Design Your Education
Education embedded into the individual
Healthy Thriving Adult
K12 education has a primary job of preparing and inspiring students for adulthood, when the guardrails and support are removed. Preparing students and supporting educators to be healthy, thriving adults involves designing education from multiple stakeholder perspectives, embedded with the components needed to be a healthy, thriving adult into content and school culture. Schools should be individualized, centered around the core of who the person is and what experiences will help them move toward where they want to go, capitalizing on the social and the emotional aspect of human beings for all stakeholders- students, staff, and families.
Academic mastery is the tool the students will later use along their path. It is not the house they will live in all their lives. If we are truly looking at each individual student, we need to prepare them with all the tools they need. The academic achievement outcome goals will progress when we have meaning for students in the classroom and they want to attend and engage.
Social Community
Humans are biologically social beings. We need to co-regulate with the people around us in order to remain physically and mentally healthy. Incorporating connection and building community meet human needs to work toward meaningful interactions and belonging.
Emotional Regulation
Expressing the natural feelings that humans have allows processing to move forward. It helps people exit out of heightened crisis status and back to healthy regulation in order to see multiple perspectives and paths forward. Social community supports emotional regulation.
Learning Integration
If we only focus on academic achievement, we are neglecting and stunting development. It is not enough for a parallel path of SEL. Social emotional learning needs to be integrated into our classrooms and culture to support students to becoming a thriving healthy adult. Embedding social emotional learning standards into content curriculum standards brings meaning and engagement to required and elective courses.
We drive our vehicle to our desired destination (our goal). Our GPS navigation is set by our values, and we've decided on our route. Our gas tank is full from our values and priorities, and our brakes and steering wheel are like a full gas tank, motivated by our values and priorities. We reflect in our rearview mirror, and we have our buddy beside us in the passenger seat. We will have experiences along the way that allow us to make this a journey. We may revise our route or our destination, but the entire time it will matter to us.
Students
Students should have opportunities and experiences for self-discovery and safe risk-taking within guardrails, in order to cultivate connection, community, and belonging. Meaning & resilience will increase well-being toward becoming healthy, thriving adults.
Staff
When teachers and educators can find meaning and purpose in their everyday, and when they have choice and voice in their school community, they will cultivate stronger relationships and their work will be more fulfilling and in turn, their well-being will increase.
Families
Families are partnerships, working in collaboration and in alignment to support a student's growth and goals. Communication, authenticity, and transparency between the school and families is necessary to support the whole student.
Big Ideas: Components of Healthy, Thriving Adult
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. 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.
The people around you are the passengers in the car you're driving. You want people who you enjoy being around on your journey, who will pull over and sit with you when you're down or stuck, and who will push you forward when you get off track.
Ensuring the people surrounding us and the ways we are spending our time is aligned to our values is like a check-up for your car. Sometimes we need to pull over for a minute and make sure everything is in alignment.
Our GPS navigation can tell us how to reach a destination, but we still have to decide if we follow that, or if we know a shortcut or expect too much traffic. Decision making, with our values and our people at our center, ensure continued alignment, allowing us to continue on our journey to multiple destinations.
There will be days you hit a pothole that jilts the vehicle and days there's a lot of traffic that make you feel a little stuck. There are times you'll want to take an exit and just explore, or moments you spend at a rest stop seeing if you need to alter your route or your destination. The key is finding your balance. How fast do you want to drive? How many stops do you want to make? How much conversation do you want with your people?