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keystone to the other skills

belief in one's self

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A strong feeling of excitement.

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Hard work at accomplishing a goal.

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Intentional attention to what is within, around, and beyond one's self

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formation of original ideas and solutions

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The power to act or take charge before others d.

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A motivated drive to learn.

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Ability to understand and connect with the feelings of others.

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Able to be relied on.
To do what is expected.

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Capability to confront challenges
Strength to endure through adversity.
Too often teachers try to remove all obstacles.
I can't do this YET!

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Students need to self assess with teacher feedback

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Social emotional learning does not happen if it is not connected to culture.

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Social emotional learning does not happen if it is not connected to culture.

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As an educator, I value and emphasize the importance of intentionality: being intentional in the process of one's learning, in the exploration of one's understanding, in the development of one's perspective, and in the pursuit of one's purpose in life. I strive to live with intentionality in all aspects of my life and seek to intentionally engage a diversity of learning, understandings, and perspectives from others. Leading a purpose-driven life allows me to experience a fuller awareness of my strengths, my limitations, my passions, and my calling. For me, this awareness causes a curiosity to arise that inspires me to continue to enthusiastically learn every day, boldly live with intentionality, carefully reflect on who I am, and compassionately seek a deeper relationship with family, friends, colleagues, and others beyond my community. Leading a purpose-driven life empowers me to create a life that embraces each day, connects with others, unlocks endless possibilities, makes an impact in this world, and hopefully leaves a legacy once I am gone.

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As an educator, I value and emphasize the importance of intentionality: being intentional in the process of one's learning, in the exploration of one's understanding, in the development of one's perspective, and in the pursuit of one's purpose in life.

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The hard truth is that the content we teach will most likely be forgotten. However, the experience we offer the students can be lasting. Purpose-Driven Learning shifts the focus of our classroom from what we teach; to how we teach it.

Math is not innately boring, nor is reading, writing, or any other subject that often gets accused of lacking excitement. In the same breath, the arts and physical education are not automatically fun and engaging just because of their non-traditional curriculum.

When we understand that what we teach is not as important as how we teach, we begin to ask different questions, we have different expectations of our students, and we put our time and energy into strengthening our curriculum in different ways.

Now, I understand that many teachers feel bound to their content because of national standards, common core, and state testing. I get that, for most of us, we need to prepare our students for the next level of our subject area. Please understand that I am not saying that our content is not important. I am saying that building content knowledge should not be our main focus, nor is it the purpose of school. It is our job to provide students with the opportunities to learn and explore, create and discover, fail and succeed. Schools need to provide a supportive environment for questions, risk-taking, and self-discovery. The purpose of school needs to be driven to inspire learning by intentionally building our students' social-emotional learning skills.

Almost a decade ago, I looked at my curriculum, my teaching style, and my students and decided that content knowledge, testing, and grade are not the most important purpose of school. I accepted the reality that my students will forget much of the content they learn in my class. Therefore, I needed to change the purpose of my classroom to offer them a variety of engaging experiences, build the SEL skills that will lead them to success outside of my classroom, challenge them to take the risks that will help them unlock their fullest potential, and empower their passion for lifelong learning.

For the latest discussions about Purpose-Driven Learning, check out #UnlockPDL on Twitter. Explore the Keys of Purpose Driven Learning to learn more and download resources about the SEL skills that will help our students succeed in our classrooms, will support them throughout their schooling, and will last long after they have graduated!

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The hard truth is that the content we teach will most likely be forgotten. However, the experience we offer the students can be lasting. Purpose-Driven Learning shifts the focus of our classroom from what we teach; to how we teach it.

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Have you read my post about Purpose-Driven Learning? Click on the button to check out more about PDL before exploring the Keys of PDL.

If we could completely start over, create school from scratch, and not be bound by policies and politics - what kind of learning environment would you create? What skills would you want to focus on developing in your students? How would you go about having your students explore these skills and demonstrate their growth? What kind of assessment strategies would you use to measure their understanding and learning?

The Keys of Purpose-Driven Learning take ten essential social-emotional learning (SEL) skills and make them the language of learning within our classrooms and our schools. This language can be used and these skills can be developed in every subject area to help students of any age reach their fullest potential. More importantly, these skills are needed beyond the classroom to help our students find success as they move to the next grade level and as they graduate and journey out into the world.

Of course, content knowledge is important, and assessment strategies like Standards-Based Grading help teachers evaluate and communicate content growth and development for clearer and more purposeful grading. However, our role as educators extends beyond only teaching for mastery of our content. We don't even know what "content" students will need to know tens years from now. Surely, we cannot predict the advances in technology and changes in the world that will impact what our students will need to know. Therefore, we must help students develop the SEL tools to be successful in a world we cannot imagine.

The Keys to Purpose-Driven Learning offer language with which teachers, students, and even parents can explore holistic learning and growth. Consider what your classroom would look like if students were working to build these skills every day. How would your formative and summative assessments change if you spoke about these SEL skills, instead of what your students needed to do and didn't do to get an "A"? Can we empower our students to use the language of SEL skills to self-assess - reflecting their own strengths and challenges? At parent-teacher conferences, do conversations with parents improve when we can speak to the whole child, rather than simply to their child's content understanding or most recent test grades? In my experience, intentionally using Purpose-Driven Learning language transformed my teaching. Even more important, the Keys of PDL can be taught, explored, practiced, developed, demonstrated, and assessed in order to transform our students' learning.

