occur naturally the students and parents are aware of them on a
conscious level.
After we’ve been in school for a few months and have gotten
to know each other better, I introduce my students formally to
the Habits of Mind. We talk about what they mean, and then we
decide which ones we should work on as a class.
Invariably, someone asks why we don’t work on all the habits.
This comment leads to a discussion about goals and biting off
more than we can chew. We agree to post all Habits of Mind that
we could identify when someone used one, but that we would
focus on six by having each table select one. I chose Meta-
cognition because that rarely gets chosen and I think it is
an important habit to foster. We also decided not to choose hab-
its that we felt we were already pretty good at, such as Sense of
Humor.
The Habits of Mind selected this year include: Decreasing
Impulsivity, Persistence, Flexibility in Thinking, Risk Taking,
Metacognition, and Transference. Each group then develops a
definition that we can all understand—“in kids’ language”—
designs a symbol, and identifies an example and puts it on a
poster. The posters are hung around the room and buttons are
made with the symbols on them. When someone recognizes a
child using the behavior, he or she gets a button for the person
who used the behavior and one for himself or herself for identify-
ing it. The excitement is incredible for the first few weeks, and
the kids sometimes purposefully do or say something to get recog-
nized. However, after the novelty wears off, the process becomes
much more natural and less intrusive. It’s phenomenal to hear a
child from another class ask his peer why she got the button and
to hear the explanation: “I used flexibility in my thinking today
when I solved a problem in more than one way.” The child gets
recognized for her thinking again outside of the classroom.
It is important for kids to know why we teach what we do
and where they will need this later in life. Therefore, each child286 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind