Faith Bordonaro
Upper School Dean of Student Life and Flight Plan Coordinator
Shirley Petersheim
Lower School Teacher
School, by definition, is a place where students come to learn. For earlier generations, the experience may have been almost entirely focused on academics. A swirl of formulas, tenses, rules, and dates reeled off by the teacher resulted in the students’ accumulation of knowledge. However, school and education have evolved and as educators, we must evolve as well. Rather than seeing a classroom full of students, we should see each student as an individual and remain vision-oriented, focusing on the who rather than the what.
As we designed the Flight Plan program, our goal was to streamline what we were already doing well, such as differentiation and goal setting, and delve even deeper by getting to truly know our students on a personal level. We also needed to have the ability to share their goals and intentions with the students’ classroom teachers and their families. As a pre-K through grade 12 school, we have a special opportunity to observe student growth across many years.
The mission of the Flight Plan program is to ensure that every student is treated like a VIP, a very INDIVIDUAL person. We focus on understanding who the student is, based on interviews and observations, in addition to their academic work and activities. Students are active contributors in creating their Flight Plans through one-on-one goal setting meetings and follow up conversations. During these meetings, guiding questions are used to lead the student to create his/her own goals and intentions. We focus on the whole child, so the areas of emphasis include individual, academic, social, and extracurricular. The intended result of this program is the development of well-rounded global citizens who reflect the core values of AOA.
By creating individualized Flight Plans for each student (beginning in third grade), we can help each child navigate his/her journey, rather than just focusing on the destination. We also have the ability to monitor personal growth throughout the course of his/her experience at Andrews Osborne Academy and provide guidance to each student based on his/her needs. Teachers and advisors will have knowledge of each student’s interests and needs on day one by looking at his/her Flight Plans on PhoenixNet. With documentation, comes the ability to grow from past experiences and/or challenges in order to make well-informed decisions in the future. Once the Flight Plans are created, students will have the opportunity to contemplate their goals and reflect on their progress.
During the pilot, a committee of teachers from each division met with their students (lower school) or advisees (middle and upper school) to develop goals and intentions for each of the areas of focus. Throughout this time, we were excited to share with each other the benefits of the conversations. The teachers/ advisors found great value in taking time to talk to each student in a one-on-one setting and the students felt heard and were more excited and open to sharing. This format also helped to further build and strengthen trusted relationships between students and their teachers/ advisors. Students became active contributors rather than passive recipients and were much more prepared to set meaningful goals or intentions based on their discussions. We as teachers have been impressed by the amount of thought the students put into this experience.
What do these one-on-one meetings look like?
Two times per year, teachers meet one-on-one with each of their students/ advisees for Flight Plan development. In the fall, students create their Individual and Academic Flight Plans which they will work on for the next 12 months. After returning from winter break, they create their Social and Extracurricular Flight Plans and again work on these for the next 12 months. As one can see, this is a continual process that is not defined by the school calendar. The conversation begins with the teacher/ advisor asking guiding questions in each area. These questions are designed to help the student reflect and create a meaningful goal or intention, accompanied with action steps to achieve the goal, challenges they may face along the way, and expected outcomes. Check-in meetings are held throughout the year to assess progress, make changes, and continue the journey working towards meeting their objectives.
The Individual Flight Plan focuses on areas such as character development, self-esteem, and balance. An example of a guiding question is, “How do you overcome obstacles or tackle a challenge?”. One lower school student’s response was, “I try to read through the problem and ask questions, but if I still don’t understand I get frustrated.” As a result, she decided her individual intention would be less frustration when she hits an obstacle. Her action steps toward this goal were to give herself more “think time” in order to calm down and figure out why she was so frustrated, and ask for help when needed. She expressed a challenge to meeting her goal would be feeling overwhelmed, but if that happened she could take a break and come back to the problem later. Her expected outcome was to work through problems and challenges without giving up. During a check-in conversation with her teacher, they were both pleased with the progress she had made in this area.
The Academic Flight Plan focuses on areas such as self-assessment, academic effort, and executive functioning. In the fall, one upper school student chose a goal of balancing classes appropriately. This was a direct result of her experience with AP classes the previous year. She found that she would complete her AP work first, leaving little or no time to work on other assignments even though they could be completed quickly. The resulting action steps towards this goal were to complete shorter, non-AP assignments first and utilize free periods effectively. By managing her time deliberately, she would be able to stay on top of all required work.
The Social Flight Plan focuses on areas such as exposure to new ideas, participation, and empathy and respect. Regarding her social intentions, one middle-school student replied that she would like to work more on her friendships at school. She expressed that she understands that her friends don't all live in the same neighborhood and that new friends are being added to her class each year. She established her personal intention to reach out and learn more about her friends and make new friends at school. Action steps included being friendly and open to others, collaborating with new students in the classroom, and learning more from peers on athletic teams. One challenge was finding time to hang out with her friends outside of school.
The Extracurricular Flight Plan focuses on activities that take place outside of school hours such as athletics, community service, and the arts. After a conversation about finding passion in daily life and pursuits, another upper school student decided to focus on developing skills and interests in two select activities (tennis and programming) after exploring a variety of interests as an underclassman. His expectation is to have meaningful experiences to write about as he begins the college application process this fall.
After this year-long pilot program, it is exciting to see how much better the students are able to articulate their goals and intentions. Ownership in an idea or plan is essential to making it a reality. Once the Flight Plans are created, students will work with their teachers/ advisors to navigate their action plans in order to accomplish their goals, adjusting as necessary. We are thrilled to be launching this program in the 2019-20 school year for all students in grades 3-12 and seeing the students soar.
