Education Planner Pathways Planning Contest Winner Spotlight: Conseil scolaire catholique Providence
Pathways Planning has been identified as an essential activity in successfully helping students explore interests and opportunities, build skills, and make and achieve academic, career and life goals.
With this knowledge, the myBlueprint team was once again excited to launch the Education Planner Pathways Planning Contest for the 2022–2023 academic year on April 3, 2023, to ALL Grade 6–9 students attending schools across Canada that license myBlueprint Education Planner.
In this Winner Spotlight, we will be celebrating the success of Conseil scolaire catholique Providence (Ontario), the winner of this year’s Education Planner Pathways Planning Contest.
Conseil scolaire catholique Providence
The board has implemented Education Planner in Grades 7–9 since 2019 and its students have consistently achieved high completion rates of Individual Pathways Plan (IPP) tasks!
Nathalie Deshaies-Meloche, the Grade 7–8 Guidance Counsellor who is responsible for the board’s competition win, took a strategic approach to get students to complete their pathway planning tasks. Nathalie works at multiple schools in the board, so in her class visits to varied schools, the tasks were integrated into the class with a formal lesson and/or play activity.
Each class visit/session was linked to one of the key questions in Pathway to Success (Ontario Ministry policy) and linked to one of the four main questions. To encourage students to complete the IPP task, tickets were sometimes given out for a draw for a variety of small items. The items to be won also helped promote skilled trades, such as mini screwdrivers, small safety helmets and measuring tapes.
Nathalie was happy to share with us her and her students’ experience in participating in the Contest and graciously gave some insight on how she would continue to use Education Planner below.
How did you first introduce the contest to your students?
‘Since we had been working on the IPP tasks throughout the year, it was easy to introduce the contest to them.’
What were their reactions to the contest and the Pathways Planning tasks in general?
‘Our students are generally very competitive and enjoy the chance to win prizes so they were excited to participate in the contest.’
In your opinion, what is the value of Individual Pathways Plan Tasks/Activities to students?
‘Self-awareness, interests, and opportunities. I also appreciate the portfolio and hope students will refer to it later when thinking about their future.’
What was your strategy for keeping students motivated to complete their Pathways Planning tasks?
‘This year, I was able to offer entry tickets for various small-prize draws.’
How do you plan on continuing to use Education Planner in the classroom going forward?
‘I will offer support to 7th and 8th-grade teachers by sharing the related content I’ve created (resources/presentations/videos).’
