We Are What We Repeatedly Do......

Are you a Stephen Covey fan?  His son, Sean Covey, builds on the original 7 Habits and shares ideas for youth on his website, Inspiring Greatness in Youth, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.  Like the writings of Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale before them, these ideas are guiding principles for a fulfilling and successful life.

Do you or your school have guidelines that are shared with students?   Our incoming freshman students at FCHS take a one semester course, Career and College Readiness, and the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is the text for the course.  I challenge you to come up with your own guiding principles for you and your students this year. 

Here are my 7 Mind/Heart Habits of Highly Effective Teachers:

1. Sees the whole child, both as a learner and a human being
2. Has belief in every child’s future
3. Always a learner, embraces failure as much as success
4. Fearless of: poverty, naysayers, technology, petty tyrants, and ‘you name it’
5. Remains idealistic in the face of political and economic reality
6. Champions public education for all, not just the few, or the majority
7. Gratefully celebrates being “just a teacher” 

Stephen Abram, librarian and consultant with Lighthouse Partners and Dysart & Jones, has come up with his, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology.

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How can we spark curiosity in our students?

Last night 60 Minutes ran the feature: Bill Gate’s 2.0.  We can easily see that curiosity drives all successful innovators.  Being an avid reader myself, it tickled me that the reporter shared that the source of much of Mr. Gates’ ponderings come from a constant and wide array of reading material from agriculture to the environment.  Ironically, he carries a large bag of “print” books with him wherever he goes.   His intense curiosity has led to success in his business and now steers his philanthropic endeavors.  He shares his latest musings over books he has read on www.thegatesnotes.com.    In Tony Wagner’s latest book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, Mr. Wagner provides several portraits of how to nurture innovation in young people, via “play, passion, and purpose.”

Don Wettrick, an innovative secondary broadcasting teacher, uses these elements as guiding principles in a course taught at Franklin Community High School.  Our 24/7 Tech Team, promotes the newest technology tools and applications and how they can be utilized in the classroom and encourages sharing among all teacher and student "experts".   I see my own role as a media specialist to both cultivate and celebrate these habits of mind in faculty and students.  What if all of our students had their own blogs about their own learning and thinking?   How can we support “dabbling” and creative pursuits as we meet the required classroom standards?   How will you spark curiosity in your students this year?