At the moment, we are currently reading a wonderful book called, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey. In the book, there are 7 chapters describing 7 habits that teens and preteens should have to be their best selves and succeed in life.
Using this book as inspiration, we have created our own 7 Habits that Indi-ED students have already started to establish to help us be successful. Below, we will describe examples of these habits from this past week of school.
Habit 1: Analyze.
We analyze pretty much every day at Indi-ED. For example, we have a ‘quote of the day’ that we analyze together every morning during our morning meetings. This is important because we get to mentally “warm-up” by sharing our opinions and discussing the meaning of the quote.
We also analyze The 7 Habits book and connect it to our lives. There are many stories and examples from real teens in the book that we can relate too. We can then break down the deeper meanings and messages from the stories. For example, for Habit 1 in the book (Be Proactive) we analyzed what it really means to behave proactively versus reactively. What it means, and what a difference it makes, to truly think through your actions and consequences before you respond to a given situation.
Habit 2: Reflect.
Just like analyzing, we reflect ALL the time. In our journals, we reflect at the beginning and end of each day on what we are grateful for, our focuses, and how we can challenge ourselves. After our big projects, presentations, and experiences, we reflect on what went well and how we can improve.
Most days, after each lesson, we reflect and grade ourselves on our effort and levels of understanding. We have been doing this a lot in math and reading especially this week, and we like it because it means we don’t have to wait a long time to get a grade back from our teacher. With Mrs. T, we are able to pause and really think about how well we did on each skill or task.
Habit 3: Trust each other.
There are many ways that Indi-ED students earned trust this week. We had our first photography class, and the instructors trusted us to share one camera and be responsible with their equipment. They trusted that we would treat the equipment and each other with respect. This allowed us to feel comfortable and we were able to fully enjoy the experience. It was very nice being trusted by professional instructors.
A few weeks ago, trust was the main focus of our first blog post of the year, and you can read it here.
Habit 4: Have (some) freedom.
This habit really goes hand in hand with the previous habit. In the photography class, the instructors gave our class freedom to use their professional cameras. We walked around the park taking photos for an hour. Because of this opportunity (and having their trust), this allowed us to explore and get comfortable with the cameras. At Indi-ED, we also have the freedom to choose our ways of our working during certain lessons. For some assignments or reading, we can choose the type of seat we would like to sit in or even if we want to lay on the floor! We also have the freedom to use our phones to listen to music at certain times, as long as we are not distracted.
Habit 5. Be unique individuals.
This habit is at the core of what Indi-ED is all about. We consistently reflect and write about how we happily do things differently and appreciate individuality.
This week, we began brainstorming, developing ideas, and researching for our individual inquiry projects. We are able to choose our own topics. Based on our own individual interests. And our own individual abilities. It is new to some of us to have this opportunity, and it feels great to be somewhere where being ‘different’ is celebrated.
Habit 6: Do meaningful work.
Everything we do at Indi-ED has a purpose. Multiple times this week, we discussed how at our previous school experiences, students would often be given assignments that were pointless. Tests whose results would never be discussed. Essays whose feedback would never be seen.
This is not the case here.
All of our work is meaningful and is used to help us improve and grow academically. Our work is also challenging and we know that it comes from curriculum that our teachers have created using the state and gifted standards. (See our previous post on gifted standards here.)
Habit 7: Have fun.
Last but not least, our final habit is simply about having fun.
If you have been following us for a while now, you must know that we have fun quite often. But, most of the time people don’t think about WHY it is so important that we are having fun while we are at school. Enjoying the process of learning helps us have a better chance of remembering concepts and experiences. We truly believe that it is important to enjoy life and learning equally. Having fun is built in to what we do at Indi-ED.