What Matters to Me Right Now?
Activity Summary
This is a reflective activity for students to explore what the student as an individual wishes to develop and learn in their life and learning.
Activity Plan
1
5-10 mins
Setting the scene
Explain the activity and its purpose to the students. This is not a subject-specific activity, but more of a life reflection exercise. Set the room to become a safe space by letting them know that they will not be graded, there is no right or wrong answer, and they only need to share if they feel like it. Make sure that the students have space in the classroom to be undisturbed. You might benefit from utilising calming music, or guide them through a mini-mindfulness exercise, to make the students settle into the calm mindspace, which is necessary for this activity. Make sure all students have a piece of paper and a pen and are ready for the exercise.
2
20 mins
Discovering surprising possibilities and unknown options hiding in your brain
The first part of the activity is about the students “brain-dumping” all (perhaps subconscious) present answers to questions and then prioritising the most important insights that might be hiding within them.
Getting started – instructions to the students:
- Read through the following 5 sentences below, that you will need to complete. If they don’t resonate with you, write some new sentences, as long as you have 5 different ones.
- Set a timer for 2 minutes (Your teacher will be taking care of the time).
- Within the two minutes answer the sentence in 5 different ways. (Do this for all 5 sentences)
- Take five minutes to highlight 1-3 answers from each sentence that you are most willing to put time and energy into.
- 5 minutes to consider and cluster the highlighted answers
The sentences:
- Right now in my life, I am inspired by…
- My top challenges are…
- Something I would like to let go of is…
- Something I would love to learn more of is…
- A skill or capability that I would love to develop is…
3
20 mins
Mapping your priorities
Draw the model on the board, and let the students take a look at the empty model while they consider the 4 following areas of the model:
Health & Well-being, Relations, Society, Self Development & learning.
The Students will try out filling out the model considering the following questions:
- What is most important to you right now?
- What do you need to be successful in these areas?
- What might inspire you to be successful in these areas? (art, music, nature, painting, walks, etc.)
The students can find inspiration in their answers from the previous step in the activity.
4
45 mins
Crafting their Reflection Practice
Give the students a moment to look through their answers and reflections from the 2 previous steps.
Give the students 10 minutes to answer the following questions for themselves (preferable written down):
- Why does it make sense for me to focus on these areas of my life?
- Who/what do you need help from in order to create the change you wish to make?
- How might your friends, classmates, parents, & teachers support you in this?
Finally the students will have time (min. 30 minutes) to answer the questions in their format of choice. (See ‘format’ below).
Format
The format is up for the student to decide, it depends on what feels motivating for them. The student might benefit from considering answering this activity in written word, through a video, a mood board, a podcast/ voice memo, a letter, a song, a collage or painting, a magazine or maybe something completely else that they make up. The outcome of this activity is not supposed to be perfect, meaning there’s no right or wrong answer, just what feels right in the moment the student is making it.
5
10 mins
Concluding the activity
Let them know that this is a practice they can use as often as needed in their personal life, if they are in need of prioritising and becoming intentional with their time and energy.
Consider concluding the class by asking collectively, if the students want to share their reflections either about what they learned about themselves during the activity, or how it was to make this activity in general. If they have been creative with the format, the classroom might benefit from sharing their practices with each other for inspiration as well as connection to each other – either on a class level or in smaller groups/pairs.
Tips & Tricks
- The purpose of this activity is to become aware of- and intentional with what the student as an individual wishes to develop and learn in their life. The activity is about the students developing a personal ‘Reflection Practice’, where they become aware of what they want to learn, gain clarity of their own priorities, set a sort of action plan and investigate internally how they can set themselves up for success. The reflection activity aims to spark some clarity of the students’ own intentions and connect them to what feels important for them to learn and how to achieve it.
- Let them know that this is a practice they can use as often as needed in their personal life, if they are in need of prioritising and becoming intentional with their time and energy.
- Remind the students that for certain moments they might not be in need of developing themselves – remember not to use self-development and reflection tools without balance.
- This activity particularly serves students who are facing challenges such as tests- and exams, big choices and/or struggling with self worth, prioritising and time management.
- The students can be encouraged to do this outside of school as well, to have unlimited time and start doing this as a personal iterative practice.
Additional Resources
This activity is inspired by the ‘Enterprising Leadership Practice’ from the International education ‘Kaospilot’. Read more about the philosophy behind this reflection practice on: https://www.kaospilot.dk/approach/