Be Work Ready
with Digitability's Workplace Behavior Unit
Written by Rebekah Poe, M.Ed., an award-winning former special education teacher and national teaching conference presenter from Alabama.
November is National Career Development Month, and here at Digitability, we are excited to showcase just a few of the success stories our students and teachers have had utilizing Digitability’s revolutionary curriculum to practice work-ready skills and behaviors to prepare for a life beyond the classroom. Career development is vital for students with Autism and other cognitive disabilities. In today’s tech driven world, Digitability is striving to increase the digital literacy and work ready skills necessary for students to gain employment after graduation.
One way Digitability focuses on teaching career-readiness is through Work Simulation Projects. Russell Schwartz is a Vocation and Learning Language Disability teacher from New Jersey. He has helped his students prepare for life beyond the classroom through his classroom work simulation project: a website for their school shop, The Eagle Express. Through the creation of specifically designed job roles, Schwartz is able to ensure each of his students has the ability to participate in the work simulation in a way that makes sense for them.
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“Each student will have a job: either a task manager, copywriter, multimedia manager, or web-user interface designer,” says Schwartz. “We’ve been discussing those roles, so each student knows what the job entails.” Schwartz’s students will be creating a website for all the things sold to the school from either the “Java Lounge” or the “Shop Right Program.” The Shop Right Program sells candles, candies, and door wreaths, in addition to providing services to the school: from making copies to shredding documents. Through the work simulation, Schwartz’s students are able to digitize the sales and orders through the creation of their website.
Schwartz says his favorite part of the Digitability curriculum is the classroom discussion the Workplace Behavior Unit has created. “Students are discussing each lesson topic and how the behavior could affect them in a workplace environment. By having these regular discussions, they each gain a better understanding of how to properly behave in the workplace.”
Click below for a short video about teaching successful and problematic behaviors
Digitability’s workplace behavior unit delivers real-world workplace behavior training. It teaches and encourages behaviors that will make students successful in any workplace. It also helps students recognize behaviors that may be problematic. Students are then able to practice self-regulation and replacement behavior strategies using successful workplace behaviors.
Activities such as sorting successful and problematic behaviors in the workplace gives students the opportunity to discuss what makes a behavior successful or problematic. Doing so increases their expressive and receptive language skills, self-regulation skills, and social skills.
Through Digitability’s work-ready curriculum, students like those in Schwartz’s classroom are given opportunities to practice these skills in a safe environment and get prepared for life beyond the classroom. For more information on how you can bring Digitability to your school or organization, request a free demo.
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