Weekly Student Success Session 12/14/22

This week we continued our discussion on independent learning and documenting our activities. This became a discussion on being aware of ourselves. 

Key Insights or Distinctions

1. Recap last week’s discussion on independent learning.
2. Discussion and Q&A on the Project Planning Decision Guide

Session Notes

One of our goals for these last two weeks is to help our students learn how to deep dive into the thought processes behind their projects or ideas. The questions provided in the Project Planning Decision Guide are meant to get their thinking wheels turning and to consider all aspects of a job or project. It helps them formulate the right questions to ask and provides a solid base for experimenting and learning. We took some time to go through the document and answer questions and talked about how they relate to individual projects.

The conversation turned towards motivation and the ability to get things done when motivation fails. These are amazing life lessons and we were glad to know our students could freely admit when they are having trouble staying motivated. It gave us all an opportunity to talk about motivation, how it impacts us, and how we learn to move through it.

During this time of year, especially, it can be difficult for any of us to stay motivated and focused. Holidays put different kinds of stressors on everyone – but it is usually stressful in some way. We had talked a couple of weeks ago about the holidays coming up, our own expectations as well as family’s, and the inevitable pressure that many of us add to it with those New’s Year’s resolutions that surface as we head into the new year.

But what one of our students shared that was new was that they were getting bogged down in the details of a project, and it was completely shutting them down. They went on to detail that without a clear picture of all of the pieces and their interconnectivity, they couldn’t see the point to moving forward. What is interesting to watch is they are all becoming more and more aware of their own learning styles, what time of day they are more (or less) productive, what stops them in their tracks and what motivates them. 

This week, we’ll be adding an extra session to show a mind-mapping/flow charting tool that can help them get a handle on that big picture. It will be a nice complement to the Planning Guide they are working on.