In our new school, students are confident in their abilities to learn, grow, and achieve. They are individuals, who are proud of what makes them unique, while being affirming and understanding of those who think and act differently than they do. They enthusiastically try their hardest in everything they undertake and boldly overcome obstacles that get in their way. They are willing to explore and discover answers on their own. They collaborate with each other, openly sharing ideas, thoughts, and opinions. They focus on what needs to get done, doing their fair share, and helping out when needed without having to be asked or reminded multiple times. Our students are kind, hard-working, passionate, thoughtful, innovative children and young adults.

The students in our new school are, in fact, the same students we have in our current classrooms. In order to create this amazing vision of what a school can be, our students do not need to change...we, as educators, do!

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
Small children think they can do anything. It is why they truly believe that they can be astronauts, professional athletes, movie stars, and even superheroes. Confidence is the cornerstone of all of our hopes, goals, and dreams. We need to help students retain this confidence as they get older. A growth mindset allows the students to have confidence, not necessarily in a certain skill, but in their ability to learn and improve. Students need to be confident that they CAN get better at anything they choose, if they commit to improving and work hard every day.

Creativity
"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star." - Friedrich Nietzsche
If we believe the research, the future belongs to the creative! As more content can be looked up online, success will belong to those who can implement the information in innovative ways. Offering students choice, not spelling out every detail in our directions, rewarding students who take risks, and teaching that failure is an opportunity to learn, all help to nurture creativity. Students need the opportunity to express themselves in different ways. They need to be challenged to share their unique opinions, create original work, and be proud of their individuality. What leads to greater success, struggling to be an individual or accomplishing being like everyone else?

Enthusiasm

"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity." - Bo Bennett
It's easy to be enthusiastic about the classes and work that we enjoy. It's difficult to engage the things we don't want to do with the same positive attitude. However, we all know that, as our students get older, there will be things that they don't WANT to do, but still HAVE to do. Our subject may not be their favorite. Students may not want to take our class. Helping students understand the importance of a positive, energetic outlook, and the benefit of finding the "fun" in the most dreaded of tasks, will help them throughout their lives.

Effort
"It is not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it's what you put into the practice." - Eric Lindros
How do most people succeed? Plain and simple, nose to the grindstone, hard work! We don't have to dress it up or make it cool, new, and innovative for our students. The fact is, if they want to accomplish greatness, they need to work hard, push themselves to be better, and put forth their best effort every day. Even then, success isn't guaranteed. However, one thing is for sure...if they don't put forth effort, they aren't going to reach their full potential! It's an essential question - how hard are you willing to work today?

Focus

"Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power." - Seneca
This is the skill that is developed the most in our students over their years in formal education. Whether you call it Mindfulness, Time on Task, Active Listening, or Student Engagement, the ability of the students to be focused on the task at hand needs to be emphasized in every classroom. Inner focus, like blocking out distractions while taking a test is important. Yet, Other focus and Outer focus is equally as essential, as students must be aware of their impact on those around them and of their role in making the world a better place.

Resilience
"Success is to be measured, not so much by the position that one has reached in life...as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." - Booker T. Washington
There was a lot of back and forth between perseverance and resilience when creating the Keys of PDL. It was agreed that resilience takes perseverance one step further. While perseverance suggests working hard and putting forth strong effort, resilience adds the ability to adapt when obstacles are encountered. Instead of working hard, but giving up when difficulties and conflict arise, we want our students to be resilient, overcoming obstacles to achieve their goals. Life is going to have its challenges - let's help students face life with courageous and resilient spirits!

Initiative
"Do your best when no one is looking. If you can do that, you can be successful in anything you put your mind to." - Bob Cousy
How many questions are you asked in the course of a class period...wouldn't it be great if the students took the initiative to find the answer themselves, before coming to you? How many times do students use a technology failure as an excuse for incomplete work...can't we expect them to take the initiative to find a way to fix the problem and get their work done on time? We talk about leadership, and yet, we offer students all the answers and accept all their excuses. Leaders take the initiative, problem-solve, seek solutions, and get results. What opportunities do you give your students to take the initiative in your classroom?

Curiosity

"Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers." - Voltaire
We need to spark curiosity within our students. We need to ignite their passions. We need to give them a reason to dig deeper into their own learning. It's definitely one of those, "easier said than done" objectives. We need to find out what our students are interested in and provide opportunities for them to explore, create, and share their learning. Perhaps, we don't need to define every project and assignment. Maybe, we can let the students decide what they are curious about learning, the project they can complete, and the knowledge and skills on which they want to be assessed. We just need to take a step back and guide them in their own learning process.

Dependability
"Power is actualized only when word and deed have not parted company." - Hannah Arendt
We do not work alone. Students need to learn skills that will help them find success when they collaborate with others. Being a dependable member of a team is a great place to start. On the sports field, in a music concert, and in our classrooms, we rely on others and others rely on us. As teachers, we depend on our students to complete the work needed outside of class to help make our face-to-face time successful. Students depend on each other to do their share of the group projects. They need to be able to trust that when they take a risk and fail, that they'll be supported. Group work can be tough, especially for students who strive for individual success, but learning to work together is a skill that is required to be successful out in the real world.

Empathy

"See with the eyes of another, listen with the ears of another, and feel with the heart of another." - Alfred Adler
The world would be such a better place if we all learned how to empathize with those with whom we disagree. Put yourself in their shoes. How do you think they feel? Why do you think they feel that way? When have you felt the same way, what did you do, and how did others respond? Building successful relationships begin with being able to connect. Embrace similarities, listen to understand differences, and build respect for oneself and others.

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Keys of Purpose-Driven Learning - Adam Moreno

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The Keys of Purpose-Driven Learning take ten essential social-emotional learning (SEL) skills and make them the language of learning within our classrooms and our schools. This language can be used and these skills can be developed in every subject area to help students of any age reach their fulles