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?
27 comments:
I hear you, Scott. Anything that is "the right thing to do" is going to face obstacles. Sometimes we are just planting the seed that won't be harvested until some time in the future. That doesn't mean we should quit planting the seed. I make a concious effort to discuss the comments made on the announcements with at least my first group of the morning. I discuss the habits in the context of what we read also. The leveled readers that we bought to use this year have storylines that reinforce the habits...boredom, returning lost items, helping others, finding your own strengths, etc.
Like Darla said my class and I discuss what we hear on the announcements and what we know about that habit. Sometimes children relate it back to personal experiences or even what they might do in the future. We are now going back and rereading the stories. The children seem to never get tired of them. Each time we read a story, the children seem to begin to have a deeper understanding. It's just the beginning.
Erin
I agree with both Darla and Erin. I also think this is a very timely post. We have had a long, icky winter and I think it is starting to show in the attitudes/behaviors of students and adults both. Personally I have to almost talk myself into not falling into the negative nellies! We are keeping up discussions of all the habits throughout the day as well as revisting the stories in the book. We also have a Habits box in our room. When someone notices an example of a habit in a story/lesson or demonstrates a habit through actions, they get to add their name to the box- at the end of the year a name will be drawn and someone will get our 7 Habits of Happy Kids book!
Lisa M.
I'm with Darla about using books to explain the habits. More students seem to be able to recognize them. I also try to talk the talk,my favorite(at the moment)is Seek First to Understand---I love the part about listen not just with your ears, but with your eyes and your heart. Teaching a kindergartner to listen can be a huge challenge, but we are making progress.Lisa, I love your Habits box idea. Kathy
I wanted to share an idea about our February/March Weekly Readers and our 7 Habits.
I took the 5 different titles of the booklets and easily found a habit for each. I am going to ask the class what habit they would choose, but for now I wanted to share the habit that I found in each one.
1.What a Bright Smile-Sharpening the Saw
2.Take a Closer Look-Seek First to Understand,
3.What Is Presidents Day-Be Proactive
4.Celebrate-Chinese New Year-Synergy
5.Olympic Winter Games-Begin With the End in Mind
I believe we have made a positive impact on the lives of our students with the 7 Habits but.....the few we are struggling to reach have barriers built up around them that it's taking a lot of hammering to get through. It has only been a year since we begun this crusade and you can't expect things to change over night.
I know in another year or so this school will be the model for The Leader in Me for Birdville.
Roxanne
I agree that it has been a hard few months with the students, many are falling behind in their 7 Habits behaviors, but we seem to see a change in 5th graders around this time every year.
I'm finding that our current U.S. History curriculum has many opportunities to talk about the 7 Habits. As we get into the American Revolution, we see many Colonial Leaders that possessed the habits and we are able to talk about the habits as guidelines for the beginning of our country. There are also several examples of conflicts that arose because anger won out over the right thing to do, and this is another easy way to discuss how history might have been different if the habits had been used.
Michelle Hughes
I agree that the winter doldrums can greatly impact attitudes and motivation. However we can chose to see this as an opportunity to teach our children through the modeling of perserverance in the face of adversity. BTW, Lisa I love the idea of raffling off the book "Seven Habits for Happy (and can we add emotionally healty) Kids." Raising a resilient generation will be a lasting legacy! Great idea!!!
This is the time of year that seems slow. The Holiday rush of presents, family, food are gone and now it's just everyday activities. We get in a rut. Let's go back to the book and regroup and made it better everyday
Sallye
I have started letting go and letting students take on some responsibilities that have been my domain in the past. I have hall and bathroom leaders (monitors) and various leaders for classroom responsibilities. It has been exciting to see them take on the responsibilities and exercise their leadership skills. The students take their jobs very seriously and their fellow classmates respond very well to correction from their peers- oftentimes better than they respond to my correction. This has unburdened me in ways I didn't expect. I have less tattling and I have more kids taking on extra little responsibilities, like cleaning up after themselves and helping their classmates.
Another side note. They really like "leader" in their job title. If I call the job anything beside "leader" they correct me. So I no longer have a caboose, I have a door leader, etc. They want to be leaders.
