Introduction+to+Habits+Lesson

Email to faculty sent August 15, 2012:

Well, I guess we accomplished our first and second objectives... ...I hope people found their homes yesterday and began to find the rhythm of the lunch period.

The next few days in advisory:
 * Thursday: Since Thursday is a normal "curriculum" day, there is a [[file:1.Aug.Introduction to Habits.pptx|PowerPoint]]/lesson plan included in this email.
 * Friday: Enrichment/study day.
 * Monday: We hope to roll out the iPads in advisory. We may try to use juniors as assistants with other advisories, so we may want to let new juniors get their iPads earlier that day.
 * Tuesday: Since the students will have iPads, we can publish the handbook. We will have a few lessons on discipline, academics, etc...

So for Thursday's lesson, we will be recycling our first lesson from last year. Advisors to freshmen can use the lesson as provided or use the suggestions for extensions I am including for advisors of sophomores and juniors (who will have seen this last year). The extension invites students to offer areas for reinforcement/refinement as a school community. Please pass any ideas along to me (or ask a student to shoot me an email). I will see that ideas are carried forward and incorporated into our strategic planning process.

The lesson plan is attached as a word file and an accompanying PowerPoint. If anyone needs help with projecting the PowerPoint, please let me know.

Thank you! Stephanie Ogden

**Lesson Plan (Attached to email):** ** Overview of our STEM Academy Habits (8/16) (PowerPoint slides attached) ** Objectives: To develop student understanding of the L&N STEM Academy Habits and motto and to introduce students to a planning process.

Slide 1: Review school motto. (About 5 minutes)
 * Practice pronunciation (note the hard //c// in Scientiam.)
 * Reveal Francis Bacon quote. Invite students to infer the meanings of at least two words in the Latin.
 * If time/interest: What does omni// scient //mean?

Slide 2: (About 5-7 minutes)
 * Individuals study diagram to decide which way the Innovation cog would be moving (Click to next bullet after ~1 minute). Question for students: What might they need to make this easier? [Note individual learning strategies here.]
 * Partners discuss their reasoning and results. (2-3 minutes).
 * Individuals decide whether the diagram will work as drawn and then discuss as a class (2-3 minutes), focusing on their reasoning.

Slide 3: (2 minutes) //Quickly// go over process. [They won’t care much, but covering the process will enhance the concluding reflection/discussion.]

Finally, ask students to recall as many of the exercises they did today in advisory as they can on the board and then to try to match each activity with one or more of the habits in the graphic. (10 minutes)


 * ** Exercise ** || ** Habit(s) ** ||
 * Practice pronunciations. ||  ||
 * Infer meanings in Francis Bacon quote. ||  ||
 * (Omniscient) ||  ||
 * // Innovation // cog ||  ||
 * Partners/class discuss ||  ||
 * Process ||  ||

This leaves a little time for attendance-taking and seeing how things are going.

Extension: Returning students will appreciate the iterative nature of designing and implementing our school culture. Consider shortening the above and moving to a reflective dialog on how we did last year as individuals and as a school community and on how we should begin the planning process to improve this year. Should we target a particular habit or habits for reinforcement/refinement?

Student Feedback: Advisories report that we need to reinforce: Advisories report that we need to refine: This may prove useful in our strategic planning.
 * professionalism
 * STEM class
 * work ethic
 * amount of homework
 * lunch schedule (on day 2)
 * grouping strategies (from a student who feels she has to do too much of the work)
 * Change "Design" to make it more reflective of our culture. The way the school was described before is different. However, we use it in STEM class. "Creative"?