Category: High School

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the nation’s 7th largest school division, will implement the Rubin Emerge curriculum division wide for all high school career and technical education (CTE) students in the 2021-2022 academic year.

FCPS, which is also the biggest school system in Virginia, plans to incorporate Emerge lessons on email etiquette, LinkedIn, networking, entrepreneurship and others within various CTE classes spanning 9th to 12th grades. FCPS has 27 high schools and 57,000 students in CTE classes each year.

As well, FCPS will integrate Rubin Emerge into its learning platform, Schoology, through single sign-on so students can complete Emerge assignments without the need to leave Schoology or enter a username/password.

The decision to roll out Emerge division wide comes amid increased demand from colleges and employers for writing, speaking and other “employability” skills.

“We are proud and humbled at the opportunity to provide Emerge to every high school within Fairfax County,” said Danny Rubin, the founder of Rubin. “We know administrators within Fairfax County have wonderful ideas for how to use our content, and the partnership shows the broader educational community that Rubin is a premier provider of online instruction for business communication skills.”

In the image above, Chinazo Okey-Dike (left) and Lindsey Hardin from Stockdale High School in Bakersfield, CA learn they won first place nationwide in a human resources competition from Virtual Enterprises International.

—

We are delighted to share that two high school students at Stockdale High School in Bakersfield, CA who learn from the Rubin Emerge curriculum have taken first place in a national human resources competition.

Congratulations to Chinazo Okey-Dike and Lindsey Hardin — along with their teacher, Brian Devitt — for the top prize at the recent national human resources competition hosted by Virtual Enterprises International (VE).

VE is an educational nonprofit that allows students to create and manage their own businesses and gain entrepreneurial and managerial skills throughout the experience.

Okey-Dike and Hardin worked together on a presentation for how to onboard new employees at their team’s clothing line, Arachne Apparel. Over the course of four competition rounds, the duo took first place out of 192 participating schools.

Throughout the 2020-2021 school year, Devitt integrated lessons from Emerge into his Canvas courses. Okey-Dike, Hardin and their classmates learned important skills like email etiquette, LinkedIn communication, job interview preparation and more.

Emerge stresses a communication style that’s brief and to the point yet friendly and approachable.

Congrats to Okey-Dike and Hardin for the national honors. At Rubin, we believe when you write and speak well, you open new doors.

The tandem in Bakersfield is proof!

In the image above, you see a slide from the human resources presentation led by high school students Chinazo Okey-Dike and Lindsey Hardin. The two-person team explained the onboarding process for their company, Arachne Apparel, and then won first prize in the HR competition out of 192 schools.

Explore Emerge for yourself! Request a 30-day free trial here!

The employer scans an applicant’s resume.

Words, words, words, words and more words.

But suddenly, something catches the employer’s eye. It’s a visual — bright blue and yellow with the words “Email Etiquette” emblazoned across the middle.

The employer is intrigued.

This young person has email skills. Fantastic. We need that in our office.

—

Emerge, our signature online platform for business communication skills, has “digital badges” built into the core of our instruction.

When students learn a new skill (ex: write an email, speak on the phone to advance your career), they earn badges (or icons) to affix to a resume, LinkedIn profile or digital portfolio.

In spring 2020 at Dinwiddie High School in Central Virginia, a young woman (whose name we removed for privacy reasons) elected to add the Emerge “Email Etiquette” digital badge to her resume.

See the resume at the bottom of the page. Do you notice the blue and yellow achievement right away?

Dawn Cater, instructional specialist for career readiness within Dinwiddie County Public Schools, used Emerge throughout the year in an independent study course and felt the material gave her students a competitive edge.

“Emerge teaches real-life skills our students can apply as they look for college and and career opportunities,” Cater said. “The digital badges are proof positive of what the students learned and the colorful images jump off the page.”

Emerge offers 12 digital badges. They are:

• Email Etiquette
• Advanced Email Etiquette
• Advanced Networking Skills
• Client Relations
• Crowdfunding
• Grant Writing
• Interoffice Communication
• Phone Etiquette
• Advanced Public Relations
• Advanced Social Media Networking
• Sales Writing
• Website Copywriting

Here’s the Dinwiddie High School resume with the Emerge “Email Etiquette” digital badge.

We removed the student’s name and any sensitive information. But the digital badge stands proudly.

