So, I got a new calling within my calling. Instead of being an advisor for only the Beehives, the girls from 12-13, I am now an advisor for all the Young Women, 12-18 in our ward. Doing what, you ask? Personal Progress!!
All the young women lessons have a spot where it sends you to the Personal Progress values that young women can do that go along with the lesson taught that week. Every week I would make sure to help the Beehives start on at least one of these values. Then it was up to them to finish the value by writing in their journals.
I was told that I knew a lot of the young women of all ages and that I would be the best fit for this calling.
I am excited to help the young women with their personal progress but I don't know how to do this fully. Young Women are at an age where they have to want to do something for it to get done. It has to be something that there is a buy-in or a hook for them and each person is unique so buy-in's have to be unique to each or general enough for all. I know I want to get the girls to want to do this and to want to do this for themselves but I want to be able to do it in the best way for them, so I am coming up with some ideas.
Some of the ideas that I had are starting a blog that is closed and only open to the Young Women and their leaders/advisors and parents in our ward. I could have a link to the Personal Progress in the LDS.org site and I could have a place where each girl can see where she is in her personal progress and which value we are working on that day. There are a few problems that I can foresee here, 1. I will have to see if I can get it so that the girls can only see their progress when they sign in and not everyone else's, because I don't want them comparing. 2. If the girls have already completed the value I am working on in the blog they may get bored. 3. They may not like blogging which makes using it a waste.
The other idea about the blog is to have a list of ideas for each of the value projects and ways that they could use what they like to do to turn it into a project or experience.
Or making a private facebook group with that list.
We do have a binder with a checklist of where each girl is at and what she has left to accomplish but I know teens like computers and it would be much better if it could be somewhere they could get to from their phones, computers and ipads. I guess I'll have to check and see if these blogs sites have the capability to do what I am thinking.
I would like to meet with each girl and her parents and keep track of where they are at and what they are working on. Then I could have a list somewhere that we could add to, and if it is on a website, we could both make changes to it. But that leads back to the issue of can I make a private page for each girl on a website. (Have to look into that).
So, here I am wondering what to do to help these young women think that this is an important thing for them to do and it will bless their lives.
This was kind of a rambling thought and so I apologize if it comes out jumping from thought to thought and appears jumbled. ;) Hope you can still understand it...
If any of you have any ideas, I am open to suggestions. What are some things that have worked when you were a young or with your own teenagers. What are some things that really interest teens these days that would work towards helping them do their personal progress? I am open to anything and ideas outside the box or inside are great!
My 2 cents are that Personal Progress is personal. It's up to the mother and the girl to get it done, but the ward has asked you to help them stay on track. Don't worry about all the tracking stuff, if they are lazy then they are lazy nothing you can do about it. You can however have the blog or facebook page with tons of ideas. Girls always need and want more ideas about how and what to do for projects. If they get themselves motivated about a project because they know how to do, you will be signing off values lightning fast. Make sure to talk to them about their school events and help them realize that things they are doing in drama, sports, arts, music. . . can all apply but they have to choose the event before and not as an after thought.
ReplyDeleteI say stick with the IDEAS more then the tracking.They will come to you looking for ways to add up their 10 hour projects and push for the Worker Bee medalion (the above and beyond thing) for the girls who have completed PP already.