STUDY GROUP – 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS/ALEXANDER POND CURRICULUM

FINAL REPORT: 4/27/09

Team: Matt Cicchetti, Debra Demers, Jill Keeler, Bonnie Mider, Robin Novi, Billie Vaughn

We read and discussed Sean Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and agreed that it would be valuable to integrate some of Covey’s ideas into our Alexander Pond 8th grade orientation curriculum which was in need of an update. Each habit and chapter was discussed with possible ideas for the “pond”. We then pulled out our old curriculum and discussed what we liked and what we thought might need revision. We changed the amount of time for each rotation and created a number of new large group and rotation activities. Following is a draft of the 2-day orientation program:

o Day One:
§ 8:15 – 8:30 “Find Your Facilitator”
§ 8:30 – 8:55 Hike to Alexander Pond
§ 9:00 – 9:10 Involvement Activity – “Name Toss”
§ 9:10 – 9:30 (New Activity) “Find Someone Who…” personal scavenger
Hunt
§ 9:30 – 10:05 (New Activity) Introduction to the 7 Habits
§ 10:05 – 10:15 Break
§ 10:15 – 10:45 (New Activity) True Colors
§ 10:45 – 11:20 Rotation (assigned by group)
§ 11:20 – 11:50 Lunch
§ 11:50 – 12:25 Rotation
§ 12:25 – 1:00 Rotation
§ 1:00 – 1:10 Break
§ 1:10 – 1:45 Rotation
§ 1:45 – 2:00 (New Activity) “This or That”
§ 2:00 Hike back to the M.S.

o Day Two:
§ Hike to the Pond
§ 8:40 – 8:50 Involvement Activity “Something you wouldn’t know…”
§ 8:50 – 9:40 (New Activity) Push Pause activity
w/large group role play and processing
§ 9:40 – 10:15 Rotation
§ 10:15 – 10:25 Break
§ 10:25 – 11:00 Rotation
§ 11:00 – 11:20 History of Alexander Pond w/Ross McGraw
§ 11:20 – 11:50 Lunch
§ 11:50 – 12:25 Rotation
§ 12:25 – 1:00 Rotation
§ 1:00 – 1:10 Break
§ 1:10 – 1:45 Introduction of Officers/Student Council Reps. and Homecoming parade brainstorm session
§ 1:45 – 2:00 Index card with something positive & pack up
§ 2:00 Hike to the M.S.





Rotations:
o Nature Trail Hike – Tree Identification
o Fishing Instruction and Practice
o What I Know(perceptions of the H.S. and How to make it better/H.S. Activity Information
o Perceptions Activity (using standard set of pictures) – day 2
o Scavenger Hunt – looking for a variety of nature related things
o Circle of Control Activity – Habit #1 – day 1
o Outdoor Challenge Course activities (Spider Web, TP Shuffle, Helium Stick)
different challenge each day




Whole Group Activities:
o Find Your Facilitator
o Name Toss
o Find Someone Who… ice breaker
o Introduction to The 7 Habits
o True Colors Activity
o Something you wouldn’t know about me…
o Push Pause Activity – Habit #1 & role play demonstration
o History of Alexander Pond w/Ross McGraw
o Class/Student Council Officers & Homecoming Info…








ROTATION SCHEDULE:

GROUP: 1 & 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 7 & 8
Day 1
Rotation 1 Hike Adv. Activity 1 What I Know Circle of Control
2 Circle of Control Scavenger Hunt Adv. Activity 1 Hike
3 Scavenger Hunt Circle of Control Hike Adv. Activity 1
4 Adv. Activity 1 Hike Circle of Control What I Know



GROUP: 9 10 11 12
Day 1
Rotation 1 Fish Fish Circle of Control Adv. Activity 1
2 Circle of Control Adv. Activity 1 Fish Fish
3 Adv. Activity 1 Circle of Control What I Know Scavenger Hunt
4 What I Know Scavenger Hunt Adv. Activity 1 Circle of Control