The moment Coronavirus sent Lowndes County students home for distance learning, Jason Van Nus had a plan.

As the work-based learning (WBL) coordinator for the county, Lowndes has spent the past school year using Emerge, our online curriculum for communication skills, in his workshops and classroom instruction for nearly 200 students.

Van Nus even helped a student, Kellylynn Lofton, secure a competitive job opportunity at the region’s biggest employer.

Now that students must learn from home, Van Nus again looked to Emerge for appropriate learning materials for students who can use online tools and those who can’t.

“I can incorporate the content from Emerge any way I need to,” says Van Nus. “It’s flexible for my students with internet access and it easily becomes a printed packet for those who don’t have internet or a device in which to access the internet.”

Van Nus prepared online and printed exercises from Emerge that cover three main topics:

• Handwritten notes to tell people thanks for their assistance
• “Storytelling” cover letter, a signature Rubin method that helps students share an example of their work ethic
• Phone etiquette skills

Van Nus coupled the activities with templates and guides from the Rubin book, Wait, How Do I Write This Email?, which is provided to teachers and students inside Emerge as an ebook.

For the students with internet and appropriate devices, Van Nus posted the assignments in Google Classroom.

And for the students without digital access, Van Nus put the information in a printed packet that students obtained from the school site closest to their homes.

“In particular, the handwritten note lessons in Emerge are perfect right now,” says Van Nus. “My students without internet access or digital devices can use paper and pen to complete the assignment — and they learn a valuable life skill at the same time.”

Even in a crisis, Rubin comes through.

How can Emerge help your school? Contact us to start the conversation.

In March 2020, the Coronavirus sent teachers and students racing home to avoid the threat of infection.

Overnight, teachers have had to develop online lesson plans and allow students to learn from home. The unprecedented situation requires innovative approaches and distant learning tools teachers can trust.

Emerge, our comprehensive online platform that teaches students essential skills like email etiquette, phone etiquette and professional development, stood ready to embrace the remote learning challenge.

Listen below to Stephanie Younger, a career and technical education (CTE) business teacher at Professional Learning Center (school site within Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in Charlotte, North Carolina).

Younger says Emerge has been ideal so her students can learn essential workplace skills from home.

Tina Caras agrees with Younger’s sentiment.

As a business and information technology teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, Caras has also relied on Emerge as students learn at a distance.

Below, she talks about the value of Emerge as a reliable curriculum tool within her Canvas courses.

Here is an example of a Canvas course in which Caras used a set of Emerge activities (ex: Activity: Improve Your Writing in 3 Minutes).

In the photo, Fairfax County Public Schools teacher Michele Anwyll (top, left) presents March 6, 2020 about the Emerge online program at a gathering of career and technical education (CTE) department chairs from Fairfax County, the nation’s seventh-largest school system.

Each year, Michele Anwyll’s students at Annandale High School in Fairfax, Virginia take the Workplace Readiness Skills Assessment (WRS Assessment).

The 100-question, multiple-choice exam gauges a student’s understanding of resumes, cover letters, email writing, applying for jobs, life in an office setting and professional etiquette.

Despite Anwyll’s best efforts and curriculum-driven instruction, her students have historically struggled on the exam with a pass rate around 65 percent. Students must score a 75/100 to complete the exam.

In the 2019-2020 academic year, Anwyll, a family and consumer sciences (FACS) teacher, used Emerge, our comprehensive online program that guides students through a series of activities that cover email etiquette, resumes, cover letters, job interview prep and more.

When the students sat for the WRS assessment, Anwyll saw a significant improvement.

Out of 147 students who took the exam through Anwyll’s classes, 133 have passed (the remaining 14 are allowed to retake the exam).

That’s a current pass rate of 90 percent.

“Emerge is full of information that aligns with the needs of my own classes in gourmet cooking and the topics covered on the WRS Asssessment,” said Anwyll, who has taught for 11 years after she left the professional world to become a teacher. “The activities have built-in scaffolding, use simple, clear language and even feature a language tool that translates and reads the text in 18 languages, including Spanish and Mandarin.”

To earn a standard high school diploma, it’s now mandatory for all students in Virginia to obtain a career and technical education (CTE) credential, which can be an industry certification, a state licensure examination, national occupational competency assessment or the Virginia WRS Assessment.

Now Anwyll, who teaches a large percentage of international students who are English language learners (ELL), has the resource she needs to ensure students not only pass the WRS Assessment but do so at a high rate.

