Design your own high quality Coat of Arms to remind you of your vision, goals -- then plan accordingly.
Then use your planner/planning strategy to chart the way. Great for a new school year, job, or creative project to let the world know who you are and how you will achieve your goals.
There continues to be an enduring cultural interest in the coat of arms of the medieval knights, and my students needed to learn how to use their new planners, the one I designed every semester for the whole school. Even the king of Denmark recently changed the royal coat of arms, on Jan. 1, 2025, to reflect new realities.
Students set goals every week and wrote them in their planner. The coat of arms assignment helps align their actions with their beliefs to achieve their goals and vision.
You, too, can use it to reframe this moment in your life, and align your values with your beliefs to create new goals and a vision for your future.
This website provides everything they (or you) need to know to create a high-quality coat of arms. They had to actually read about it, draw or make it, as well as create all the parts and explain it all in their "blazon of arms." They took the assignment seriously.
The goal is to align their values with their beliefs, and take it to the next step: Using the planner to actually plan their day/week around achieving their goals/vision.
Ideally, school played a role in that, too, by requiring each teacher to write on the board or PowerPoint the assignments for the week and when they are due. I was just trying to get them on the road and have a bit of fun.
Students, by the way, always looked forward to art assignments—yes, it was English, but we frequently used drawing to explore ideas and would then write about them! Often they would put it on the cover of their end-of-the-semester portfolio, or on the cover of their classroom folder.
Use this assignment for yourself, with your children, or with your students. Post it prominently. Produce it any way you like. Be proud of it, and let it be a reminder to you of your vision and goals as you plan your week. You’ve finished your coat of arms, after much thought. Now go ahead and write your new mission statement and action plan, too!
Share your Coat of Arms below or on your Substack, or show a friend, to hold yourself accountable. Have your students or family do it. Post it prominently where you and others will see it. Have fun with it. Let me know how it goes or how you modified it.
Here's the assignment:
WHAT TO DO -- This assignment has two parts:
1) Design a high-quality coat of arms for you and your family.
___ Your coat of arms must have a motto; a helmet; a shield with 3-4 elements and symbolic colors; and the family name.
___ Optional elements include the wreath or rope, the crest, and the mantle or mantling.
___ You can be literal, symbolic, or metaphorical; ancient, traditional, or modern.
Begin by choosing a shield shape.
Choose several symbolic colors to use on your shield.
Choose a fur (background pattern) if you like.
Choose 3-4 symbols and place them on the shield.
Choose a type of helmet to put at the top of the shield.
Add a motto, and finally your family name (and where you are from).
If you wish, you may choose another symbol for the crest.
To finish it off, add one of the mantling patterns.
2) Write a description of the coat of arms, called a "blazon of arms," and an explanation for all the elements used in your coat of arms. Type it attractively and attach it behind the coat of arms.
3) Reading reference from the website was in this order:
Tinctures and Composition: Metals, Colors, Style, Charges
--Rob Melton, PPS, Portland, OR
I effect, this is creating a kind of sigil for oneself, emblazoning the ethos through mnemonics. In other words—Magic. 😉🪄✨