I am using the leader in me activity book with the kids more. I have put a daily spot in my lesson plans where we can talk about the habit we are learing and the ways to apply it. I try to come up with unique hands on ideas so the students really internalize it. Talking about it everyday is the goal for me.
Ruth reminded me that I recently gave a lot of classroom responsibility to the students with leadership roles and it is a huge burden off my back. The fact that they are older really allowed me to give some major tasks as leadership roles, and the students are really responding. I will definitely continue with this earlier in the year next year. I also think it will really help my long term sub, since the students are so good at remembering their roles and reminding others when they forget!
Michelle again!!
Ruth reminded me that I recently gave a lot of classroom responsibility to the students with leadership roles and it is a huge burden off my back. The fact that they are older really allowed me to give some major tasks as leadership roles, and the students are really responding. I will definitely continue with this earlier in the year next year. I also think it will really help my long term sub, since the students are so good at remembering their roles and reminding others when they forget!
Michelle again!!
I'm wondering if the stress of TAKS is beginning to surface! If you step back and take a look at years past, the negative behavior
5th grade is complaining about isn't so bad. We're not writing office referrals, but rather complaining about chatty children and the select few who still aren't showing up for tutorials or doing their homework. I have one student who at any given moment will stand next to his chair and start break dancing. It absolutely wears on my nerves! Then I stop and think, is it really so bad? After all, they are kids. For the most part, they're all working hard. The students have homework every night, the weather is nasty, cold and not getting any better. I'm feeling a little stressed myself!
I like Lisa's idea about the 7 Habits box. Very clever! I hope you don't mind if I steal you idea!
I think that we are trying to reinforce and reinvent the habits daily. At this time of the year, spring fever is setting in and it does take a bit more time to stay on task. With the never ending presence of TAKS on the horizon, we put an extra burden on our staff and children. I too discuss with my students the habit directly after announcements, but I also know that our children come to school with many different monkeys on their backs. I think that it is hard sometimes to expect all of our children to come to school with a smile on their face and high expectations. Some of our kids are just lucky to get to school to relax and they need to vent. They may not know how to "seek first to understand."
I know we are still plugging away, and the students are starting to see the habits we talk about in Social Studies. This is a really easy place for me to bring them into other lessons. It is encouraging when we discuss these behaviors in Social Studies, but I wish I was seeing more of it from the students. I know they understand the concepts, but they are not always making the correct choices. Using the Second Step lessons, I am integrating the 7 Habits concepts and showing the students real life examples of how and when to use the habits. This is keeping it fresh for us because we are seeing the habits in a different way. I know I am getting a little discouraged with not seeing a huge change in the ones we really want to see change in but, this is where working with 7 Habits for 3-4 years will really pay off because it will turn from words we hear to actions we choose.
Although I don't have a classroom, while working in each of the classrooms I do have contact I have definitely noticed the teachers talking about, referring to and using the 7 Habits!! I have also noticed that when I reference the 7 habits in the after school kindergarten aspire group they know exactly what I am talking about!!! It's great!! Keep it up teachers...I'm seeing it!!
Oops, sorry I didn't sign my name to the previous comment. Jennifer Lass
As I read through these comments I notice something wonderful..we are all on the same page, sharing ideas and struggles, but most of all working together on our vision!!!
Lisa Mais
Lisa, I love your box idea and am going to steal it along with Karen. Katy I also love your Weekly Reader idea and am going to steal it also. Ruth I'm going to add leader in front of all of my jobs because noone in my class wants to hold the PE door open in this weather to go to the portable. This weather seems to be really wearing on my class and myself. I am trying to physically workout when I can and to always keep a positive attitude. I try to keep the writing of TAKS-ALT in proper prespective, but it is hard as it is very time consuming and I still have my other students taking TAKS-M to worry about also. I was really getting discouraged until Friday when I was talking to a student and his mother and she referenced the habit of being proactive to him. It really helps me to know some of my parents are trying to get on board.
Jody Taylor
I have been struggling with this issue recently. It sometimes feels like the more I care and the harder I work the more my students regress in their behavior and/or academics. But I try to remember that circle of control. I can't control their rate of internalizing the 7 habits but I can control the extent to which I abide by and model the habits for them. I ran across a quote today that stated "Leaders know the way, go the way, and show the way". I think that sums up what were trying to accomplish at DES everyday. I also subscribe to a daily inspirational email from Donald Neale Walsh and on Friday it stated: "challenges are what you came for. And you are never, ever, given a challenge you cannot overcome.