As well, middle school teachers use Emerge curriculum to teach foundational skills in workplace readiness. Read about the inspiring work done by Mary Lynn Thurman and Trevon James at George M. Hampton Middle School in Prince William County, Virginia.

“Emerge is a perfect fit in FACS courses and for CTE pathways, in general,” said Fairfax County FACS Program Lead Reggie Morrone. “The material provides students easy-to-follow exercises that support literacy and leadership skills. Students develop confidence in their ability to learn and communicate as they pursue college and career opportunities.”

And for schools that use learning management systems (LMS), Emerge integrates with Canvas, Blackboard, Schoology and a host of other popular LMS programs.

The integration means Emerge embeds into a school website, and students do not need a separate username and password to access and complete Emerge activities.

“I finally have a workplace readiness curriculum I can trust in which my students can independently work on their own,” said Anwyll. “More than that, Emerge helps my students graduate on time and conduct themselves professionally in the business world and in settings that require professionalism.”

Ready to explore Emerge for your own school or district? Request a 30-day free trial today!

Request your free trial of the Emerge online program!

Often times, teachers prepare students to succeed in careers one day.

Other times, teachers guide students to excel in a job right now.

That’s the case inside Liberty County High School in Hinesville, GA. Jonnie Larson, who teaches early childhood education (ECE) and advises the school’s FCCLA chapter, relies on the Emerge online program to teach in-demand skills like email etiquette.

Four days a week from 830 am to 10 am, Larson’s 19 ESE students (ranging from sophomores to seniors) work at Liberty County Pre-K as part of their practicum. The students help the pre-k staff with four and five-year-old classrooms.

Whenever students can’t be at the pre-k center, they need to email the on-site coordinator with the reason.

Only a few weeks into the Emerge online program, Larson can already see a difference in the professionalism of her students’ emails.

“The quality of the emails are better,” said Larson. “Students have learned to write subject lines and email messages that are focused and to the point.”

Emerge covers a wide array of professional skills through readings, instructional videos and short activities. The program integrates into a school’s LMS of choice (ex: Canvas, Blackboard) and spans topics like email writing, phone etiquette, in-person correspondence, resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn and even communication for entrepreneurship and leadership.

Larson noted her students engaged in a recent discussion about professional email addresses. The conversation stemmed from a reading in the Emerge program about what constitutes an “appropriate” email address.

“What I liked is that the students read the material on their own, and then one of my students advised another student on effective email addresses. It was a peer-to-peer moment about professionalism that the Rubin program made possible.”

See a sample email below written by one of Larson’s student to the pre-k coordinator. Note: Prior to the Rubin program, the student did not use email subject lines.

—

Subject line: Attendance

Good morning,

Ms. Larson will be attending the annual winter conference for Family & Consumer Sciences teachers in Savannah today. While she is out we will not be coming to the Pre-K for lab hours. When she returns to work on Monday, February 3 we will resume the normal schedules of going to the Pre-K four days a week. Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!

[Student’s first and last name]

Request your free trial of the Emerge online program!

In the photo, student officers from the virtual company, Resha Hemp, pose with Rubin books of templates provided as ebooks inside the Emerge online program. Stockdale High School’s CTE classes rely on Emerge to help students communicate with business professionals.

At Rubin Education, we teach students practical employability skills they can apply in the real world.

That mission was never truer than inside a classroom in fall 2019 at Stockdale High School in Bakersfield, CA.

Teacher Brian Devitt led his students through the first module in the Emerge online program called Email Etiquette — Beginner. Devitt is also an adviser for Virtual Enterprises International (VEI), an educational nonprofit that allows students to create and run mock businesses.

In the Email Etiquette — Beginner unit, Stockdale students learned to create an appropriate email address, understand the difference between a text message and proper email and, finally, draft an entire email from the subject line down to the email signature.

And once the students learned to write an email, they composed messages to one minor league sports executive and two major league executives in the hopes of “selling” (it’s all for practice) promotional items at upcoming games.

The separate messages went to the vice president of operations for the Bakersfield Condors (AHL minor league hockey), assistant director of stadium operations for the Portland Trailblazers (NBA) and a ticketing official with the San Francisco Giants (MLB).

The students also held a sales-pitch phone call with Richard Fedesco, the Trailblazers executive.