Discover
Find Your Path
Who we are & what we value is the GPS navigation of our lives. However, unlike the car in our driveway or the app on our phone, this GPS doesn't automatically warn us if we're headed in the wrong direction or if we veer off track. Our navigational system is also unique to us- it isn't the same as another person in our family or in our workplace. We must continually discover who we are and intentionally reflect on our path and our desired destinations because our GPS may lead us one way today and open our eyes to another pathway or destination next month or next year.
"Find out who you are, on purpose" -Charlotte Burgess-Auburn
How does it work?
Reflect on your Time
What are your interests & the characteristics of your personality? What are the activities you enjoy doing alone and with other people? Who are the notifications and messages from, that you wait for on your phone? What show, movie, or album are you waiting to be released? These are the things that influence, enterain, and inspire us.
Dream about Experiences
What are the thing you want to experience in the next week, year, and within five years? Humans are seeking connection and belonging. We want to connect with other people who seek these same experiences. We want to belong in the context and feel like we fit in.
Discover your Values
Ask yourself why you enjoy the activities you are interested in or why you want to spend your time with certain people. Find common themes in your activities, influences, & experiences. What are your priorities? What matters to you? Curate the experiences we strive for with the aspirations to make those a reality with small, actionable steps.
What does it look like?
Students
Students demonstrate digital balance in the classroom and less avoidance of the classroom (bathroom and water breaks, visits to nurse or counselor) because they participate in designing student assessments that accomplish lesson objectives while connecting to who they are as individuals.
Students are able to separate their self-worth from external accomplishment or social comparison because they understand their own values and see experiences as steps toward a larger goal.
Families
Families feel that the school is working in the best interest of their student, preparing and inspiring them for success in the future.
The school family partnership has productive and honest two-way collaboration and communication.
Staff
Teachers are engaged with students to connect the lesson material to meaningful application to a student's individual experience.
Staff members are pursuing opportunities to extend their expertise and interests beyond their role as club/activity sponsors, curriculum revision teams, or aspiring leadership pathways
Schools
Schools are able to create more meaningful opportunities for students to try out and have experiences, with support and guardrails, to see if they are on the path they want to pursue for their future.
Subgroup gaps in outcome data, like accreditation, test scores, etc. close more naturally as engagement and empowerment in the classroom increased since students feel seen for who they are as individuals.
What are the potential benefits?
Students
Increased attendance rates, decreased tardies
Increased academic achievement
Decreased behavior incidents during instructional time
Reduced schedule changes during the school year
Increased membership in school community opportunities, such as clubs & activities
Families
Increased alignment of student and family goals
Higher levels of trust from families to school
Increased two-way communication between school and families
Staff
Increased professional growth & opportunity seeking
Increased engagement in CLT/PLCs and departments
Decreased need for mental health days resulting in less substitutes & higher instructional quality for students
Increased number of activity and club sponsorships
Schools
Increased attendance, lower chronic absenteeism
Higher academic achievement in grades and test scores
Closing subgroup enrollment gaps in advanced & elective coursework
Increased work-based learning experiences
Hacks
- Find your compass/Create your manifesto
Can be done individually, as a department or small group, or as a school to find priorities and values
- Integrate student discovery into the curriculum
Examples include reflecting on one own's experiences and then relating that back to characters in literature, narrative writing using literary terms, or famous people in history
- Reframe goals as experiences
Instead of viewing goals as outcomes with linear paths, view goals as experiences. Model this attitude with students to eliminate the black and white accomplishments and failures.
Templates
Examples
Classroom
Connect Self to Literature
As 9th graders first venture into literature and its components, they may need help understanding why it is important to learn. Exploring other forms of media with students, like Pixar Shorts, and relating the same components demonstrates the relevancy of the content standards. Placing themselves in the story and writing a narrative relating themselves to a character and literary components helps engage them further.
Examples
Research Myself & My Future Plans
Connecting research standards in English to a student's individual postsecondary plan allows students can discover who they are and where they want to go in order to be more engaged in the content standard. Asking students "why" they spend in their time in certain activities and with certain people and having students answer with "Because I..." gives students a formula for uncovering their values and priorities. While creating thesis statements about themselves can start out as abstract, it is something they will remember when applying these concepts in a later assessment.
Examples
Find Myself in Larger Social Change
Before students complete a meaningful English research project about creating social change, take a moment to allow them to research themselves. Students can discover what makes them angry to develop a thesis statement about societal issue they want to work on. For each reason, students can ask themselves why it matters to them in order to bring a personal mattering that gives a starting point for the argument and the sources.
Examples
School
Rethink Code of Behavior Meetings
Administrators, classroom teachers, and students review the Code of Behavior regulations and workshop principles from Design Thinking to empathize why the school rule, define the positive behavior desired, define class and school rules, and ideate ways for success. Administrators, educators, and students collaborate on the core values of the school, classroom, and student body.
Examples
Staff
Staff Declarations
As an individual, each professional needs to know their compass so their days have meaning and purpose. As a department, school, or division, the team needs to know their compass in order to both create more cohesion and ensure best fit for everyone involved. Staff can workshop to create their manifesto individually, and teams can workshop to develop their collaborative compass to ensure all tasks and priorities are moving in the same direction.
Examples
At the beginning of a new school year
As part of a new hire's onboarding process
Before making a decision about intent for next school year
Aspiring Leader Cohort
Supporting individuals on their path to leadership positions and other professional development is an opportunity to ask them to reflect. Looking back, who are the people you have admired and been inspired by? What situations have you been in where you think you or someone else should have handled that differently? In order to achieve an aspiration of leadership, we must have the compass to guide us. Use time with cohorts of individuals with shared goals to have them think- what kind of leader do they want to be? What kind of environment do you want to create for those working with and for you?
Examples
Families
Workshop: Supporting Students
Providing workshops to families allows in-the-moment brainstorming, processing, and reflection and can increase meaning at a traditional family engagement night. Planned as a small group breakout session, dry erase sheets at each table can help parents and caretakers reflect on who their child is (interests, activities, characteristics, etc) and what experiences they wanted their child to have in high school and after high school. Facilitation in the workshop can include modeling being vulnerable while coaching through the questions. Toward the end, ask families to reflect on what conversations they want to have with their child as well as what questions they have for the school and what resources they would want from the school. Submission of these last points through a QR code can provide feedback on the workshop as well as affects planning for the remainder of these students' time in high school. The workshop may lead to individual conversations with families to provide more specialized support and answers to questions.
Examples
Research & Resources
by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
by Charlotte Burgess Auburn
by Louise Hayes & Joseph Ciarrochi