GROUP: 1 & 2 3 & 4 5 &6 7 & 8
Day 2
Rotation 1 Perceptions What I Know Adv. Activity 2 Fish
2 Fish Adv. Activity 2 Scavenger Hunt Perceptions
3 Adv. Activity 2 Perceptions Fish Scavenger Hunt
4 What I Know Fish Perceptions Adv. Activity 2



GROUP: 9 10 11 12
Day 2
Rotation 1 Hike Hike Perceptions Adv. Activity 2
2 Adv. Activity 2 Perceptions Hike What I Know
3 Perceptions Adv. Activity 2 Scavenger Hunt Hike
4 Scavenger Hunt What I Know Adv. Activity 2 Perceptions


We will continue to finish writing up the plans for each activity and will meet again as a group on May 20th to plan the training of facilitators. Training will take place during Regents week on Tuesday, June 16th at Alexander Pond.

STUDY GROUP – 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS/ALEXANDER POND CURRICULUM


4/21/09

· We realized we still have an hour of time left on the 2nd day at the pond so we brainstormed ideas for what could be done to wrap up the 2 days. We decided it would be a good idea to introduce the class officers and the student council reps and have them talk about homecoming and the float. We would then go to our small groups to brainstorm float ideas. We would then return to the big group and each small group would report out it’s ideas with the officers/reps. compiling the info. We would then return to our small groups for one last activity – each student would write a positive comment on an index card for each group member – then clean up.

· As a whole group we agreed to work on the Remote Control Activity and realized it needed simplification. We looked at the Push Pause activity in the workbook that is tied to Habit #1 and agreed to stick with something more closely related to this activity –looking at be proactive vs reactive. We want to have some kind of visible pause button – maybe draw it on the wrist. We would provide some short snip-its that students could choose between proactive & reactive responses. Deb coined WISH: What do I do/What do I want; Is this my best choice; Stay with it or change; How will that work? Deb & Jill will work on further developing this activity

· Robin gathered some info. on different adventure course activities and Katie Belyea agreed to join us at the pond and facilitate these activities. We, as a group, need to decide which activities we want to incorporate. Robin & Billie went through the perceptions pictures and chose about 30 that we will copy and laminate so that each group has the same set. We chose pictures that might evoke more than one opinion. Bonnie & Billie worked on the preliminaries for putting together a scavenger/treasure hunt. Matt & Deb worked on the Circle of Control/Role Play activity.

· We are looking at Sept. 18 & 25 as the dates for the orientation. We need to get on the district calendar as the 7th grade may be planning to go up on the 25th…

· Next meeting is April 27

4/6/09 meeting

· We started out just brainstorming some ideas as we begin to look at the make-up of the two orientation days at Alexander Pond. We definitely want to cut the rotation times down to 35 minutes each and we know we need another “fun” activity in addition to the hike/tree i.d. and the fishing rotations. One idea would be a scavenger hunt of some kind – maybe using a compass to find things that would be place in various spots around the pond/forest. Another possible rotation could be some kind of “survivor”/ropes course type of challenge that would require teamwork to accomplish. We would also like to incorporate the “color” activity that was used with last summer’s “survivor 9” group. Training also came up and we agreed that providing the facilitators with training during Regents Week might be a good idea – 8th grade teachers are not responsible for regents exams so we could find a day for training and hopefully go up to the pond as a group to work through some of the activities. This would also reduce the need for training funds.

· Principal, Diane Arbes, joined us for a few minutes so that we could discuss our additional funding needs. We would like to provide each of the facilitators with a copy of The 7 Habits…, we would like to start a “homework” club next year (see previous notes) that would be for 8th & possibly 9th grade students and upperclassmen mentor/tutors. We would need funding to pay the teachers and train the mentors – Diane let us know that 2 days/week could be funded. We need to investigate training opportunities for the mentor/tutor students. It was also suggested that once we develop new activities for the 8th grade that we try them out this summer during the “survivor 9” program. Funding is in the budget for survivor 9 and we may be able to tap into some of those funds for additional curriculum development. Diane also asked that we share our ideas/work with the high school site based team at their May meeting.

