How to Outline the Purpose of Your Scholar Journey

Guest Contributor:
Don Stinson, Director of Bands, Joliet Central High School, Joliet, IL

A scholar journey objective solutions one crucial query: what are we attempting to perform by taking this journey?

An efficient objective describes what college students will expertise, what your program is attempting to perform, and why journey is the appropriate technique to accomplish it. Write it down earlier than planning begins, and also you’ll have one thing to guage future selections towards — the itinerary, performances, use of time, price, and communication to households.

(The of us at Bob Rogers Travel name this “starting with why”  and it really does make all of the distinction in your planning course of.) 

Without a written objective, a visit can begin to drift. Activities get added as a result of they’re obtainable, not as a result of they’re optimum. Days replenish as a result of no person desires to say no. You may get fortunate and find yourself with a great journey — nevertheless it received’t essentially be the journey your program wanted.

Start With What Your Program Needs

The finest start line will not be the journey – it’s your program.

Start by asking what your program is lacking or prepared for. Maybe your college students have by no means carried out outdoors your district. Maybe your seniors want a shared expertise earlier than they graduate.

Maybe your program tradition wants rebuilding after a tough 12 months, and journey may assist that work in methods the traditional routine wouldn’t. That was true, at one level, for my program. Preparing for our journey performances gave my college students one thing particular to work towards, and the journey gave them an opportunity to see that work repay.

A number of questions may help you discover it:

• What can college students do on this journey that they’ll’t do at dwelling? 
• Who is that this journey actually for — the entire program, this 12 months’s seniors, or one part? 
• What have you ever been attempting to construct, and the way would journey transfer that ahead? 

The reply is often extra particular than “the kids would love it,” and particular is what you want. A obscure objective received’t assist a lot when you need to select between two efficiency alternatives or determine what belongs on the itinerary three months from now.

There’s no single proper reply. A program targeted on efficiency development and one targeted on giving seniors a “last hurrah” expertise can each have a powerful purpose to journey, so long as the aim matches what that program wants.

Write Your Purpose Down

Once you understand the necessity, put it in writing. A helpful objective assertion does three issues:

1. It describes the scholar expertise or alternative the journey creates.
2. It connects that have to a selected program aim.
3. It explains why journey — not a neighborhood live performance, video, or visitor clinician — is the appropriate technique to get there.

The expertise tells you what college students will do. The program aim explains why it issues. And the journey piece solutions the apparent query: why do we have to depart dwelling to perform this?

Here’s what that may appear like for 2 completely different packages.

A band director whose college students have by no means carried out for clinicians outdoors their very own convention may write:

“This trip gives our band the chance to perform at a festival, receive feedback from adjudicators outside our district, and measure our progress against expectations beyond our own program.”

A choir or orchestra director closing out a themed program 12 months may write:

“This trip gives our seniors a culminating performance in a new setting and for an audience beyond our school community, connected to the repertoire and growth that have defined their time in the program.”

They’re very completely different, however each work as a result of every objective is particular to what that program wants.

Test It Before You Plan

Give your objective assertion to a colleague who doesn’t know the journey. Then give them two potential actions and ask which one higher helps the aim. If the assertion offers them sufficient info to elucidate their alternative, you’re getting particular sufficient to plan with.

Check for the Missing Piece

Weak objective statements are sometimes lacking one of many three items listed above. 

“It’ll be fun” describes a part of the expertise, nevertheless it doesn’t clarify what the journey is meant to perform for this system.

“We do this every year” leans on custom as an alternative of taking a look at what your present college students and program want.

“They deserve a reward” might clarify why you wish to do one thing for the scholars, nevertheless it nonetheless doesn’t clarify what you need them to achieve from touring.

If your assertion feels skinny, discover the lacking piece. That often tells you what must be clarified.

Use Your Purpose to Make Decisions

Once you’ve outlined your objective, put it to good use. From right here on, filter every alternative with one query: does this assist us understand the aim we wrote down?

For one in every of our band journeys to New York, a part of our objective was:

“This trip will give our students the chance to perform for and make music with students outside our own program. That shared performance experience will give us a common goal to work toward, strengthen our ensemble, and provide an experience we couldn’t recreate within our normal school routine.”

That helped us make an precise itinerary determination. I wished our college students to carry out for and with one other native group. Our Bob Rogers Travel marketing consultant discovered a possibility for us on the way in which to NYC.

Our college students visited a highschool close to New York, and each bands carried out their alternatives for one another. We then did a fast sight-read collectively and had a enjoyable group dinner. It ended up being one of many highlights of the journey — and it instantly supported what we had got down to accomplish.

Some selections assist the aim instantly. Protect these. Others are merely essential to make the journey work — transportation, lodging, accessibility, meals. And some are non-compulsory.

When time or cash will get tight, the aim helps you determine which non-compulsory items matter most.

Here are another methods to make use of your objective to make selections:

Itinerary. If your objective facilities on outdoors adjudication, a second efficiency with helpful suggestions helps it instantly. An extra sightseeing cease might not. Both will be worthwhile elements of a visit, however just one is tied on to the explanation you’re touring.

Time. A packed day will not be the identical as a great one. If your objective is a culminating efficiency, the hours earlier than it could be higher used for relaxation and warm-up than one other cease.

Cost. When the quantity comes again increased than anticipated, look first on the non-compulsory items that contribute least to the aim. That’s extra helpful than trimming somewhat from all the things with out contemplating what issues most.

Before You Add Another Activity

When somebody suggests one other cease or exercise after the itinerary is taking form, ask what it modifications. Does it change one thing, prolong the day, or match naturally into journey time that’s already there? Then return to the aim: does the added expertise contribute sufficient to the journey to make it price together with?

Keep Using Your Purpose

Put your objective assertion someplace you’ll see throughout planning. When you’re deciding between choices later, return to the aim you recognized originally.

Revisit it when one thing massive modifications. If the finances tightens or a efficiency alternative falls by way of, test whether or not the aim nonetheless holds. Sometimes the plan wants to alter. Sometimes the journey itself has modified sufficient that you have to rethink what you’re attempting to perform.

A transparent objective offers you one thing to return to all through the planning course of. When a brand new alternative, price, or determination comes up, ask the identical query: does this assist us accomplish what we got down to do?

In the years I’ve labored with Bob Rogers Travel, my objective has at all times taken middle stage and guided the journey planning course of. The group at BRT is aware of the best way to create efficiency journey experiences which are private and purposeful, so I at all times return dwelling happy with the affect of our journey. Learn extra about BRT’s method right here.  

This submit is a part of a “How-To” collection, dropped at you by BRT and our prolonged household of music educators.  For extra how-tos, go to our Travel Notes weblog.