I had been hearing many fellow educators rave about the positive impact vision boards can have, so I decided to have my students create them as a project for the end of the year. Here are a few examples of the finished products: Earlier in the school year we had gone over the difference between goals and wishes. We had gone over creating S.M.A.R.T. goals as well as the difference between short term and long term goals. Prior to revealing what the project was going to be, I had the students brainstorm a few academic and personal goals they had for the next 10 years. The students drafted an essays in which they elaborated on what their goals were and the steps they thought would be necessary in order to reach those goals. We went over what a vision board was: a tool used to help clarify, concentrate, and maintain focus on a specific life goal. I also explained how people usually post their vision boards somewhere they will see it as a daily reminder and motivation to keep working toward achieving those goals. I will admit I was a bit vague when giving the students the instructions for the project because I wanted to see how creative they could be with it.
This project took a while to complete. It took about 6 days from the initial stage of cutting out pictures from magazines to piecing it all together as a collage. On the 7th day, the students presented their vision boards to their classmates, at the end of their presentations their classmates had the opportunity to ask questions relevant to the goals discussed. Yes, 7 days days seems like too long but since it was close to the end of the year, students were constantly out for retesting, field trips, special ceremonies, etc. This project was perfect for this time of year because if students missed a day, they could easily pick up where they left off. I learned so much about my students as I listened to them talk about their goals in life and it really inspired me. I definitely plan on doing my students do this project in the future, but would like to make this project even more powerful by providing more scaffolding. I would like to find the balance between being too vague in the instructions and being too specific to the point where they no longer feel ownership over their vision boards. Have you tried to have your students create vision boards? If so, what was your experience like? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Pictures of the products would be an added bonus!
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AuthorMiss E. Garcia Archives
September 2018
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