Tag Archives: Habits of Mind Body and Action

Star Habits, Wish Habits

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I couldn’t wish for more than what’s happening with our Habits.

We’re starting our third year since the official launch of our Habits of Mind, Body and Action. Anything new needs time to settle, time for all to adjust (or in KCS terms, time to exercise one’s flexible thinking), plus time for glitches to surface and tweaks to be made to make what’s new into a perfect fit.

Lots of such activity took place over the past two years while the Habits were still relatively new. This August, when teachers were asked about how they plan to integrate the Habits in their program for the upcoming year, it was eye-poppingly evident that the adjustment is behind us and we’re now going full speed ahead with our efforts to directly teach the habits that matter most for success in life. Collectively, faculty shared over one hundred ideas they have to teach and leverage the Habits in their classes. Here is a sample:

  • Leader of the Day with a special role to help the class
  • Class mission statements to support growth of the Habits
  • Student-made posters of the Habits
  • Student goal-setting on the Habits
  • Reference to the Habits in school assignments
  • Discussion of the Habits in class meetings and novel studies
  • Students teaching the Habits to other students
  • Students teaching the Habits to their parents and grandparents
  • Connecting the Habits with the study of heroes and leaders

One idea that is particularly out of this world came from grade 4. The students are identifying ‘Star Habits’ and ‘Wish Habits’. A ‘Star Habit’ is a habit they feel they have already established and of which they are proud. A ‘Wish Habit’ is a habit they want to focus on developing in first term. The students looked over all 26 Habits, reflected deeply, made their choices, and explained them in the context of home and school. Star Habit, Wish Habit as their ‘Star’ and ‘Wish’ Habits.

Like the spirit behind our Habits initiative, the students have wishes with a plan. And in the same way that our wishes to teach the Habits are coming true, I’ve no doubt our students’ ‘Wish Habits’ will also come true. What are your ‘Star’ and ‘Wish’ Habits? And what’s your plan to make your wishes come true? If you need some help, feel free to ask one of our grade fours.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

You can follow Andrea on Twitter @afanjoy.

The Yin and Yang of Learning

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There’s nothing like our grade two International Celebration to remind me of the Yin and Yang of learning.

Last Friday, our grade twos showed up in costumes from around the world. In their grade-two way, they did a brilliant job at assembly and then back in their classrooms sharing what they knew about their adopted countries.

What I love about this is the way these projects immerse students in how different life can be elsewhere. Some people argue we should focus on our similarities with others, and of course there are many. However, I’m most grateful for our differences, because it’s our differences which make us reflect anew on ourselves.

When I lived in Japan, not a single day went by when I didn’t learn something new, something that made me pause and adjust my understanding of the world and what was possible in it. Among all those lessons was that of Yin and Yang, and the notion that life is full of complementary opposites – it always was, is, shall be and should be – just like night and day.

This flies in the face of the primal Western mindset – the conviction that all can and should be great, that happiness should be a singular goal, and that frustration, setbacks, and grief are bad and to be avoided.

Heavy stuff from a grade two showcase.

Taking place one week before the end of school, I can’t help but reflect on the year. We wholeheartedly strive to maximize the Yang (light) part of the duality. Learning should have many successes. It should have moments of unbridled joy. There are so many such moments at KCS that a book couldn’t capture them all, let alone a blog.

It’s also important to remember the presence and the role of the Yin (dark).The year has also had frustrations, tears, injuries, and conflicts. There have been disagreements, hurt feelings, difficult discussions, and problems that lingered longer than anyone wanted. We work hard to minimize them, yet they happen anyway.

Life happens in complementary opposites, and life happens at KCS. Learning to be resilient is one of our KCS Habits because being resilient is necessary to get through the bumps inherent in a life fully lived.

We’ll keep working to make as much happiness as possible at KCS. And we’ll keep working to help our students face any setbacks. Knowing what matters in life includes both.

Thanks for the reminder, grade twos. And thanks to everyone, teachers, parents and students, who live through the Yin and Yang with us. It has been a great year of learning.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

You can follow Andrea on Twitter @afanjoy.

Leader or Sidekick – What Kind of Thinker Are You?

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“A man is what he thinks all day long.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

When was the last time you thought about who you are?

I don’t mean the self-affirming thinking that most of us fall prey to on occasion – you know, the kind where we tell ourselves how right and good we are relative to those maniacs on the road, or the grumpy, nonsensical others who enter our consciousness.

I mean the kind of thinking that a scientist would bring to a petri dish.

Thinking is at the heart of who we are. It’s at the heart of everything we do. Even our habits, the ones so hidden in our basal ganglia that they happen without apparent thought at all, are rooted within it.

With this in mind, shouldn’t we all take time to think about our thinking?

We believe so, which is why Think About Your Thinking is a KCS Habit. Reflection and goal-setting begin in grade one. They happen in all subjects, formally and informally, and include everything from our Super Seven learning skills, subject-based skills, extra-curricular involvement to the KCS Habits of Mind, Body and Action.

The grade 6 students, all of whom are participating in our electives pilot, have been thinking about their thinking lately. Each elective is built to develop 4-8 Habits. The Habits were explained, and then students were asked to look for evidence of each Habit, and identify whether they think they are growing or not in each. As an exercise, it is simple in design, but not so simple in execution.

