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