Recommitting Yourself to Effective Living

It's that time of year when school can start to feel overwhelming. There are so many irons in the fire, what do you focus on? One of the things I really like about the 7 Habits is the principle of renewing the Four Dimensions, "Sharpen the Saw." When things aren't going well, it doesn't take long to figure out I'm neglecting one or more of the dimensions. I encourage you to revisit page 140 of your 7 Habits workbook. I believe you can only be as effective at teaching as you are at living. To be truly great at teaching, you must take good care of yourself. The first step to getting refocused at school is to take a good look at yourself and recommit to effective living. You'll find it a lot easier to focus on the things that matter most at school. I would like to hear what little motivating things you do to get reconnected and recommitted to effective living. Please share your thoughts and ideas with a comment.

COLLABORATION

Thank you everyone for your work today. I enjoyed watching and listening to everyone collaborate. I encourage you to continue building relationships with colleagues at the other campus. Email, You Tube channels, Skype, etc. are excellent ways to keep the collaboration going. I would like to her from you. What are your thoughts about our work today?

What a Great Start!

The beginning of this school year was remarkable for many reasons. Staff members are coming up with one great idea after another, teams are clicking, and I see consistency in the way we're approaching our work. But the biggest thing I see is the look on the kids' faces throughout the day. I see many genuinely happy kids. I would like to hear from you how your year has started, and what specific things you have done this year that have contributed to this success.

Summer

As I look forward to summer I have mixed thoughts and emotions about how the 7 Habits fit into my vacation. On the one hand, I definitely need to sharpen the saw. Taking the time to renew, relax, and think about things that have nothing to do with school is very important. On the other hand, this is a golden opportunity to refine my skills in each of the 7 Habits. I think it is important to approach summer with a sense of balance. Begin with the end of summer in mind. How do you want to feel when summer is over? I know that I want 2 things. I want to feel refreshed, and I want to be prepared. it's not too early to start thinking about how I'll do this. I will spend a lot of time with my family, I will take a trip to New Mexico, I will go backpacking, and I will spend several evenings downtown with Jeanne and friends. I will also read The 8th Habit, I will go the 7 Habits Signature Training in late July, and I will continue to read the Leader in Me Blog. You can relax and learn if you plan ahead. What will you do this summer?

Making the Seven Habits a Part of Everything Respectfully submitted by Jaimie Smith

“For many schools and educators, this approach [using the seven habits] will represent a significant paradigm shift. The approach A. B. Combs has undertaken is a ‘ubiquitous’ approach. “Ubiquitous” means that it is built into everything the school does…” The Leader in Me.

At W. A. Porter, we are working through the shift in thinking and how can we make the seven habits a part of everything we do. During the recent staff development, we were able to work on aspects of implementing the seven habits on our campus and making it a part of our campus culture. To begin our work, we did a consensogram about how often we implement the seven habits in daily lessons. Do we consciously think about how we can incorporate the seven habits in lessons while lesson planning? We also completed an affinity diagram on ways to help implement the seven habits in daily lessons. Because of our work with David E. Smith, we also re-examined our campus-wide discipline system and made some changes to reinforce the positive side of the seven habits. A group of staff members worked on the curriculum for the first week of school listing additional resources available for all to use. A third group worked on the school leadership roles for next year. We have narrowed our school leadership roles to twelve. It is our plan to roll out the school-wide leadership roles process in May, so we are ready to go when we return in August of 2010. Each of these groups will continue to work on their area of implementing the seven habits throughout the spring. The last thing Porter discussed as a campus was having staff leadership groups as a model for our students. Some example of staff leadership groups are The Birthday group, The Celebration group, The Daily Five group, The Prayer group, The Data group, etc. The idea is that a staff member could sign up for any group(s) in which they have a strength. Then the group would work together to perform their role on campus. This is a completely different way of thinking about how we form groups to do the work on campus.

Some things to think about:
Do you consciously think about how to incorporate the seven habits when doing lesson plans? If not, what would help you implement the seven habits in daily lessons?
How do you feel about using the first week of school to introduce each of the seven habits instead of a major emphasis on the academics?
What input do you have on staff leadership roles?

Respectfully submitted by Jaimie Smith.

Keeping the Faith and Staying the Course

This is the time of year when stress, fatigue, and anxiety start to creep into our daily lives at school. While I have observed tremendous success with the 7 Habits and The Leader in Me, I have noticed that not all students seem to be getting it. In some instances, we may even see students regress.

When things seem to be unravelling is precisely the time we must recommit ourselves. Keeping the faith and staying the course requires that we keep the big prize in mind. Consider our Vision ~ All Students Succeed in a Future They Create. Consider our Mission ~ We Engage and Encourage Students and Staff Every Day Through Meaningful Work in a Safe and Caring Environment. Consider our district belief statements and examine your own beliefs about children and education. Does our work with the 7 Habits and the Leader in Me directly correlate with our Vision, Mission, and Beliefs? If it does, then you must have faith that this will ultimately lead to great results. You must stay the course even when things get tough, and they will get tough.

Consider that students come to you with various background experiences, different cultural values, and widely scattered academic abilities. Students are going to internalize the principles of the 7 Habits at different rates. Some students will come to you ready to go on day 1. For some students it will be a work in progress that may last years. Don't lose your faith in the principles of the work. Even if you don't see monumental change in some students it doesn't mean that you are failing or that the child isn't getting something out of it. There is no perfect timeline for children when it comes to learning anything.

Focus on the big prize. Consistently go back and recommit yourself to your beliefs about children and education, our mission, and our ultimate vision. Your daily work in this endeavour is invaluable, even if you don't always see the immediate results. What tools are you using to keep the faith and stay the course?

The Seven Habits as a Discipline Policy: Positive or Negative

W. A. Porter adopted the seven habits as the campus-wide discipline philosophy. Instead of rules such as “Don’t do that” or “Don’t do this”, the seven habits are used as guidelines for behavior. A child is never told, “You were not being proactive.” Instead they are asked after a discussion of the behavior, “In the future, if you were in the same situation, what habit could you use to make this situation turn out differently?” Using the seven habits in this way has made a positive impact on the students and their behaviors, as well as decreasing the number of disciple referrals.

After our meeting together on Monday morning and debriefing in the afternoon with the various groups, there was discussion about whether using the seven habits as the discipline philosophy was positive or negative. Any thoughts on this topic?