The Importance Of Life Skills

After viewing the district's website, it has came to my attention there is a vacant Life Skills Classroom Instructional Assistant position for next school year. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg in 2007 with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Mathematics. I received my Elementary K – 6 Certification from Saint Vincent College in December of 2008. To further my education, I received my Mid-Level Mathematics 7-9 Certification in December of 2009. I would like to apply for the Life Skills Classroom Instructional Assistant position.

Life skills play an important role for becoming successful professionally and improving our personal lives. Oprah, in her lifeclass video, talks about being responsible for yourself and not waiting for anyone else to change the circumstances around you as a way to develop the skills necessary to flourish. The story of Robert Sherfields first experience at community college, “How Community College Changed My Life” tells of how Mr. Sherfield let go of his past failures and worked toward a better future for himself. The quote by Charles Noble “First we make our habits, then our habits make us!” is great to remember when developing the life skills necessary to continue to grow in all aspects of our lives. The video, story and quote can all be connected, good habits produce responsible people. Responsible people are aware of their

Observe the U.S, ATTN reports that the number of students in Home economics has decreased approximately 38%in a period of ten years. Now observe the local towns of Myrtle Point and Powers…That is right, there no longer is Home economics. Our students, my peers, we will not only fail at washing laundry we will fail ourselves along the way. If these two towns were to provide a training center for young adults I’d want what I believe we need. We need the knowledge to know how to take care of ourselves. Life skill classes could give us the power to do just that.

Teaching is not merely about methods used and material presented in the classroom, but about shaping students’ lives to help them construct a firm foundation for a successful future. I desire to teach my students basic life skills as well as challenge them to set and reach their highest goals.

The contemporary education should rather prepare students to what Brighouse defines as the self-governance that helps students to keep learning independently of educators. Today, people cannot stop progressing and learning anymore. Otherwise, they face the problem of the backwardness that deteriorates their competiveness in the labor market and just drop out of the mainstream culture. Therefore, the development of lifetime learning is the objective necessity and Brighouse gives implications to the importance of the lifetime education. This need derives from changes in human life and society driven by technological progress and other changes that take place in the contemporary world and will take place in the future. Today, the basic education students receive at school or college is not enough anymore since their knowledge and skills will simply become out of date in several years in the

Active involvement in learning to develop life skills can help people to become independent. Learning in a

I have had a plethora of unique life experiences, many of which have happened in the last couple years of my life. In the past three years I have traveled to Guatemala, all over Germany, and Hawaii. During the summer of my freshman year of High School, I went on a missions trip to Guatemala. My church took 10 boys, and 10 girls; we spent a total of a week in a small impoverished town called . I believe that this trip allowed me, for the first time, to see, and be enveloped in a new culture. During the trip I ate new foods, played new games, and learned about the Guatemalan culture. I was able to spend time with all of the local kids, and learn how to respect a new culture. Then, this last summer, I was able to take a part in a German Exchange program with my school. After taking 3 years of German in High School, I was one of twenty people selected to go on a three-week long exchange program in Germany. The trip consisted of a week traveling with the 20 people chosen to go. The other two weeks were spent living with my host family and German partner. During my stay there I visited Berlin, Munich, Cologne, and traveled to the Netherlands. This was another chance for me to experience a new culture, and to further my German speaking skills. However, more importantly, it allowed me to make lifelong friends in another part of the world. About a month after I got back from Germany, my family went on a 12 day vacation to Hawaii. During my time there I had the opportunity to do a

Mari-Jane Williams (2013) beautifully articulated the importance of teaching life skills to teenagers in an article written for the Washington Post titled “Life skills all teens should have before graduating from high school.” In the article Williams writes:

Northeast Life Skills Associates serves a community that are chemically dependent and has a variety of services to meet their clients’ needs.

Another life skill that i used was was morals and vaules. I stood up for what i believed in. I thought things could be good when we ended up moving to Wyoming and thought that it could be good for me and that i would maybe learn something good from it. I thought that it could maybe have a lot of good effects could come out of

Basic life skills are defined as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges for everyday life (UNICEF). Taking that into consideration, high school students should be presented with the opportunity to take basic life skills courses within their high school career. In a way, it is ridiculous that basic life skills are not offered as a course in high school being that the students are there to get an education. It would be sensible if education was a combination of excelling in classes and life.

The life course perspective theory is a micro theory that delves into a subject’s past to interpret present endeavors that may assist in predicting future behavior or misconduct. It could be classified as a road map to an individuals expected behavior and may provide reasoning for that individuals’ life choices, not only in relation to criminal behavior but also on ones ability to sustain relationships.

Although many students feel that they are not being taught practical life skills, they have actually been learning them all of their life. For example, one of the main things a student is taught how to do is how to learn; how to manage information, how apply that information being taught, critical thinking, and if they don’t know something, how to seek out that information. Students also receive

School, the place where most kids spend their youths to learn. Schools today are not teaching the life skills necessary for students to use when they become an adult. Academic skills are important; however, life skills are absolutely necessary. Life skills can range from knowing how to correctly write a check to something as simple as communication. After graduating high school it is a big leap to join a environment without school. At this point whatever you learned in history about the presidents will have no significant value at all. Life skills are what really matters after high school; how to manage your time, what is interest on buying a car or house, is it worth taking out loans for education, and insurance policies are just a few key essential skills.. These life skills needs to be taught, and taught at school because it is the most efficient place to learn. This genre of a class can also pique the students interests on learning. High school needs to have a life skills class as a graduation requirement for students. This will solve all the addressed issues that will be coming their way in the future. By tweaking the school curriculum it can solve life problems that will drag the students down in the future.

There is one thing for certain in this world, everyone wants to accomplish something in life and we want to recognize our full potential. In order to do this we must have some skills, and in this case it’s life skills. Life skills are a range of characteristics we