What does any of this have to do with a teenager or education? The answer should be - EVERYTHING! As students and teachers we should have an educational plan; including a vision, mission and values statement. And more importantly, the strategic plan. With that being said, many are already doing this while others are not.
At the beginning of each school year we are given information from our teachers. It describes class expectations (values statement), what we will accomplish by the end of the year (vision) and some of the goals for the year. For the most part, as students we receive the watered down version of a teacher's educational plan. Teachers spend a vast amount of time planning how they will reach their vision, including strategies, goals and action plans yet, it is rarely shared with students. Today's student spend 7 out of 24 hours in school. If a student sleeps for 7 hours, spends 1 hour in the morning preparing for their day, 2 hours after school attending extracurricular activities and 1 hour for eating dinner that leaves approximately 4 hours left for home work and free time. If provided with a clear and detailed strategic plan a student could plan their time appropriately. For example, if a student knew on the first day of school there was going to be a math test and science test on the same day they could then begin to formulate their own plan for studying - pressure off, no last minute panic because football practice lasted until 7:00 the night before.
On the flip side, as students what about our own mission, vision, values. Do we or should we have a strategic plan of our own? Should we be sharing this with our teachers? Yes and yes! Where are we now? Where do we want to be? What are our values? What is our action plan, goals and strategies? I am sure most of us know the answers to these questions but, have you ever shared them with your teachers? For example, what if one of your goals was to become better at doing quadratic equations. If your math teacher is provided with this information they could make a note of it in their student profile and then be able to provide you with the tools to achieve your goal.
Prior to writing this I completed my own mission, vision, values statement. As well as, my personal strategic plan. In the fall I plan to share it with my teachers and look forward to their feedback as how they can help me achieve my goals.
Education should be a collaborative effort; working together more can be accomplished!
I hope you have enjoyed reading my first blog post. I look forward to your comments. Thanks for reading!
