First of all, it is hard to believe that we are already introducing the SIXTH Habit, “Syngergize”, because there are only seven…where did all the time go!
When our school introduces a new Habit of Kindness, I take it upon myself to blog about the new Habit. (Last month was “Seek first to understand, then to be understood“.) Beginning with the fifth Habit, we have been enlisting our Middle School to prepare and present the new Habit at a monthly spirit day assembly. (You can stay on top of all our Community of Kindness activities by checking out its blog.) They have been very creative! Each month’s introduction has typically come with a song or dance that tries to explain the Habit in a catchy way that will stick. Here’s what they came up with for “Syngergize”:
I don’t have video so you will have to supply your own tune (hmmm…that could be a fun contest for the future), but I can assure you that it was appropriately catchy!
Here’s what it says from the “Leader in Me: 7 Habits for Kids” page:
Habit 6 — Synergize
Together Is Better
I value other people’s strengths and learn from them. I get along well with others, even people who are different than me. I work well in groups. I seek out other people’s ideas to solve problems because I know that by teaming with others we can create better solutions than anyone of us can alone. I am humble.
What I would like to do is take this line by line and offer a little midrash via hyperlink about why I think “synergize” has such great…ummm…synergy for a school like ours.
“I value other people’s strengths and learn from them.”
As we have documented our 21st century learning journey over the last four years, one thing that has consistently been borne true, has been that learning is no longer (if it ever was) about transferring knowledge from an adult to a child. One thing that I treasure about our school is the commitment our teachers have to lifelong learning and the willingness they have to learn not only from each other, but from their students.
“I get along well with others, even people who are different than me.”
Before we had chosen “Community of Kindness” as the initiative to ensure students feel welcome, protected, and loved within (and without) our walls, we had already made quite clear our desire to be an inclusive Jewish day school. Each student, of course, is different from every other student because each is unique. But we know that we – not just our school, but each of us – should be ultimately judged by how we treat “difference”.
“I work well in groups.”
One of the critical literacies for the 21st century is the ability to work well in “groups”. It is why we jumped early to adopt ideas from Alan November about the “digital learning farm” back in our earliest Skype-ortunities (thanks for the coinage Seth Carpenter!) we had students grouped to take ensure that everyone had a meaningful role to play and that students would have authentic opportunities to learn how to work together. It will be the rare job our students will grow up to perform, where working well with others will not be a key to success. It isn’t a skill you master in Kindergarten and then revisit in adulthood…it is an art form to be practiced daily so mastery ensues.
“I seek out other people’s ideas to solve problems because I know that by teaming with others we can create better solutions than anyone of us can alone.”
So unlike the above, which is ensuring that everyone on a team has unique role, here we really see collaboration in action; that by working with each other and learning from each other we will come up something better together than we could on our own. I cannot think of anything that reflects collaboration – between students, between students and teachers, and between schools and other organizations – better than our recently completed “Whack-A-Haman” project that reached its goal of 1,250 downloads ahead of Purim.
“I am humble.”
We teach our children that each is made in God’s image and that we ought to remember that when we interact with each other. Humility is critical to collaboration because it assumes an attitude that one does not know it all and that there is wisdom to be found in each and every one of us if we are only willing to look and to listen. One way we have embraced humility is in the transition from Parent-Teacher Conferences to Student-Led Conferences and from Teacher Observations to Teacher-Led Evaluations. In both cases we put the onus of responsibility on the learner to share growth rather than on the authority figure to ferret it out.
Next month we will finish up with “Sharpen the Saw”!
