HABITS & MINDSET
Students reference their teacher's guidance in organization, study habits, character traits, and values. They have internalized these traits beyond just talking about them which has led to personal growth on the part of the student.
Habits and Mindset instruction is focused on providing students with the skills and strategies needed to identify and combat any problem that comes their way. While most general education teachers implement lessons that are focused on students demonstrating what they know, Habits of Mindset lessons are implemented to help students analyze what to do and how to solve problems that they don't know. This is incredibly important in facilitating student growth towards becoming more critically thinking, well rounded individuals.
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Implementing lessons with this focus is an imperative practice in providing students with a holistic and truly transformational education. Due to the fact that I only have 180 days with each cohort of children, it is especially imperative that I utilize these lessons within my classroom as early and often as possible in order to impact the most positive change within my students. I implement Habits & Mindset lessons throughout the year, often taking advantage of lessons that come up organically in the classroom. However, there are two specific Habits of Mind that I find absolutely essential to have students define and practice in order to culminate them into successful and empathetic citizens of our community.
In conclusion, by providing my students with explicitly defined, modeled, and practiced examples of both metacognition and listening with understanding and empathy, I am preparing them to be successful, critically thinking, well organized members of society.
In providing students with multiple opportunities to grow not only in terms of their ability to demonstrate metacognition, but also in their confidence and investment in their own education, I ensured a deeper connection between each student and their own academic accountability. When students are able to plan for, reflect upon, and adjust their own actions within and concepts of the world around them, much like I do when I teach, they will see a substantial rate of growth - academically as well as personally and professionally.
In addition to exposing my students to empathy and understanding through my own actions, it was crucial for me to implement activities in which they practiced what this Habit of Mind looks like in the context of my classroom, school, and out in their community. In taking advantage of the many opportunities that I've provided for students to practice listening to others with understanding and empathy, my students have grown into more empathetic, kind, and positive individuals.