· Specific Rotation ideas: We decided we would need 8 different rotations and that each group would work through 4 each day.
Rotation Ideas:
o Hike around pond on nature trail/tree identification
o Fishing instruction & practice
o What I Know/H.S. Activity opportunities
o Perceptions (needs to be updated with the same pictures for each group)
o New Rotations – need to be developed:
§ Scavenger Hunt (use camera to take picture of each discovery)
§ Remote Control Activity – Habit #1
§ Survivor/Ropes Course style challenge (2 different)

· We will also develop a Circle of Control Activity (Habit #1) that each group will do simultaneously and present (in place of the sculpture/dream catcher activity of the past). We will re-introduce the teacher-student role play with Matt & Debbie acting out a more scripted version than what we’ve done in the past.


· We started to sketch out the format for the two days with the following as our initial draft:
o Day One:
§ 8:15 – 8:30 “Find Your Facilitator”
§ 8:30 – 8:55 Hike to Alexander Pond
§ 9:00 – 9:10 Involvement Activity – “Name Toss”
§ 9:10 – 9:30 (New Activity) “Find Someone Who…” personal scavenger
Hunt
§ 9:30 – 10:05 (New Activity) Introduction to the 7 Habits
§ 10:05 – 10:15 Break
§ 10:15 – 10:45 (New Activity) True Colors
§ 10:45 – 11:20 Rotation (assigned by group)
§ 11:20 – 11:50 Lunch
§ 11:50 – 12:25 Rotation
§ 12:25 – 1:00 Rotation
§ 1:00 – 1:10 Break
§ 1:10 – 1:45 Rotation
§ 1:45 – 2:00 (New Activity) “This or That”
§ 2:00 Hike back to the M.S.

o Day Two:
§ Hike to the Pond
§ 8:40 – 8:50 Involvement Activity “Something you wouldn’t know…”
§ 8:50 – 9:40 (New Activity) Circle of Control Poster and presentation
w/large group role play and processing
§ 9:40 – 10:15 Rotation
§ 10:15 – 10:25 Break
§ 10:25 – 11:00 Rotation
§ 11:00 – 11:20 History of Alexander Pond w/Ross McGraw
§ 11:20 – 11:50 Lunch
§ 11:50 – 12:25 Rotation
§ 12:25 – 1:00 Rotation
§ 1:00 – 1:10 Break
§ 1:10 – 2:00 ???
§ 2:00 Hike to the M.S.


· We need to find an activity or activities for the last 50 minutes on Day 2

· Activity work to be done – we will divide and conquer:

o Intro to Habits – Deb & Jill
o True Colors Activity – Deb will get info. from Jessica Williams and John Tomazin
o Scavenger Hunt – Bonnie & Billie
o Survivor challenges – Robin will check with Katie Belyea & Scott Wandell for possible ideas
o Perceptions – Robin & Billie will review pictures and come up with several that can be duplicated for each group
o Circle of Control Poster & Role Play – Matt & Debbie
o Remote Control Activity – whole group
o What I Know “tweak” - whole group


· Supply List
o Books – Guidance will order 8 – 10 copies
o Electronic megaphone
o Colored bracelets or ribbons for True colors I.D.
o Poster board for Circle of Control
o Decorative things for Circle of Control
o Scavenger Hunt items?


