Developing strong habits and mindsets is one way to encourage students to be persistent learners who can approach problems from a variety of angles. Part of my job as a teacher is to guide my students so they can learn these traits and values in a way that results in their personal and academic growth.
On this page, I will detail how I incorporate three of Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick's "Habits of Mind" in order to help my kindergarten students develop effective "patterns of intellectual behavior" (Costa & Kallick, 2000). These habits are learned through teacher modeling, continual repetition, and direct instruction.
In this section, I explain how using all of their senses to understand content, as well as the world around them, encourages my students to be thoughtful and creative when trying to experience and understand new things. This includes using different art forms and developing their observation skills.
In this section, I discuss a lesson that I use to teach empathy, as well as daily actions my class demonstrates which show that they care about each others' thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
In this section, I detail how I create a class culture using shared humor that helps students feel loved and appreciated, as well as invested and engaged in the class. I do this through direct instruction, funny daily routines, and a variety of quick, relationship-building activities.
There are many different habits and mindsets which I work to instill in my students to encourage them to engage deeply with content and to help create a fun, happy, and safe environment. After internalizing these skills, my students demonstrate personal growth by succeeding with their learning and feeling excited to be at school each day.
References
Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2000). Describing 16 Habits of Mind. Retrieved from http://www.habitsofmind.org/sites/default/files/16HOM2.pdf