Advisory Lesson

November 14th

Topic:  Examine habits 1 and 3 from the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, by Sean Covey.  

Objectives:

1. Students will learn how habits can have a positive or negative effect on their lives.

2. Students will learn two habits that can help them be more successful in school, sports, activities, work etc.

Activities:  Go over the following habits

1. Be Proactive – Being proactive means taking action ahead of time to prevent problems or conflicts AND/OR taking action to solve a problem quickly before it gets worse.

2. Put First Things First – Learning to prioritize which things should be done right away and which things can wait until later.

Notes:

What is a habit? –  Habits are things we do repeatedly.  We can have habits that have a positive effect on our lives, like getting eight hours of sleep a night or exercising regularly.  But we can also have habits that have a negative effect on our lives, like negative self-talk or procrastinating. Our habits can have a huge impact on our lives because our habits are what we repeatedly do every day.  If we have habits that are negatively impacting us, we have the power to change them and develop positive ones.

Habit #1: Be Proactive

Being proactive means thinking before you act.  You may not be able to control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to what happens to you.  Reactive people make choices on impulse; they are like a can of soda. If life shakes them up, once the pressure gets too great, they explode.  Proactive people take responsibility for things and work to make the best of any situation. Life might shake them up, but they decide to stay calm rather than explode.

Guess which statement is proactive and which is reactive:

*It’s not my fault I have a D in that class; the teacher wouldn’t let me retake a quiz I bombed.

*I went in after school to talk with my teacher about my grade to see what I could do to improve it.

*My coach benched me because I missed one practice.  I’m going to quit!

*My first period teacher is a stickler when it comes to phones.  I need to keep my phone in my backpack to avoid getting it taken away.

*My boss fired me because I have been late several times.  That is so unfair because I am one of the hardest working employees.

*I am flunking history, so I might as well skip and go home 8th period.

Ask students to turn the reactive statements into proactive ones.

Habit #3:  Put First Things First

Learn how to prioritize your life so that you are doing the most important things first.  When you go home from school, do you spend eight hours playing Xbox and then at midnight start doing your homework?  Do you procrastinate until the very last minute and then turn in work that is not your best effort?

Discuss the following scenario with students, or have them come up with their own situations to discuss:

*You have a big math test coming up, what things would you put first?

*You have an essay due in three days, how would you prioritize your time?

*You have soccer tryouts in two weeks, what things would you put first?

Have students brainstorm ways to organize and manage their time effectively so they can be successful.