Reading of 7 habits by teachers – Checked
Physical environment exhibiting the habits clearly- Checked
Spoken environment reflecting the habits – Checked
7 habits for happy kids being read by the students – Checked
And so we moved to the next step –
Setting up goals and common reading as teachers of The Leader In Me (TLIM) by Sean Covey and others.
All of us had individually read the 7 habits of effective people in the summer vacation but the question of how do we implement this with students so young always loomed large upon us.
As I read The Leader In Me, a lot of my questions were answered but a program like this requires the entire team to be together. And that was not to happen till we all understood how other schools have done the same.
And hence we decided to take up chapter wise reading of TLIM. As a teacher group we read a chapter a week and every Thursday we got together to discuss the chapter. The discussions were full of nods and the energy of the environment was palpable. We had notes teachers had made out and so many instances were read aloud for all of us to relive them. Each instance moved us and made us believe in ourselves as teachers.
With each chapter, we were convinced as a team that this is possible. The questions we had at the beginning started to slowly give way to ideas and willingness to try.
Our journey of the shared reading continues now we are convinced that this is probably the only program in education that affects
all the stakeholders in a school – teachers, students and the parents
and all aspects of a stakeholder’s life. A fantastic training program on phonics does not cater to social, emotional and recognition needs of a teacher. Similarly, a one-off motivational talk to students keeps them inspired only for a while but then wanes off.
However, with TLIM practices in place, I am sure we can keep this alive and keep getting to better versions of ourselves.
11
October
