This workshop aims to inspire and motivate students to create a vision of who they want to be as a person, where they want to be headed, and to start thinking about how they are going to make that happen.
The workshop asks students to identify:
- personal values they would like to live their life by
- personal strengths – personal qualities and skills
- passions – activities they love to pursue
- gratitude – the things in their life they are blessed to have
- goals – short term and long term goals that are realistic
- persistence and resilience qualities
and at the end of the workshop students are well placed to create a personalised Vision Board to reflect where they want to take themselves and the values they’ll apply on the journey.
“Mark’s workshop was both engaging and inspiring for our students. All students who attended the workshop were challenged to think about who they are and where they want to be. The skills learnt will support our students as they transition into High School.” – Tom Brennan, Principal, Sunshine Christian School
The workshop aims to keep students engaged through focusing on their life. Mark Marston also shares his experiences to help students connect to, and understand the concepts. For example, Mark talks about the values he lives his life by, daring to think big and how he takes actions to bring his dreams to fruition. He also paints a realistic picture of setbacks and the necessity of persistence and resilience.
- Mark’s Vision Board 2010 Mark’s Vision Board 2015
This workshop was used as the centre piece of the Ride with a Vision fundraiser. The process of organising the fundraiser helps students to see the power of taking action in aligning with personal values, strengths and passions, to have clear goals and the power of persistence and resilience in achieving them.
The workshop can be delivered to any age group five years old plus, but older students year 3 upwards benefit from generally having better developed writing skills. At the end of the workshop students will have a vision statement. Class teachers can oversee students construct their Vision Boards over another 2 – 5 lessons. Supporting documentation is provided for teachers. It is highly recommended this workshop fits into a school wide effort as the greater the emphasis on these life skills, the more likely students are to remember and adopt them.
Workshop Objectives
- Students identify their personal values and personal strengths, and understand why these are important.
- Students are able to give acknowledgement to things in their life that they are grateful for.
- Students understand the importance of setting goals, have insight of S.M.A.R.T. goals and understand the importance of working towards and achieving goals.
- Students recognise that mental barriers and set backs are normal and appreciate a solution focus mindset versus a problem focus mindset.
- Students have an appreciation of what a Vision Board is and plan their own to represent their personalised vision.
Benefits
- Well-being and life skills benefit people for their entire life. People with stronger life skills tend to flourish more than those that do not. As evidence of well-being is more and more being scientifically proven, its importance and adoption is continuing to grow. South Australia is a world leader in adopting Positive Psychology.
- Students increase their awareness of well being, positive life strategies and thinking approaches.
- Students critically think about what they have in their life, some goals they want to achieve and think about what they may want their life to look like.
- Students end the project with something visual and highly personalised.
- Students share their lives with their peers and teacher(s).
- Teachers potentially have 2 – 5 lessons that require little planning on their part.
- Curriculum areas such as Health, Literacy, Art, and Design & Technology are all touched upon.
- The Vision Board can be created digitally if Design & Technology is a preferred focus.
- Teachers can integrate other curriculum, e.g. writing a procedure “How to Create a Vision Board”.
- The whole school can get involved to increase the meaningfulness of the task.
Vision Board Examples
Heroes Day at Dimboola Primary School
Dimboola Primary School organised a Heroes Day where students came to school as their favourite hero, role model or someone they wanted to be when they grew up. The students used this day to show off their Vision Boards and to raise Funds for Little Heroes Foundation. It is a wonderful demonstration of how students can use this workshop to really embrace aligning with values, setting goals and bringing them to fruition.
How to Book
Call or email Be Inspired Group to discuss how this workshop might be used to help your students grow and develop their life skills. The duration, content and approach can be modified to suit the needs of the students and the school.
Duration
Each session requires about 90 minutes. 3 sessions can be run in 1 day.
Cost
- Half day (2 sessions): $285
- Full day (3 sessions): $395
An additional fee may apply if there is substantial travel required.
Testimonials
“My students were really excited to have an opportunity to create their own vision boards. It generate a lot of discussion on what they hopefully could achieve in the future and allowed them to reflect on the skills they possess, and what they are grateful for. The students produced highly creative and individual Vision Boards and took pride having them displayed around the classroom.” – Elsbeth, Year 7 teacher, Kaniva College
“Vision boards helped to make my students more aware of their own abilities now and the opportunities for the future. They found the task of creating a vision board enjoyable and the boards were done with purpose.” – Luke, Year 4 teacher, Kaniva College
“The lesson helped direct students towards a greater sense of focus for their lives. They were given an insight into their future purpose.” – Andy Malcolm, Year 5/6 Teacher, Warracknabeal Primary
About Mark Marston