· Next meetings
o April 21
o April 27

STUDY GROUP – 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS/ALEXANDER POND CURRICULUM


3/25/09 Meeting

· Debbie & Jill brought copies of the Introduction pages that we would include with copies of habit#1 from the book and disperse to the incoming 8th graders prior to going to Alexander Pond. This includes the riddle poem “What am I?”, followed by What Exactly Are Habits? and then a brief description of the habits of highly effective teens and the habits of highly ineffective teens (we changed the word from defective to ineffective). We also changed some of the names of the ineffective habits because we want to include an activity that would have the students identify each habit as effective or ineffective.
o Habit 2: Begin with No End in Mind becomes - Just Start
o Habit 3: Put First Things Last becomes - Procrastination
o Habit 5: Seek First to Talk Then Pretend to Listen becomes – Talk First Then Pretend to Listen
o Habit 6: Don’t Cooperate becomes – Be Your Own Island
o Habit 7: Wear Yourself Out becomes - Off Balance
The introduction concludes with a page on How the 7 Habits can help you…

· We agreed that we should purchase copies of The 7 Habits… for each teacher who facilitates at the pond: Frank M., Julie H., Roxanne M., Scott S., Maritza P., Heather S., Katie B.?, AJ R.? because as facilitators, it will be important for them to have the 7 Habits background.

· We started to look at the format of the days. We would keep the first 3 activities on day 1: Find Your Facilitator, Hike to the Pond & Name Toss involvement activity.

o 9:10 – 9:55 Intro to the Habits (all groups)
o Read the poem “What Am I?” - discuss
o Review – What Exactly Are Habits
§ Include Activity where a variety of habits are drawn from a hat ie. Brush your teeth every morning; play video games all night, etc. and have group determine which are good (effective) habits and bad (ineffective) habits
Covey Habit Match – Up
§ Draw the Covey Habits from a hat and have group determine which are effective & which ineffective and match them together.

o 9:55 – 10:30 Rotations – each group will be assigned a rotation from:
§ Fishing, Hike, Remote Control (we need to develop a remote control activity) – this would be based on Covey’s Habit #1: Be Proactive, What I know/H.S. Activity options

o 10:30 – 10:45 Break

o 10:45 – 11:20 Rotations – each group assigned to one from:
Fishing, Hike, Remote Control, What I Know

o 11:20 – 11:40 History of the Pond with Ross McGraw

o 11:40 – 12:10 Lunch

o 12:10 – 12:45 Rotations

o 12:45 – 1:10 Rotations

o 1:10 – 1:20 Break

o 1:20 – 2:00 Large Group Role play with processing?

This is a sketchy draft of the first day…

· For Day 2 we would develop a Circle of Control Activity to replace the sculpture activity. Each group would get colored poster board with a round circle and white circle center along with materials they could use to decorate. These would be presented by each group. “Who Control’s Who” poem could also be incorporated.

· Next meeting is Monday, March 30th - we will break up and start to work on developing activities… I will also invite Diane Arbes to talk about funding & training.

STUDY GROUP – 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS/ALEXANDER POND CURRICULUM


3/12/09 Meeting

We reviewed the notes from our last meeting. We have some concerns about funding since we will need to train our Alex. Pond facilitators. I will invite Diane Arbes to one of our next meetings to talk about training options, supplies and funding. We brainstormed an idea regarding the issue of homework completion which seems to be a big issue for our at-risk 8th graders (and an issue with many students currently in 7th grade). We liked the idea of creating a homework club that would meet 3 – 4 days/week (Tuesdays would probably have to be left open due to faculty/dept meetings) after school for 8th grade only - Ideally manned by 8th grade teachers that might rotate through on different days. We would like to “mandate” the club for students on the freeze list and possibly train some upperclassmen as Homework Club tutors for community service credit. Teachers would need to be paid for their time = 1 teacher/day.

