Introduction
In the article “ Life Skills Every High School Grad Should Know“ students should be prepared with household skills, career skills, financial life skills, healthy living skills, social living skills. There are hundreds of hits on the internet naming what it is a high school graduate will need to be successful.
Before leaving the Senior Seminar course Everett Public Schools wants to grant students an opportunity to examine for themselves what they need to reach their goals. The course standards are to help students examine their skills, strengths, interests and values; understand the requirements of the education and career paths open to them; develop a financial awareness and how to budget; and to lay out concrete steps leading to a personal goal.
The Personal Development Plan is the produce each student will create after completing a series of lessons and experiences that support the development of a set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-Oriented, and Timebound (S.M.A.R.T.) goals mapping out the road to graduation; to where each student hopes to be one year post graduation and the vision when looking five years and beyond.
The plan has three sections:
- Career/Education (covered through Career Readiness work)
- Financial/Budgeting (Units within Career Ready 101)
- Balanced Living (interests, health, travel)
Career/Education Planning
While we focus in this course on career readiness; planning for the future involves not only a specific career or field of study but also consideration of the type of work environment and management that fits each person. From the rigidity and order of the military to the freedom of entrepreneurship and self-employment – each person has a choice of determining what works best.
Financial/Budgeting
No matter the path someone chooses- in order to reach goals requires an understanding of how to navigate the financial world. What is clear from the examination of financial crisis is that planning and budgeting is even more essential in creating some element of stability for individuals and families alike.
In Senior Seminar – we will utilize the Career Ready 101 curriculum to cover some foundational elements of financial literacy from which to set goals and create a plan to reach each student’s goals.
Other Financial Literacy Resources:
Balanced Living
What is it we strive for to have a “balanced life”? Beyond our ways to make money and be self-supporting are all those elements of our lives that keep us healthy and happy. That is different for each person – but there a networks of people who connect through their hobbies, love of travel and even their efforts to stay healthy. Health and the digital age is even changing how we “plan” for staying aware of ourselves like in the TEDTalk by Gary Wolf: The quantified self.
Tools to help with planning work
Real Life “Planners”
Template
Rubrics
Model