1.  There are two questions for this week’s homework, the last Life Skills homework of this school year.
   1.   Tell me the grade you think you deserve based on the criteria we have spoken about and what I have written below to show the sophomores I will speak to in the library in June.
   2.   I would ALSO appreciate your feedback on the following grading information I plan on distributing to Hope sophomores who are considering enrolling in the Life Skills class next year.   Please tell me what you think about this explanation for grading in the Life Skills class.
   3. Please send me your answers to both questions by Wednesday, June 5th.  Thank you.

Presentation to Sophomores: Grade Criteria –Hope Life Skills

Your Life Skills grade will be based only on your ‘effort’.    Specifically,

• if you come to class each week. For those classes you cannot come because of unforeseen circumstances, ALWAYS send me a text or email informing me of your absence or tardiness.
• If you attend our special events and field trips.
• If you always have your business cards when you come to class, on field trips, and special events and exchange them with people you meet.
• If you do your homework each week. For the homework you cannot send me ‘on time’ because of unforeseen circumstances, send me a text or email informing me of your inability to send your homework to me when due and then you identify a date when you will send me the homework.
• If you welcome our guests to class with a friendly greeting, a firm handshake, good eye contact, and a smile.
• If you always show respect to our guests in class by your attentiveness and your body language, i.e. how you sit, if you pay attention while they speak, etc.
• If you always do what you say you will do.
• If you establish and maintain a LinkedIn site and you “Connect” through LinkedIn with the guests you meet during the year.

If you do all of this, you will always get an ‘A’ in this class.

Here’s the reason why your grade is based on your “effort”.    Studies have shown that ‘success in life’ is primarily influenced by ‘hard work’.  The reason young people in countries like Finland, Singapore, South Korea, and Poland do much better on international tests than Americans is ‘hard work’.   The students from these foreign countries and their families do not have some genetic advantage making them more intelligent; data has proven these foreign students simply have worked harder on their school work over a longer period of time than most American students(1).  By the same token, the reason American students from affluent families who attend private schools do better on standardized tests than students from less affluence attending inner city public schools is the same reason, i.e. these students also have focused and worked harder for a longer period of time on school work and academics.  We can catch up, by being more focused and working harder!!  We can even surpass those who have had a head start.  You’ll meet people this year in class who have……..

• the information above on “success” comes from “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way”, Amanda Ripley, Simon & Schuster

If you work hard and practice the skills and techniques of this Hope Life Skills class by 

• attending class each week,
• going on field trips and attending our special events,
• pushing out of your ‘comfort zone‘ to extend a friendly greeting to our guests,
• exchanging your business cards with guests
• doing your weekly homework,
• asking questions in class,
• creating a LinkedIn site and connect with successful people during the school year
• following up with the successful, honorable people you meet

YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN LIFE!   For sure!!!

Here are the Skills and Techniques you will be taught in the Hope Life Skills class:

• ‘interpersonal skills’ which always leave a positive impression when you meet, greet, interact, and present to other people. Things like:
  • how to greet successful people you meet for the first time and create a positive ‘first impression’
    • a firm handshake,
    • a smile,
    • eye contact,
    • a friendly greeting
    • body language to impress and exhibit confidence
    • asking questions
  • the benefits of and how to stay in touch
    • follow up emails, text messages, or a card saying ‘thank you’ or ‘it was nice to meet you’.
• Creating, developing, and protecting a great personal brand which others admire and respect, thus creating opportunities for success throughout your life.
  • A brand that represents ‘responsibility’, ‘dependability’, ‘humility’, ‘conscientiousness’, ‘interest in learning’, and ‘kindness’.
• Building a network of successful, honorable, diverse people, many of whom come from different backgrounds and have different interests than you;
  • AND, always nurturing your network by staying in touch with people through LinkedIn or by sending an occasional email, text, or greeting card to ensure people in your network won’t forget your brand and will support you throughout your entire life.
  • AND, avoid adding people to your network who DO NOT HAVE the SAME VALUES as you.
• Telling YOUR personal story –
  • in your spoken word (e.g. during a job interview or when meeting someone)
  • written word (e.g. resume, emails, LinkedIn postings)
  • through your body language (e.g. how you stand, sit, etc)

to create an impressive brand which helps

• build a great network of successful, honorable people
• realize ‘success’ is often about WHO you know rather than WHAT you know
• get a recommendation for a job or internship
• get the job or internship you want,
• get accepted into the college of your choice,
• get you the scholarship you need
• establish a relationship with someone you are interested in.
• learn about jobs you didn’t know existed, some
• may not exist yet, and what it takes to get the jobs you have an interest in.

• Understanding “change” is important and beneficial during life
• Understanding ‘mistakes’ or personal ‘failure’ can make you stronger, wiser, and more prepared to take advantage of your next opportunity.
• Saying ‘thank you’ to those who help you along the way.

Here’s a famous saying from United States President Theodore Roosevelt about the value of hard work, trying hard, and perseverance.  I hope you find it as inspiring and thought provoking as I do –

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

― Theodore Roosevelt