technology angle of the POP course. See POP goes the Portfolio: Digital portfolio in the POP Classroom, Rob Costain, April 3, 2014. Download

Teacher Guide Download

Watch this five-minute video on POP essentials.

Professional Learning

This section includes relevant workshops, webinars, conferences, newsletters, and other resources for learning to teach Career Development.

Winter 2020: LCEEQ

Click the image

 

Workshop on the Frameworks for Evaluating Student Learning

New Orientations in Evaluation and Reporting (effective July 1, 2011) PPT. Download

Career Development Newsletter Archives

The Career Development and Work-Oriented Training Program Info newsletter (2009-2014) targeted educators in POP, Explo, EN and WOTP. A great deal of the information regarding classroom pedagogy, technology, and resources continues to be relevant. See also Curated Resources below for up-to-date links.

MELS Information Bulletin Archives

Info POP-EXPLO-EN bulletins (2009-2012) targeted teachers, consultants, and administrators in the English education community and shared news and information from the Career Development program and evaluation teams.

  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 5, number 1, Fall 2012 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 4, number 1, Fall 2011 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 3, number 2, Spring 2011 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-En Volume 2, number 3, Spring 2010 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 2, number 2, Winter 2010 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 2, number 1, Fall 2009 Download

Curated Resources

This section includes resources external to MEES and LEARN that have been vetted by teachers and consultants to ensure their relevance.

Career Cruising can help  with all four parts of the POP process: Know Yourself, Plan, On-Task and Ponder. Your students can: explore your interests and learning styles; create your own personal career plan; store your assessment results; investigate careers and education; build your own career plan and more. See also Xello below. Go to site

Career Cruising integration with POP: This one-page (PDF) chart shows the integration of the POP competencies with Career Cruising. Download

Xello: Career Cruising is phasing out. New contracts will be with Xello. Go to site 

myBlueprint "Education Planner": Portfolio and "a comprehensive education and career/life planning program with the tools students need to make the most informed decisions about their future," for Secondary students. Go to site 

Heading for Success: This site provides information for youth about employment opportunities and careers offered that demand either high school vocational training or Cegep technical training. It includes an online inventory of vocational interests and students receive an electronic report on possible trades for them. Go to site Note: This MEES site is being re-vamped and launched in French first (as Emplois d'Avenir), with English version to follow.

Get to know Yourself (Emploi Quebec): To find a job that's right for you, it's important to have a good grasp of your interests, strengths, needs and expectations. To give you a head start, Emploi Québec has designed a questionnaire to help you get to know yourself a little better. Go to site

Services for Youth (Government of Canada): This page will help you identify your interests so that you can narrow down your search for a viable career. Try the "skills inventory" to help you identify the transferrable skills and hidden skills you can factor into your career plan. Go to site

Explore Careers by Skills & Knowledge (Government of Canada Job Bank): Use this checklist found on this site to explore jobs or career options that match your skills and knowledge. Go to site

Career Navigator and Quizzes: (Government of Canada Job Bank) brings you a career navigator that allows you to take six quizzes. Login required. Go to site

Dawson "Career Showcase." Dawson College has prepared MEES-standardized lesson plans for Quebec high school teachers and education professionals to apply in their own teaching environments. These lesson plans are useful for high school teachers who specialize in career development/POP and high school guidance counselors, among others. Go to site

Quintessential Careers: Online Career Assessment Tools Review for Job-Seekers, Career-Seekers. Go to site 

Next Steps: Two options for career planning are provided to you. One follows a more linear path to a career option while the other provides a more open ended assumption with greater flexibility. Go to site

The Learning Partnership (TLP):" We build collaborations between education, business and other stakeholders who care about ensuring our publicly funded education system is progressive, innovative and relevant . . . " Go to site

Take Our Kids to Work. TOKW has always taken place on the first Wednesday of November. Please note that in 2020 the Take Our Kids to Work Day will be held on Wednesday, November 4th. Go to site 

Alberta Learning and Information Service (ALIS): Once on this main site, click on the CAREERinsite link on the left hand menu to take you to a section called Know Yourself. Go to site

Interest and activities associated with the fields of Interest. Download

School subjects associated with the fields of interest. Download

Programs of study associated with the fields of interest. Download

College Circuit: Admission requirements for 2018-19: This yearly publication of the MEES provides information on the programs leading to a Diploma of College Studies that are offered by college-level institutions in Québec. College Circuit also contains information on the admission procedure, on admission requirements and on student financial assistance. Go to site

POP Links: POP Links displays a list of all associated websites needed for the tool kits. Go to site

Contact us if you have resources to share for POP.

MEES Resources

MEES Program Documents (PDF on MEES site) Go to site

Framework for the Evaluation of Learning (PDF on MEES site) Go to Site

POP Index: The POP Index is an online catalogue of links supporting students’ career exploration processes for the Career Development Programs: POP, Explo, and EN. Go to Site

POP Links: On the POP Links websites students will find all of the associated URL links, videos and documentation needed to complete the tool kit activities. Go to site

POP Activity Guides and Tool Kits (MEES and Commission scolaire Beauce-Etchemin (CSBE): Download all POP activity guides and access the online links and resources necessary to carry out the activities developed for the POP program of the MEES. Go to site

POP Tool Kits Teacher's Guide (MEES and Commission scolaire Beauce-Etchemin (CSBE): This document also contains inventory sheets to manage the materials contained in the associated boxes of materials. Download