Brief Review of
· Habit #6: Synergize – presented by Matt Cicchetti
o Habit 6 is about working together and celebrating our differences, working as a team, being open-minded, and finding new and better ways to do things. We saw some benefit in working with the fruit activity which is similar to the true colors activity that the faculty and 9th grade summer survivor kids have participated in; however, we believe that as far as 8th grade and Alexander Pond are concerned, we need to focus on the first 3 habits – with possible introduction of the other habits later in upper level classes.
· Introduction – We thought we might be able to separately provide copies of the first three habits from the book with a brief introduction. The introduction and Habit #1 would be given to the 8th graders at August orientation so that they could read it prior to Alexander Pond. Deb & Jill agreed to work on fine tuning the introduction. We would distribute the copies during the “homeroom” period at orientation with Bonnie, Jill, Matt, Scott S., and maybe Julie & Roxanne distributing and introducing the info.
· Up next, we need to re-visit the Alex Pond curriculum along with the ideas we’ve brainstormed so far, and begin the nitty-gritty of modifying the curriculum to include some of the 7 Habits work. We will most likely divide up and work in small teams to develop new activities.

Next Meetings:
March 25 (after Right to Know)
March 30

STUDY GROUP – 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS/ALEXANDER POND CURRICULUM


2/10/2009 Meeting


We reviewed notes from our last meeting (1/27) and decided that we might want to take Habit # 4 and do some kind of facilitated activity with the Alexander Pond faculty – it’s not a habit that is easily taught to large groups of students but would be beneficial to explore with teachers.

Review of
· Habit # 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
o Habit 5 definitely resounds with our teen population. They tend to be impulsive and often say things without thinking first. We talked about “active listening” which ties to Covey’s “genuine listening” – particularly the mirroring piece. We liked the idea of working with students to become listeners first before jumping in with talk; however, we really aren’t sure of how to go about instructing or teaching this habit . This did generate some good discussion about ways to introduce all of the habits to the students.
§ Possible idea would be to give the 8th graders the 7 Effective Habits and the 7 Defective (we will call them ineffective) Habits, each listed separately and put together randomly, and ask them to categorize them into effective list vs ineffective list – this should generate some discussion about each of the habits and we could incorporate into the role play asking students to identify effective vs ineffective habits in the scenario.
§ Also, we talked about the possibility of giving each “graduating” 7th grader a copy of the book The 7 Habits... and asking them to read it over the summer before 8th grade (knowing that they won’t all read it, but it would be helpful for those students who do and we think that when we introduce some of the activities at the pond that some of the students who didn’t read it may decide to begin reading….) It would definitely be a more meaningful curriculum if we could use the book with the students. I will check with Diane A. to see if it could be purchased as a textbook…
§ We talked a little bit about the colors activity that we’ve done as a faculty and that the summer survivor 9 kids did. We will revisit at our next meeting when we discuss Habit # 6 – Synergize.


NEXT MEETING: Thursday, March 12th

STUDY GROUP – 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS/ALEXANDER POND CURRICULUM

1/27/2009 Meeting


Review of
· Habit # 3: Put First Things First – presented by Billie Vaughn
o Habit 3 is a tough one to “live”. It’s made of two parts –
§ Prioritize & Plan
All of our students receive planners but are not instructed in how to use them. Have students take a look at how they utilize their time with a “pre-test”/”post-test” evaluation – modify the activity from page 97 of workbook and have students fill out the amount of time they think they spend in each area and then have them log for a day the actual time they spend. “A Day In the Life of Me”… use data in math class to chart/graph time use. We liked the ‘Big Rock’ concept in terms of prioritizing and figuring out how to break down the big rock things…
The 2nd piece regarding peer pressure/competition/comparison we had a harder time trying to come up with ways to address – we see some competition/comparison as good. We did like the comfort zone/courage zone.

· Habit #4: Think Win-Win – presented by Bonnie Mider
o Habit 4 focuses on relationships and the importance of putting yourself into win-win situations
§ Win-Lose: Totem pole – I’m better than you – I’m at the top…
§ Lose-Win: Doormat – I avoid conflict and will let you walk all over me
§ Lose-Lose: Downward spiral – war/revenge
§ Win-Win: All you can eat buffet
This is a habit that we probably won’t be able to directly address at “the pond”. It could definitely be integrated into work in the planning room depending where the individual student falls (W-L, L-W, L-L)

Next meeting date: Feb 10 & March 12