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
