Habit 1: Being Proactive

We are participating in a district-wide program entitled The Leader in Me. We began exploring the first habit, Be Proactive, more in depth.  We discussed how each of us "controls our own weather" and can control our outcomes by being proactive rather than reactive.  

In regard to this habit, Covey writes "I am a responsible person. I take initiative. I choose my actions, attitudes, and moods. I do not blame others for my wrong actions. I do the right thing without being asked, even when no one is looking."

As a class, we brainstormed challenging situations that kids face every day. The students came up with some very timely situations. Some of these included:

• A friend at school is being mean to you.
• Your mother makes you go grocery shopping with her.
• You have a big project for school due in a week.
• Your parents embarrass you in public.
• You have a hard time waking up for school.
• You are late for school more than once a month.

Students broke into pairs to identify a proactive way to approach their selected situation and a reactive way to approach this situation.  They used Puppet Pals, an iPad app, to share their thinking.  Below is an example of one of the videos student groups created.  

You can learn more about The Leader in Me here.

Mission Statement

In order to have a successful year, we wanted to start with the end in mind by creating a vision of what our ideal positive learning environment would look like. We began by brainstorming what each of us would need in order to be successful in school.  Then, we grouped our thinking into big ideas.  You can view our Padlet of this process here.  

Below is the mission statement we crafted for our homeroom.  I am excited to see where this year takes us.