Week of May 25

This week is a shortened week due to Memorial Day. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week the students will finish their study of Habit #7, Sharpen the Saw. These 2 days we will focus on sharpening our heart first and then our soul. Some of you may be surprised to find a lovely surprise in the mail that your child created to practice sharpening their heart!

On Thursday I will review the 7 Habits material and then on Friday the students will take their final exam for this course. This exam is cumulative and will cover all of the 7 habits that we have studied this semester.

Week of May 18

We start this week off with our final story of the semester, The Last Great Snake.  The students always seems to really enjoy reading this story for it is filled with great mystery and intrigue.  At the beginning of the story, one man accuses another of a horrible crime, stealing a magic stone from the head of one of the last great snakes of the world.  Shunned by society and having lost his honor, the man accused is forced to leave his home and enter the wilderness. The students will be captivated by this story as they follow one man's journey to regain to his honor.

We will end this week continuing our study of Habit #7: Sharpen the Saw.  Whereas last week the students learned 4 ways to "sharpen their body," this week they will focus on what it takes to "sharpen their mind."

Week of May 11

What an eye-opening experience we had last week as the students worked in groups in an attempt to achieve synergy!  I have to say, for some groups synergy worked beautifully; for others, well, it was clearly not such an easy thing to achieve.  Nevertheless, the students each learned that in order to actually synergize each team member must work toward celebrating the differences of others, work together as a team, be open-minded and strive to create new and better ways of doing things.  To do all these things effectively takes both maturity and the courage to speak up when necessary.  

Most of the group work was completed on Friday and so on Monday this week we will take the time to discuss our group results and decide what went well and what we need to improve upon next time.  During the middle of the week, the students will hop into a new story, Gaston.  In this short story, the students will encounter a father and daughter who talk about a silly little creature who lives inside of a peach.  The reason for this dialogue between our two characters is to avoid deeper, more intimate issues that are difficult to discuss.  We will talk about how and why we sometimes find ourselves talking about things of little significance in order to avoid more difficult, important issues in life.

To end our week, the students will begin learning about our final habit, Habit #7: Sharpen the Saw.  In this habit of renewal, the students will learn the importance of taking the time to sharpen their body, brain, heart and soul in order to maintain balance and joy in life.  The students will enjoy some fun activities in each of these 4 main areas of life to help them understand the importance of this final habit.  

Week of May 4

We will start this week off by returning to Habit #6: Synergize!  So far the students have learned that synergy is achieved when 2 or more people work together to create a better solution than either one could alone.  It's not your way or my way but a better way, a higher way.  There are 4 things required for synergy to occur:  (1) celebrating others' differences, (2) teamwork, (3) open-mindedness, and (4) finding new and better ways (NOT compromising).  Sounds simple enough.  However, putting all 4 parts into practice can be quite a challenge!

Besides learning about this habit, the students will also explore a new story this week.  In "Chura & Marwe" the students will encounter 2 individuals who care deeply for each other even though their appearances are extremely different.  They are faced with great hardship in their lives.  As they read this story, the students will soon discover an exciting journey that each character takes which leads to an interesting conclusion.  To gain greater understanding of the story, the students will complete our usual process of inquiry for the remainder of the week.

Week of April 27

Continuing with our study of the story, Bad Characters, this week, I have decided to change things up a bit from our usual process of study.  This week the students have formed 6-person literacy circles in which each person takes on a different role in order to shed some new light on our story.  Within each literacy circle will be a Summarizer, a Vocabulary Enricher, a Quote Finder, a Connector, an Illustrator and a Discussion Director.  I have broken this story into parts and each literacy circle will focus in greater depth on a particular section of the text.  In this way, the students can learn from each other's different perspectives as each student either summarizes the main points of the story, shares new words from the story, picks out important quotes, makes connections to the real world, visualizes parts of the story or creates interpretive questions for all to discuss.

As we wrap up this week, we will be discussion our next important habit, Habit #6: Synergize!  In this habit, the students will learn about the importance of working with others to create something better than they could've created on their own.  No time to compromise... it's all about how to SYNERGIZE!

Week of April 20

This week the students will begin the week by demonstrating their understanding of Habit #5.  Working either alone or in a group, the students will give a performance (skit, rap, power point, etc.) demonstrating atleast one of the 5 poor listening habits and how to turn that bad habit into genuine listening.   This demonstration will wrap up Habit #5 for us.

For the remainder of the week, we will be focusing on a new story entitled, Bad Characters.  In this story, we read about two girls who become unlikely friends.  One of the girls tends to throw tantrums when things don't go her way.  She meets another girl who appears to be a "bad character" and yet who is able to entice the first girl into doing something that she would not ordinarily think to do.  We will spend the week going through our usual process of critical thinking in order to gain deeper insight into the meaning of this story.

Week of April 13

At the end of last week, the students utilized their critical thinking skills as they composed the answers to 5 thoughtful questions prompted by the story, The Mysteries of the Cabala.  These questions required the students to ponder about ideas such as whether life is mysterious and what is the most puzzling thing that they have encountered in life.  This week, they took their thoughts a step further by illustrating their thoughts to these questions and then focusing specifically on writing a response that meets all 6 of the requirements of an accurate written response.

The remainder of the week was spent covering the very important Habit #5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood.  In studying this habit, the students learned that the deepest need of the human heart is simply to be understood.  In order to be understood, we must first step outside of ourselves and try to "step into the shoes" of another person.  To do so requires good listening skills.  The students learned to recognize 5 poor listening habits that they often in their interactions with others.  Next, they learned about how they can begin the process of turning those bad habits into genuine listening.  To wrap up this habit, the students began working on a presentation in which they will demonstrate their understanding of this habit.