June 23 is Public Service Day. Created by the United Nations in 2003, this observance celebrates the value of public service to the community, recognizes the work of public servants, and encourages young people to explore public service careers.
The implementation of social distancing guidelines creates obstacles to in-person celebrations and recognition of public service employees, but there are many options for exploring public service careers and virtually recognizing public servants.
What Are Public Service Jobs?
To celebrate public service day, students need an understanding of private careers versus those in the public service sector. The following articles provide an overview of public service careers, including education requirements, approximate pay scale, and pros and cons of public service jobs.
What Are Public Service Jobs? – This article takes a look at public service jobs and shares examples of careers in a variety of fields.
List of Public Service Careers – As the title indicates, this article provides a list of public service careers, including categories such as protective services, government servants, public school educators, and community helpers.
Top Careers in Public Service – Dig a little deeper into public service careers and learn about some of the higher-paying career opportunities in public service.
Public Service Careers – This YouTube video is a recording of a judge’s presentation to a group of students explaining his role as a public servant and why he chose to pursue this career path.
These articles and videos provide a starting point for exploring jobs in public service. Consider using a curation tool such as Padlet (TeachersFirst review) to share career information with students to engage them in the learning process. Use the Shelf option to create columns for the different categories of careers, then add links to articles, videos, and other information within each of the groups.
Share What You Learn
As students explore careers, take advantage of online resources that allow students to show what they know. Develop rubrics and provide a variety of options for students to share their learning and research.
Canva Infographic Maker (TeachersFirst review) – Infographics allow you to share a large amount of information within a limited space. Canva’s Infographic Maker is free and easy to use. Choose from a large variety of templates or let students create their own. Have students select a specific career to research, including education requirements, options within the career field, salary range, and opportunities for growth within their chosen field.
Canva Venn Diagram creator (TeachersFirst review) – Canva also provides a Venn Diagram creator. Use the templates to create a simple two-circle Venn Diagram to compare and contrast public versus private careers, or choose one of the other options to create more complicated comparisons of career options. Hover over any of the thumbnails of the templates to find free options.
Thinglink (TeachersFirst review) – This easy-to-use tool allows you to add links and text spots to any image. Share this site with students and ask them to upload an image of a public service worker (be sure to provide credit and follow appropriate use policies). Add spots of information about the chosen career and student-created documents or creations. My favorite site for finding free to use images is Unsplash (TeachersFirst review).
Virtually Recognize Public Servants
Another goal of Public Service Day is to recognize public servants. Use these ideas to create virtual student tributes to public service workers, then share students’ creations with your local newspaper, tv station, mayor, and hospitals.
Adobe Spark Video Creator (TeachersFirst review) – Spark Video makes it easy to create videos without having any video-creation knowledge. Use their ready-made templates and add images, video, and sound to create a professional-looking presentation. When finished, share using social media, text or email using your unique URL.
Poem Generator (TeachersFirst review) – Recognize public servants with a poem. Poem Generator offers a variety of poem choices such as haiku, limerick, and acrostic poems. Choose the type of poetry, fill in the boxes with information such as time of year and adjectives, then select Write me a poem. Publish and share with your favorite public servant!
MyStorybook (TeachersFirst review)- Digital storybooks are a fantastic way to share information with others. MyStorybook is perfect for younger students, since it provides a variety of text and image options without being overwhelming. For older students, try Book Creator (TeachersFirst review) to create collaborative stories about public servants to honor their accomplishments and share with your community.
The past several months have highlighted the need for public servants, especially those in health fields. Even though many of us are still following social distancing guidelines, it is still possible to recognize and celebrate Public Servants Day using readily available (and free) virtual tools.
Do you have a useful resource or tip for celebrating Public Service Day? We would love to hear your ideas in the comments.