Classroom Habitudes Book Study and Blog Hop

I have joined Linda, Aimee, Angela, and Diane for a book study and blog hop on the book Classroom Habitudes by Angela Maiers.

At our last faculty meeting in June, my principal gave each staff member a copy of the book.  She talked about how much she truly loved this book.  We talked about what to expect from it and took the Habitudes Self-Assessment.  She asked us all to read it this summer.  It came home with me and sat on my coffee table, untouched, for the next four weeks.  Then....I started reading it....and I can honestly say that I am hooked!  I cannot wait to finish!!!

Maiers starts out by discussing the Habitudes, what they are, and what they mean. A habitude is a combination of habits and attiudtes.  The seven habitudes are:

1. Imagination
2. Curiosity
3. Self-Awareness
4. Perseverance
5. Courage
6. Passion
7. Adaptability

She also discusses explicitly teaching the habitudes and ways students can demonstrate their understanding of themselves and the habitudes.  One suggestion was for students to keep a habitudes notebook that becomes their portfolio.  Right away my mind jumped to data binders.  My students could have a Habitudes section in their data binder!  If the purpose of the data binder is for students to showcase their growth and learning, wouldn't their growth in self-awareness and the habitudes also be great?

My fabulous teammate, Stephanie, has started a collaborative Pinterest board focusing on the habitudes.  Be sure to check it out.

Follow Stephanie's board Classroom Habitudes on Pinterest.

Chapter 1 is all about nurturing genius and how to teach the habitudes.  My favorite quote from this chapter is:

"Once you understand and believe you are capable of the extraordinary, you will not settle for the ordinary."

What an amazing take away!  We spend so much time trying to motivate students and push them to be the best they can be, but do we take the time to really help them see the genius inside them already?  We have so much to teach and so much we want to do.  Why is it even important to teach the habitudes?  Watch the short clip below to find out.

I love her framework for teaching the habitudes as well.  (I don't want to give away all the details, but basically her framework takes you step-by-step how to help students gain ownership of the habitudes.)  There are lessons to follow for each habitude.  She also includes QR codes throughout the book that take you to other resources, examples, and video clips.  The book is extremely user-friendly and her 3-step framework for teaching the habitudes is very classroom-friendly.  The steps for teaching a habitude are:

• One: Name It
• Two: Claim It
• Three: Sustain It

The second chapter is about imagination and creativity.  There are lesson plan ideas and I really like the activity where students imagine and store successful moments into their "success file".  I love that it gets students imagining and thinking about what they did when they were successful. 

Our self-image about our imagination and creativity usually decreases as we get older.  Awareness of using our imagination to help us achieve our goals is key to success.

Next week our study will continue with chapters 3 and 4.  Until then, please check out the other blogs in this blog hop.

An InLinkz Link-up