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.Thursday, September 2, 2010
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
19 comments:
As the teacher of the gifted and talented I have not yet taken student groups however I have spent much time facilitating classroom arrangements, telelscoping and identifying students for the program as well as assisting placement of student transfers. I can't wait to see my student population!!!
We will be focusing on being proactive with our own learning, our circle of influence and keeping the end in mind. Every student should aspire to a level of independence and college readiness and it is my responsibility to teach them how to reach this milestone. Looking forward to good things to come.
My transition students love it when they can use the vocabulary they have learned from the 7 habits book and lessons.
The Behavior Specialist has started her social skills training lessons and will be focusing on the 7 Habits as well! It is nice for this special population to join in with the general education students and be able to share a common goal and mind set.
When students with behavior challenges feel like they "fit in" they can accomplish big things!
BISD is also emphasizing CORE Values this year which tie in with our 7 Habits perfectly! As the school counselor, the 1st lesson I designed and implemented was on being "responsible" so the children were given a team building situation where they sat crossed legged on the floor, back to back with a partner, arms linked and then they were asked to stand up. About 95% of the children were successful in doing this activity. Afterward they returned to their circle to process and discuss how they were able to be successful. The responses were priceless! Every group used 7 Habits terminlogy. The way they explained their success was that they had had to "synergize", and "begin with the end in mind" in order to have the "win-win" they desired!It was quite obvious that they clearly understand the 7 habits!
Paula Keller ;)
Observation #1--Angela and I found that the Community of Respect training goes right along with the 7 habits.
Observation #2--The students have moved beyond being proactive as the most identified habit. I hear much more conversation that relates to win-win, begin with the end in mind, and putting first things first. Also, the kids had a bigger base from which to discuss the habits the first week of school. It seems their understanding of the habits is very clear. Cindy Hallman
Yesterday, I had a parent approach me about the 7 Habits. She said that her child was really internalizing the language of the 7Habits and using it to describe situations at home. She was very impressed. As proud as I was of her child and our school, I was stunned when she asked if she could borrow some of my books, etc. She teaches in another district and feels that her students would really benefit from the 7 Habits being taught at her school. She also thought they needed student leadership roles. After reading the books, she believed that she would want to share it with her principal. WOW! I truly believe that we did the right thing by adopting the 7 Habits. This parent/educator's feedback provided further affirmation.
When I look back on how far we have come in such a short period of time, I am amazed. It's awesome to look around the school and see the Seven Habits posters and characters in almost every classroom, the blessings tree painted in the hallway outside my classroom, and the tradition wall across the back of the cafeteria. Even more exciting to see are the students who are beginning their leadership roles for the first time this week! The Good Morning Porter crew is always so prepared and upbeat as they share the morning announcements, especially our witty weatherman/humorist! I love pulling into the parking lot and seeing the crew charged with greeting students as they arrive. They are there with their orange safety vests, dancing on the sidewalk, smiling, waving cars through the line, opening car doors, and greeting students and parents as they arrive. What a great first impression/start to the day! I'm looking forward to seeing other student leaders in action and to seeing what we as adults can do with our new leadership roles as they get further underway!
Tracy Clegg
I was, and still am, so excited to start another year here at David E.Smith! I was a first year teacher last year, so I was really glad that I was going to understand a little better how things worked this school year. I have a new team that I'm working with this year, and they have been excellent so far bringing new ideas and ways to teach!
As a team we have really put a big emphasis on the 7 Habits. We started out by reading each habit and talking about them briefly. We are making our own 7 Habits book in class this year. Each time we read about a habit, we create a cover page for it and slowly start to compile 7 chapters for our book. We will revisit these habits all year and continue to add pages, examples, and work behind our initial cover pages for each habit. Whew, I hope that made sense! Hopefully this will be a way for the kids to understand the 7 Habits in their own words.
As a third grade, we also have a big 3D 7 Habits tree out in our hallway. We are looking for kids that display any of the 7 Habits, and when they do, they get their name on an apple and then that apple will hang from our tree. Each section of third grade has a different color apple (red, yellow, and green) so that it will inspire some friendly competition between classes to get your name up on the tree.
In my own class I do what is called a "Feed Me" jar. It is an empty jar that is hungry to be filled with compliments! I have asked everyone at our school to be on the lookout for my class displaying excellent behavior in the hallway, out in our garden, in the cafeteria, anywhere. If they think my class has some stellar behavior, then they can feed them a compliment. When we get back to class we get to put a treat in our "Feed Me" jar. Right now we are working to earn eyeball eraser tops for pencils. We have to get enough treats in our jar to equal the number of kids in class. So, I have 19 kids in my class, which means that we need 19 compliments to fill our jar. Once we have 19, then each kid gets to keep the treat from the jar, and we will start over to fill it up again. I will change the treat each time to make it more fun.
I feel that I am refreshed from a nice relaxing summer, I'm pumped up about the school year, and I've got a great support team around me. Not only am I supported by my immediate team members, but the rest of our staff, and even my family and friends all contribute to a great school year. I couldn't do it all without the support of all those people!!
