Education is all about preparing students for a future as a healthy, successful adult. And part of that means that most people need to get a job and work for a living. I have been studying the importance of improving education for our youth through the charity work I do - which you can see at my own educational website http://www.roccobasile.org/. One of my interests is the Joe DiMaggio Committee that raises money to provide a good education for children who come from financially challenged families. This is one charity that I go to bat for...
The Joe DiMaggio Award Gala benefits Xaverian High School, my Alma mater. Its Ryken Program serves as the model for the New York State Regents for all such endeavors. Xaverian has a tradition of serving young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, boys with learning disabilities and students that are in financial need.
Which brings me to this issue -- for many students it is the lack of focus that is causing them problems. In my research, I found something called the Strategic Plan for Students, a tool that has been designed to help them determine their personal mission, goals, and objectives. Used by many business professionals this method can help students stay on track when it comes to meeting their academic goals.
A strategic road map for success is used by many companies, and because things change, this plan is often updated more than once a year. Students can can use the same sort of plan to achieve their goals too - starting in high school, and definitely in college. And long term planning can focus on a student's entire education - from high school preparatory to a Masters, all leading up to being out in the world working in a profession.
The plan usually has five basic points: A mission statement, goals, a strategy, objectives, and finally the evaluation and review, as follows:
1) Mission Statement – You first have to develop an overall mission for one to four years of education, so state what you’d like to accomplish, then write a paragraph to define this goal.
Keep in mind how you are special and how you can tap into your skills, talents and strengths to achieve your goals.
2) Select your Goals - These are general statements identifying a few benchmark goals you’ll need to accomplish in order to meet your mission. Don't forget to recognize any weaknesses and create a defensive strategy for these. For example - set aside two hours every night for homework. or get my favorite teachers to write recommendations.
3) Plan Strategies – You need to come up with specific tactics for reaching each goal, so for example, if one of your goals is spending two hours each night on homework, then a strategy for reaching that goal is to decide what activities you need to give up that could interfere.
4) Create Objectives - These should include measurable goals towards objects, tools, or numbers providing evidence of success. For example - the objective for doing two hours of homework is to improve your grades. The grade "A" when the last grade you got was a "C" is your objective, showing concrete improvement. This will help you stay on track.
5) Evaluate Your Progress – It's not really that easy to develop a good strategic plan, and your plan will most definitely change due to unforeseen circumstances, changes in the world, and in your own life. It will require re-thinking for new goals, objectives and evaluation.
No comments:
Post a Comment