Wednesday - September 30, 2015 / Thursday - October 1, 2015

Habit #6 (that's right, we are almost finished) is SYNERGIZE.

Synergy is about celebrating differences, teamwork, open-mindedness, and finding new and better ways of doing things. Assess your openness on the table below. Be honest.

	SHUNNER	TOLERATOR	CELEBRATOR
Race
Gender
Religion
Age
Dress

Now, how can you become a "celebrator" in each category?

Monday - September 28, 2015 / Tuesday - September 29, 2015

Downloading music from YouTube or other sites.....is it legal? Find out.
Is it ethical? Opine.

Friday - September 25, 2015

Riddle Friday!

A man and his son were in a terrible car accident.  The man was pronounced dead at the scene, but the boy was rushed to a local  hospital for emergency surgery.  The surgeon arrived, took one look at the boy, and said, "I cannot operate on this patient.  He is my son!"  How is this possible?

Thursday - September 24, 2015

Copy and respond to the following quote:

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Mark Twain

1835-1910

Tuesday - September 22, 2015 / Wednesday - September 23, 2015

Habit #5 is SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD.

Before responding today, let me go over the five poor listening styles.

Then ask yourself, "Which of the five poor listening styles do I have the biggest problem with -

1-spacing out?
2-pretend listening?
3-selective listening?
4-word listening?
5-self-centered listening (judging, advising, probing)

Which one did you choose? Why do you think you do that?

Now try to go one day without doing it.

Monday - September 21, 2015

Habit #4 is THINK WIN-WIN

You are not doing it right if you engage in any of the following "think win-LOSE" behaviors:

1. Using others emotionally or physically for your own selfish purposes
2. Trying to get ahead at the expense of another
3. Spreading rumors about someone else
4. Insisting on getting your way without concerning yourself with the feelings of others
5. Becoming jealous and envious when something good happens to someone close to you

Choose one of the below steps to becoming more of a WIN-WIN type of person and explain why you chose that step:

1. Pinpoint an area of your life where you most struggle with comparisons. Perhaps it's with clothes, physical features, friends, or talents. Work to let it go. Realize we all have strengths. Appreciate and respect those strengths in others without comparing or competing!
2. If you play sports, show sportsmanship. Compliment someone from the opposing team and mean it.
3. Form a study group ahead of a challenging test and work together to bring everyone's grade up.
4. The next time someone close to you succeeds, be genuinely happy for them instead of feeling jealous or threatened.
5. Think of a person you think is a model of WIN-WIN. What is it about this person that you admire?

Friday - September 18, 2015

RIDDLE FRIDAY!!!

Draw four straight lines connected end to end.  In other words, you cannot not lift your pen or pencil.  You must cross through the middle of each dot.  If you've seen this before, DO NOT talk.  If you haven't, DO NOT GOOGLE. Use your brains and think outside the box!

Feel free to use scrap paper for this.  If you are feeling bold, try using drawing tools in Google Docs.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Wednesday - September 16, 2015 / Thursday - September 17 2015

Habit #4 is THINK WIN-WIN

You are not doing it right if you engage in any of the following "think win-LOSE" behaviors:

1. Using others emotionally or physically for your own selfish purposes
2. Trying to get ahead at the expense of another
3. Spreading rumors about someone else
4. Insisting on getting your way without concerning yourself with the feelings of others
5. Becoming jealous and envious when something good happens to someone close to you

Choose one of the below steps to becoming more of a WIN-WIN type of person and explain why you chose that step:

1. Pinpoint an area of your life where you most struggle with comparisons. Perhaps it's with clothes, physical features, friends, or talents. Work to let it go. Realize we all have strengths. Appreciate and respect those strengths in others without comparing or competing!
2. If you play sports, show sportsmanship. Compliment someone from the opposing team and mean it.
3. Form a study group ahead of a challenging test and work together to bring everyone's grade up.
4. The next time someone close to you succeeds, be genuinely happy for them instead of feeling jealous or threatened.
5. Think of a person you think is a model of WIN-WIN. What is it about this person that you admire?

Monday - September 14, 2015 / Tuesday - September 15, 2015

Copy and respond to the following quote:

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-1968)

Friday - September 11, 2015

Riddle Friday

Three birds are sitting on a wire. One decides to fly away. How many birds are left?

Thursday - September 10, 2015

Copy and respond to the following quote:

"Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain."

Mark Twain

Would this quote apply to any of the habits we've covered so far? Which one and why? As a bonus, what was Mark Twain's real name?

Tuesday - September 8, 2015 / Wednesday - September 9, 2015

Habit #3 is PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST.

This one is easily the hardest habit to live. It's all about prioritizing. Each week you have to decide which are the most important things for you to accomplish. Don't neglect any important area of your life (family, friends, academics, extra-curriculars, etc.). Plan to do the most important things in all of those areas. Once you knock those off, you can do some of the silly things we do to occupy ourselves.

Here are five of Covey's suggestions for you. Choose ONE of them. Copy and paste it into your bellringer document. Then explain why you chose that step.

Set a goal to use a planner for a month. Stick to your plan.

Identify your biggest time-waster (games, Netflix, social media?) Commit to cutting back.

Are you always being asked to volunteer, and you ALWAYS say yes? Next time, say no when it's the right thing to do.

Study a little each day for an upcoming test INSTEAD of waiting until the night before.

Think of something you've been needing to do for a long time, but have procrastinated. Get it done.

Friday - September 4, 2015

It's Riddle Friday...

NO GOOGLING ALLOWED!

Romeo and Juliet are found dead in a small puddle of water, surrounded by broken glass. The apartment building they are found in is located next to the city's main train station. How did they die?

Wednesday - September 2, 2015 / Thursday - September 3, 2015

In the movie Dead Poet's Society, the Robin Williams character used the phrase "carpe diem". Translate this Latin phrase. Then, say what it means to you.