Try it.

In your life, how are you doing on the following:

  • Thinking flexibly?
  • Thinking creatively?
  • Acting with empathy?
  • Showing self-control?
  • Persisting?
  • Listening to understand?
  • The other KCS Habits?

We are what we think. Honest self-reflections are just the first step in the job of being a disciplined, successful thinker. Having said that, thinking about our thinking is where it all begins.   We can take charge of our thoughts, or be their sidekick. At KCS, we’ve no doubt what we think is the best route.

What do you think?

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

Do What Is Right

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“Happiness varies more with the quality of
human relationships than with income.”
– World Happiness Report, presented at the United Nations Conference on Happiness

Call us old-fashioned. For all the impassioned talk about ‘21st century skills’ and life-changing advances in technology, manners remain at the core of what makes the world go around.

Our grade fives went on a field trip the other day. At KCS we directly teach, practice, review and remind students of behavior that is right. Before leaving to get on the TTC, the grade five teachers did so.

Here is Mr. Sawyer’s account of what followed: “…the thing that stands out most in my mind was the excellent manners that the students displayed on the subway…I felt so proud watching students in our class get up and offer their seats to elderly passengers or to women with small children.  I also saw two occasions where a boy from our class offered their seat to a lady.  All of this was done without me saying a word…I had many people comment to be about the excellent manners of our students.  I agree!!!!!!!”

Positive relationships with others, nourished through the use of manners, have always mattered. Encouragingly, in a world that has sometimes forgotten the importance of this, it is starting to get the public attention it deserves.

Offering your seat, holding the door open for others, welcoming visitors to the school, and greeting others each day are but a few of the ways in which ‘doing what is right’ is practised at KCS. Practice makes perfect.

Grade fives, that was perfect.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
Kingsway College School

Act with Empathy

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One of our grade one classes had a big talk last week about the habit ‘Act with Empathy’. A classmate was away that day having teeth extracted, so they all thought about what they could say to express their empathy and make him feel better.  Here is what they came up with:

  • I feel bad for you.
  • I hope you feel better soon.
  • I hope your mouth doesn’t hurt.
  • I hope you come back to school tomorrow.
  • I miss you.
  • How did it feel?
  • I’m really sorry for you.
  • I hope you can come back to school tomorrow.
  • I hope you get better soon.
  • I hope your teeth get better soon.
  • I hope you get used to it.
  • I hope your teeth grow in soon.
  • I hope you could get a good rest in your bed today.
  • I hope you can have some fun tomorrow.
  • I hope you lie down in your bed so you have energy for tomorrow.
  • I hope you can go to school tomorrow and you can eat apples, your favourite.
  • You can cut up your apple.

Empathy matters, so we teach it at KCS. ‘Sharing What We Know’ also matters, so we do that too. If someone in your life could use a little empathy and you’re wondering what to say, revisit this post. The grade ones know what to do.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

More than Spring has Sprung at KCS

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Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.
~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

The warm sunshine, return of the robins, dancing daffodils and burgeoning tree buds weren’t the only new arrivals to recently grace our community. Though the emphatic entrance of spring was deeply appreciated, something else has awoken that even topped the weather for its sheer delight.

After years in our thoughts, dormant but developing, KCS is now proud to offer electives, electives with some significant twists, twists that had many of the grade 6 students, who get first crack at this opportunity, beside themselves with excitement.

A general introduction to electives was in last week’s parent e-newsletter Stay Connected. They’re designed for students to just learn for the love of it, learn by choice, not for marks, nor because the Ministry of Education says you must. It’s a time to develop the Habits of Mind, Body and Action that indisputably set us up to be successful. And it’s a time to offer an unlimited array of meaningful learning. If teachers and students can dream it, they now have time to do it. Directly connected to our school mission of developing lifelong learners, it’s designed to stoke the flames that fuel lifelong learning.

Judging from my small group of third-language learners, it’s working.

Students in grade 6 were given eight electives to choose from. Based on their choices, the forty-two students are now in one of six electives for 100 minutes each week of third term. One group is learning to cook from Chef Cirillo of Cirillo’s Culinary Academy. The result of their labours this past week was a mouth-watering chicken cacciatore dish that went directly to a youth shelter. Another group is engaged in geocaching. Enriched technology, art and drama are also taking place. And my group has each student learning the foreign language of their choice. Concurrently, (and thanks the significant help of Rosetta Stone language learning software), the students are learning the following languages: Mandarin, Japanese, Italian, Spanish and Filipino. Just because they want to.

Some of you may have read Sir Ken Robinson’s book The Element: How finding your passion changes everything. He’s right, of course. The bulk of his book exposes the far too common disconnect between the regular school day and finding one’s passion, as if passion only has relevance in extra-curricular pursuits. Not here.

One of my students announced he was going to try to learn enough Mandarin to use it exclusively with the flight attendant on an upcoming family trip (hmm, not sure how that will go but keen to know!) To achieve his goal he has asked if he can use the software at home and if there are apps he can download on his iPad.

Lifelong learner, check.