QUOTE: “if you don’t like where you are, move. You’re not a tree”. I don’t know who said this but it’s so true, often we stay where we are through fear of change, habit or feeling like we’ve got no options. Occasionally, we are powerless to change things, but more often than not we have the power. Actually, Alice Walker said “the most common way people give up power is by thinking they don’t have any” and how many times do you and I stop ourselves doing something for some nebulous reason – there’s no time? Who am I to ask for this? What if I’m wrong? Shouldn’t someone else be leading on this?
It’s true to say that our students are having to deal with loads of new things this year too and will often feel powerless and out of control – imagine all the rules being changed all the time – as an adult we’ve got a bit of agency and can exercise some decisions. As a child or young person it must be pretty disempowering. I’m sure this may be behind any behaviour changes or incidents you might witness, on top of all the other issues young people carry with them.
My forthcoming book – The Ladder – will also help you to support your students in their thinking and planning ahead, not just for their jobs and careers, but their skills in self-reflection and awareness. Life travels fast and even during lockdown, when there was plenty of time for reflection, most people I know spent time cramming box-sets into their spare time. The Ladder includes a load of offline tools to support personal development and help your charges to learn more about themselves and their inner drivers and purposes.
If you want to do something now in PD or PSHE to support student wellbeing, mental health and self-advocacy then maybe this will help? We’ve always been about supporting and developing better self-reflection for young people and improved attitudes so, to this end, and in recognition of COVID and its continuing hold on the world, our #LAUNCH sessions are being recorded w/c 19thOctober in a professional studio setting as a personal development toolkit you can use to support your students. The videos will accompany a worksheets which will feature in The Ladder and will be available on an annual license plan.
Here’s the link to LAUNCH and the feedback we’ve received over the past few years: https://innovativeenterprise.co.uk/portfolio/launch-motivation-for-staff-and-students/
One student at Chelsea Academy, Wafa was so impressed she ran out to speak to me after a LAUNCH session: https://vimeo.com/184311191
Let me know how we can help you…
Tw: @EnterpriseSBox
Bernie.