Classroom Habitudes: Week 1

One of my goals this summer is to do some serious reading.  I’ve a
*MASSIVE* stack of books on my nightstand, both for personal and
professional reading.  One book I’ve been wanting to read for a while is
“Classroom Habitudes”.  Last summer, I did a book study on “The Book Whisperer”.  If you’d like to read that book study, just click here.  When Linda suggested we do another study this year, I knew right away this was the book for us.

What are the Habitudes, you ask?  I could tell you, but I found this short clip of the author, Angela Maiers, explaining them, and I can’t do it better than her!

So, in the video she mentions 7 Habitudes.  If it was too quick for you, here they all are:

Each Habitude has its own chapter.  Since I’m looking at the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2, I’m going to talk about Imagination (Chapter 2) in a bit.

What struck me about this book was that it is full of QR codes.  If you haven’t played with QR codes, you need to download a scanner app and play with one immediately. They have so many uses in the classroom!  I just thought, “Wow, what a technologically advanced book I’m reading”.  It is really cool to scan the codes as I’m reading and head to her website for further examples or video clips.  I’m able to go a little deeper and it’s more interactive and engaging.   A very cool concept!

Chapter 1 is all about nurturing genius.  Angela says it is important learners who are told of and understand their unique abilities will become more confident and better able to handle themselves under stress.  If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, you know I’m working hard to develop a growth mindset culture in my classroom and this really speaks to my efforts.

Angela says you need to name the Habitudes with your students so they can have better meaning of them.  She’s got some great lessons to get this going.  Another pro to this book is all the teacher talk.  She lays it all out for you, so no guesswork is needed!  One activity I will be using next year is where she lists the Habitudes, and students need to explain what each one looks like, sounds like and feels like.  They then need to explain when would be a good time and a not so good time to use each Habitude in their learning journey.

Chapter 2 brings us to the first Habitude: Imagination.  She says that “imagination is our mind’s eye and gives us the capacity to jump from present facts to future possibilities.”  Again, she has awesome teacher talk and lesson plans to get your students thinking about imagination.

I’ll finish up this week with an imagination quote I really enjoyed and think will give a bit of real-life meaning to my students.

Head over to these lovely ladies and see what they thought of the first part of the book:

An InLinkz Link-up

Want to read more book study thoughts?

Week 2: Chapters 3, 4

Week 3: Chapters 5, 6

Week 4: Chapters 7, 8, 9

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