In the Skate and Create program in South Africa, our students learn about life skills and how they can use them to reach their full potential in life. Over the last few months, through a balance of social sports and structured learning, Skateistan educators have taught valuable life skills to our students in the skatepark and in the classroom.
Lessons in life skills cover concepts like goal setting and defining short and long term achievements, learning skatepark etiquette, positive and negative role models, and the rights of women and children. In the rights session for students, girls made posters with statements of what they believe they can do and achieve as women, understanding the importance of gender equality and reaching your own potential. Educators use many different activities to help explain these concepts to teach life skills to students. One of these activities is the famous life skills vision board.
For the last two weeks in the Skate and Create program in Johannesburg, Skateistan educators introduced students to the life skills vision board lesson plan. A vision board is a collage of images and words representing a person's wishes or goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation to our students.
By using paper pencils, magazines, scissors and glue, students constructed their own vision for their future to better understand their goals and to have a clear picture of how they would like their lives to be in the future.
Sarah told us that every student wanted time to show off their vision board, they were excited to see what their future might look like and the opportunity to share their dreams with the people around them. “The educator also took this opportunity to ask the students what might hinder them in reaching their dreams and [the students] gave different answers. One student said she thinks not having enough funds to send her to school might hinder her in reaching her dreams and the educator asked what can you do to overcome that challenge and she answered that she can start a business that will help her pay for her education.” - Sarah
After delivering the lesson to students, Sarah said, “ I learned that students have an understanding of what they want in life but they lack the challenge to visually see their future or the tools to help them put their future on a visible scale.” That was why this lesson was so important, for students to start to be able to understand that there are tools and solutions available for them to accomplish their goals.
At the end of the day students were able to visualise their dreams, identify challenges that they might face and come up with strategies of how they can overcome or deal with these challenges.
If you'd like to support creative programming in our Skate Schools, please consider making a donation to Skateistan today.
