Creating a Roadmap for your Student

Stephen Cov­ey says that the goal is not to pri­or­i­tize your sched­ule, but to sched­ule your priorities. 

What does he mean? Sim­ply put, he means, start with the end in mind and adjust your sched­ule accord­ing­ly.  That is exact­ly how we should lead our mid­dle and high school stu­dents in devel­op­ing life long skills in time management. 

STAGE ONE : THE DESTINATION

A map is no good if you have no idea where your des­ti­na­tion lies.  Thus, the first step to cre­at­ing a suc­cess­ful roadmap for your stu­dent is to find the des­ti­na­tion.   Here are some ques­tions to ask your young adult (we refrain from the term teenag­er in my home) as you start this conversation: 

• What do you love doing?
• What are you real­ly good at?
• Out of all of the cours­es you’ve tak­en thus far, which was your favorite and why? 
• If you were giv­en a sin­gle day to do what­ev­er you want­ed, what would you do?
• What skill are you inter­est­ed in developing?
• Do you have any inter­est in going to col­lege? If so, what would you study?
• Who is your hero? 
• Why are you pur­su­ing an education? 
• If you could do any job in the world, what would it be?
• What knowl­edge and skills do you need to have in order to do the job?
• Do you hope to get mar­ried some day? 
• Do you plan to own a home? 

Out of the answers to these ques­tions, comes the destination. 

STAGE TWO : THE PATH

Once the des­ti­na­tion on the map is set, we now cre­ate a path in which to trav­el.  Keep in mind that more than one path may lead to the same des­ti­na­tion.  Think through all of the pos­si­ble path­ways for a giv­en destination. 

It is impor­tant to keep your young adult engaged in this con­ver­sa­tion.  If at some point she steps out of this process, then she won’t take own­er­ship of the path laid before her.  Also, in this sec­ond stage, a gen­er­al mis­sion state­ment for her high school years can be formed.  Keep­ing the mis­sion state­ment vis­i­ble can help reground her when she has rough days. 

Here are some ques­tions to answer in order to cre­ate a good path:

• What addi­tion­al school­ing or train­ing does my des­ti­na­tion require?
• Are there require­ments that I can com­plete now?
• Are there addi­tion­al require­ments need­ed to gain access to the school­ing or train­ing nec­es­sary for my destination?
• What is the focus of my destination? 
• Who can help me on my path?
• What tools do I need? 

STAGE THREE : MILESTONES

Once you’ve mapped out the basic path to your des­ti­na­tion, it’s time to cre­ate mile­stones.  Mile­stones are small­er require­ments that are need­ed to be com­plet­ed as you trav­el on the path.  We could con­sid­er them stop­lights.  As you trav­el on the path, you reach a stop­light that will remain red until you com­plete a spe­cif­ic mile­stone, then it will turn green and you can advance. 

You can­not pre­dict all of the stop­lights on the path­way, but you can pre­dict some.  For exam­ple, most like­ly your stu­dent will need to obtain his license to dri­ve.  Until the license is obtained, he can’t dri­ve him­self to col­lege.  He can’t get his license until he obtains a learn­er’s per­mit, and he can’t obtain a learn­er’s per­mit until he takes a course.  There­fore, he needs to take the dri­ver’s course well before he is ready to attend college. 

To pre­dict upcom­ing mile­stones for your stu­dent, look for pre­req­ui­sites and skills need­ed to reach the des­ti­na­tion.  Here are some ques­tions to help pre­dict these milestones: 

• Does his des­ti­na­tion require a cer­tain col­lege education? 
• Do they require for­eign lan­guage cred­it in high school? 
• Does he need to drive? 
• Does he need to take the ACT, SAT, or CLT? 
• What types of pro­grams should he be apply­ing for?
• How many com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice hours do they require? 
• Is his des­ti­na­tion one that would ben­e­fit most from work­ing with youth or work­ing a job? 
• Is there an intern­ship to help devel­op some skills?

These are impor­tant mile­stones on their way to their indi­vid­ual destinations. 

STAGE FOUR : GOALS

Now you’ve assem­bled a map, and it’s almost com­plete.  The des­ti­na­tion is set. The path is worn. The mile­stones are addressed. To ful­ly walk the path goals need to be set.  Goals are sched­ul­ing when you will com­plete each mile­stone and how you will trav­el from one mile­stone to the next.  Once the path and mile­stones are clear, cre­at­ing good con­cise mea­sur­able goals is easy. Here are some ques­tions you can use to cre­ate good goals:

• What must be com­plet­ed in order to pass the next milestone?
• How much time does this mile­stone require, and how much time do I have? 
• What cours­es are required in order to pass these milestones? 
• Is the focus of my des­ti­na­tion being inte­grat­ed into my week­ly work? 

You may have noticed that in order to cre­ate these goals, you are actu­al­ly walk­ing this path back­ward.  Thus, we come to Mr. Cov­ey and his effec­tive peo­ple: Begin with the end in mind. 

STAGE FIVE : REPEAT

Depend­ing on when you first cre­at­ed the roadmap with your stu­dent, you will most like­ly need to do it again.  Fol­low up with your stu­dent to ensure that any missed mile­stones are added to the path and to help your stu­dent con­tin­ue to work towards his destination. 

Tak­ing the time to walk our stu­dents through set­ting a des­ti­na­tion, cre­at­ing a path, see­ing the mile­stones, and set­ting goals to com­plete them, is a tremen­dous gift.  Not only does it mod­el for them how to plan well, but it also gives them a log­i­cal sane roadmap to look back on when they are hav­ing a rough day and need focus. 

• Want more help cre­at­ing a roadmap for your student? 
• Don’t know what mile­stones are need­ed and when? 
• Join Scio Acad­e­my to receive access to all of our great resources in the edu­ca­tor’s tool­box designed to help you lead your stu­dent through the mid­dle and high school years.