The 7 Habits How To...

Hi there,

My name is Karle Hunter and I am a 5th year educator who is passionate about learning and leadership!

I am entering the world of Kindergarten this year and I have so many mixed feelings.
I'm excited yet nervous all at the same time! You'd think after teaching 1st Grade for a few years I would have it "under my belt" so to say.

Hmmm...not always the case when entering a new grade. It's like a new world really. :)

Not only am I in a new grade, but I'm at a new school with a new team, that has new rules and new expectations. :) While this is all a positive, it is a lot to digest!

So.....

Where do I start? An WHY am I starting ANOTHER blog??? ((I'll get to that at the end!)

Well, I have to start by saying how thankful I am to be teaching at Neil Armstrong Elementary this fall. It is a 7 Habits/Leadership Focused School that truly desires to help each child find his or her leadership skill and foster that to impact the world! Coming from an amazing school that was also following this model, I have to be honest and say it's quite a daunting task.

I've heard and seen so many amazing stories of student success both behaviorally and academically with the 7 Habits, and I believe whole heartedly that teaching these leadership skills is what our children need. I've seen it first hand child my little students lives, and it's powerful stuff!

I've read book after book and been to model school after model school and listened to speaker after speaker, yet as a teacher I have always felt like something was missing for me...like the puzzle was almost put together but I was missing the corner piece.


For the past 3 years, I have had the opportunity to try so many different approaches, systems, etc. in regards to the 7 Habits in my own classroom. Yet as I progressed in my teaching and knowledge of leadership, I still saw resistance and frustration in other teachers, and even within myself at times. Why?
Why would something so beneficial be so hard to do?

I finally came to the conclusion that the reason I felt like something was missing and the reason that I got frustrated along with others is that I did not understand the "how." 

How do I teach the Habits? 
How to I track data? 
How will classroom behavior plans change? 
What is a mission statement? 
What books do I use? 
What's a data notebook and what should be in it???
How do I connect the habits to academics? 
How long does it take for students to actually grasp it? 
What happens when students ignore the habits and revert to old ways? 
On, and on, and on....

HOW?????AHHh...


Listening and seeing the success that the 7 Habits have brought children across the world was so inspiring, and afterwards I wanted to change everything that I did with my students...and that's the problem. I'm sure that other educators have felt this too. We want to change the world and impact students...yet sometimes we try too much too soon or too little too slowly. We want to use the same ideas as others and copy what's working other places and hope it will work in ours. This can be a place to start, but I feel like there should be more.

So, the missing piece is the "how-to-book "in creating student leaders. This is what I feel my responsibility is as a 7 Habits supporter, educator and practitioner.

This year I will take you through the 180 day life of my classroom and will share the pretty and not so pretty life of creating little leaders! My hope is that through my daily classroom experience, teachers will feel comforted and supported in what they are doing. My hope is that teachers will feel confident in implementing the 7 Habits in a way that fits THEM and THEIR STUDENTS. Every classroom is different and what you may see on a video or in a model school may work for you, but it may not, and that's okay!

What my students and I will go through may not been a prescription for you, but it will be a tool that's real, honest, and hopefully mind stirring.

Leadership is all about finding our personal gifts and talents and using them for good, and so, here's my attempt at using my love of writing and leadership to impact the educational world for good.

Where will I start?
With Day 1 of course.
August 5th is coming soon....stay posted!

-Karle