I still have many things to learn, and I hope that I always will, I still have things to complete, trainings to go to, and a check list to be completed. But none of those things would get done if I didn't have the motivation, support, and a positive attitude to get me through it. I think that is something that I really try to teach to my kids too to ensure that they have a great year as well.
I am so thankful to have a great start to a new school year! I know there will behavior problems, and conferences/ meetings, and other hiccups throughout the year, but I honestly believe that what I have in place as far as the 7 Habits go, and my own personal rewards and consequences, the kids will be able to get back on track quickly.
Best of luck to everyone for a excellent year with much success!!
Kirby Plata
Our fourth graders are off to a great start. They really know the 7 habits. They could see why we organize our class room and binders as Beginning with the End in Mind and Putting First Things First. It was so great to see they could understand how being organized can help them through out the year and also in other parts of our life. They are thinking Win Win so actively also. We are really benefiting as a school by using the 7 Habits in every thing we do.
It was an awesome start to the year. I was able to have wonderful interactions and discussions with the students about the 7 habits. I felt that the students connected more with the habits this year and our discussions were deeper. It was great to stretch the students with new activities for the habits. My favorite discussion came from working through the Leader in Me workbook. We were discussing the word "paradigm" and looking at the picture of the rabbit/duck. One of my students said, "So, some people see the world in a duck way and some see it in a rabbit way?" I laughed and said "Well, yes!" It truly has been a fun start and I can tell that many of them have grown from the habits.
Katy Gott
We are off to a great start in first grade with the 7 habits. They were excited to hear the stories from the 7 Habits of Happy Kids book. Most had heard the stories last year and couldn't wait to hear them again! We also made up actions to go with each habit. I got this idea out of the Leader in Me teacher guide for first grade. Our class favorite is doing the "mixer" for synergize!
We are off and running to another great year. My students are excited about the 7 Habits and continually look for each other using the 7 Habits. One of my parents wrote a note stating that he had told his son "That is not being proactive leaving your backpack in your grandmothers car." I love the fact that even though some of our parents have just learned what we are doing they are reinforcing The 7 Habits at home. Yeah! Lynnette Piland
We are taking baby steps in Kindergarten... but I am always amazed at how well the little ones receive the 7 Habits and the more complex language and terms that are used. I really appreciate the discussions about the varoius habits from our principal on the announcements and the example that is set from the older students who are obviously living the 7 Habits. It is wonderful to be able to use so many of the older students/classes that we see throughout the day as an example as we learn about the 7 Habits.
Teri Clifford
For the past few years, I've always begun my year with fifth grade students by learning about synergy and building a "bucky ball" (geodesic dome) which is a hands-on model of "synergy". Since my fifth graders are already familiar with synergy this year, we were able to take the lesson to a whole new level, with deeper insights and more connections made to real life synergy than ever before. We also learned about the life of Robert Buckminster Fuller, who is the creator of the geodesic dome, and they were able to come up with many of the different habits that he practiced in his life and give great evidence to support their thoughts. My favorite was when one said "he really thought win-win. He thought that people should win by being able to live in nice homes and be comfortable, but he also thought that the earth should win and not have all of its energy and resources used up by people."
As the second week closes I am just amazed at how much the students are already identifying the 7 habits in books & actions of others! After having a year of the habits in Kindergarten, it's already seemed to have shown its effectiveness. And I was amazed at how much easier and more meaningful it was to make a mission statement and create classroom goals when we had Habit 2 as our objective of the day. We're off to a great start and I know it will be a great year!
Jill Fielder
Walking up and down the halls I have heard teachers talking about the 7 Habits with their kids. I've heard them referring to books and pointing out ways the students are exhibiting the habits. I just LOVE that everyone is using the same language and the students are responding, and yes responding with smiles and confidence.
Jennifer Lass
We are taking it slow in our kindergarten classes, also. I am trying something new with Be Proactive. I have a 2in wooden bee glued to a clothespin and someone will get to wear it to let others know that they did something proactive. Thanks hkrier for sharing the info about making up motions for the habits. I want to try that, too.
Kathy Eby
Our p.e. classes are off to a great start! I am so excited about my new position and absolutely love it so far.
One way that we are practicing the 7 Habits in the gym is by having a "How Do You Sharpen the Saw?" bulletin board. Every two weeks the students from a given class will bring pictures of themselves showing ways they stay healthy and fit.
The best way to encourage students to sharpen the saw is by setting an example. I talk to the students about my love for running and posted pictures of Kim and I running various races on the bulletin board the first week of school.
Last week I visited with our 2nd and 3rd graders to talk about responsibility. Each of the classes discussed being proactive and putting first things first. I was very impressed with the hard work of the students and teachers in their first week - it was obvious the students were in the 7 habits mode right off the bat! I'm glad I get to re-inforce that in my classroom guidance lessons.
~Lisa Loper
Kindergarten did a good job last year teaching their kids the seven habits. The first week of school my first graders remembered the lessons they had and have piggybacked off of it. It is wonderful seeing them use the language throughout the day and applying it to things that are happening in the classroom. I get such a chuckle listening to them tell their neighbor that they need to put first things first and do their work so that we can go out to recess.
Post a Comment