The purpose of life is to give you a chance to be the grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are. When challenges arrive, then,
move straight to clarity: This is what you came for.
Now rise to this occasion, and know that you have
every resource with which to create the right and
perfect outcome".
I have that message taped on my window so that I never lose sight of what my purpose is, despite the toughest and roughest days.
- Alyssa Webb
Okay...so I EASILY could go through and affirm something from every single one of your comments. I just read through some amazingness!!! I love the impact you guys are making in the lives of these kids. I, personally, have felt as if I've regressed. I've let work and life stress bring me down. I totally had to take a step back, practice my Second Step breathing, and realized that I wasn't Sharpening the Saw...and therefore was feeling over-stressed. I imagine the kids feel this way, too...but don't quite have that maturity to understand "taking a step back" in order to see the big picture. Keep modeling for them. They're watching you!
P.S. Who else is jealous that Karen Nores has a kid that could start break-dancing at any given moment?! Awesome!!
I'm feeling like my class and I have been bogged down with TAKS like Karen said, and it may have a negative impact on how things are going with the 7 habits in my classroom. I think we are all a little stressed this time of year, and like Karen said, I wish my kids would show up for tutorials! Ha. But, I love what Alyssa said about overcoming challenges. Reading these comments have definitely helped me put some things into perspective. I am absolutely sure that we are making progress with this school wide, and that the kids are learning VALUABLE habits.
PS- Sarah, you never fail at making me laugh.
Allie
Alyssa's comment about, "The purpose of life is to give you a chance to be the grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are. When challenges arrive, then,
move straight to clarity: This is what you came for" is so very true! The Leader in Me teaches you how to have integrity even when life comes at you in a stressful, axiety-filled way. Our students in elementary are at a very impactful and impressionable stage in their life where if we continue to work on their habits, they will be much more equipped to handle life's frustrations, and hopefully not ever allow themselves to stay in a "pit" that we sometimes find ourselves in when we don't know quite how to handle life's little situations.
Crystall
I agree with what is being said about the weather and just feeling bogged down with everything. In my class we have been going back over the stories and dicussing how that relates to us now. It does take a constant reminding but I think that is normal. I mean look at the teachers. Scott has had to remind us and bribe us to blog and do other daily things. How can we expect the students to do better than us?!
Juli Stanford
Scott, you are so right about not getting discouraged. We have only just begun this season of our student's lives. We have to stay focused on the goal and we must continually renew our own commitment to this goal.
This past week, my class has been working on two specific habits. Habit #5 Seek first to understand, then be understood: Listen before you talk! Listen with your eyes and your heart first, then your ears and Habit #7 Sharpen the saw.
I told my students that even teachers and other adults have trouble remembering and putting into practice Habit #5. How many times have we intrupted our spouses, our own children, friends or co-workers because we thought that we knew exactly what they were trying to say? I am afraid way to many times. Many of us have probably ended up having to apologize for not listening and blurting out our advice etc. even though that might not have been needed. I know I have been guilty of doing that very thing. I explained to my students that what I am trying to teach them and show them is a life long habit and that adults need to follow it as much as they do.
Habit #7 Sharpening the saw is one that is rather difficult here at school to work on because it is about our overall being. My students decided one way that they could sharpen the saw is to be careful what was packed in their lunch and their snack. If they bring a healthy snack, they are allowed to put a pearl in the Sharpen the Saw jar. They also decided that they wanted to walk around the playground before we had recess. So before we have recess, the class,including me, walks/runs/jogs around our playground (1/2 mile) then we go and play. We put a giant pearl in the jar for the class and if anyone chooses to do more than one lap, they get to put a pearl in for their extra lap. They are constantly telling me what they are doing at home to "sharpen the saw".
We must continue to put before our children the "Habits" not only in our words but more importantly in our own actions. Someone once said that "Actions speak louder than words!" that is so true. With that said, let us keep our eyes focused on the goal!
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