Hello readers and welcome to yet another maker blog post this year. This time, we are looking at a project that has been quite sneaky behind all of our other projects during our Maker classes. Throughout our maker class this year, we have been reading a book called “The 7 Habits” by Sean Covey. Some people chose the one for adults, some chose the one for teens, but both were centred on how we could be more effective physically, mentally, personally, and socially.
As I said, the book consists of 7 different habits that can help you be a more effective person.
The book is divided up into 4 different sections consisting of: The Setup, the private victory, the public victory, and the renewal. We were assigned with making a choice assessment board for each of these sections which were pieces of evidence of our learning throughout the section. In addition to that, we made similar pieces of learning but this time, we could use any habits from any section to show our learning. Ironically, my choice assessment activities and my final products used the same habits so you will get to see double the examples of how I can use my newly gained knowledge to my advantage.
The setup stage has no main habits but prepares you for the book itself. It gives you a basic understanding of what you’re about to read and things you should know going into it. One of the main topics we explored was our life paradigms and how we should structure them to be the pest person we can be. My choice assessment activity for this first one was a story about how a farmer shifted his paradigm. Although this showed my learning effectively, I wasn’t quite pleased with the story itself. Luckily, this was only the first one, and I was significantly happier with my others.
The Private victory is where it starts to get interesting. This section consists of the first 3 habits, be proactive, begin with the end in mind, and put first things first. This section, as the title suggests, is all about how you can improve yourself by changing your mindset for the better in all sorts of scenarios that life throws at you. In my first evidence of learning, I made a few sketches on how all of these habits could help me in my daily life. In my second example, I made a recording of how these habits can help you in your thinking process to make a great decision on a problem you face in your life.
The Public Victory is now more focused on the things outside your personal life, whether it’s with other people, objects, pets, etc. The 3 habits that we looked at for this section was: think win-win, seek first to understand then to be understood, and synergize. Again, these were more social aspects to make you more effective in conversations and relationships. For my assessment choice, I decided to try my luck with a story again, and try to make it a little bit better. I have to admit, my story skills are not the greatest but I felt that this one had a good message behind it.
Synergy choice assessment story
For my final product, I made a few workout exercises that can remind you of a few things to be more effective with others.
Now the last section, renewal, was basic but also is probably the most important one. Sharpening the saw was the one and only habit in this section but was quite broad. It was all about improving your entire body. For this section, my final product was a collage on all the ways I could “sharpen my saw”. Resting, sleeping, working out, stretching, and sports are some of the key aspects I highlighted in the collage.
I felt that making these assessment choice boards really allowed us to build and construct the knowledge we gained in the book by applying it to real life scenarios that could happen. Our iPads also helped by allowing us to create unique pieces of work and ones that would not be able to be created without that technology. Overall, I thought that this was a great project that they introduced as it focused more on ourself and helped us not only through learning facts but through discovering our best self. This will not only benefit us for most of our lives but also for our growth as a learner, a perfect example of a win-win scenario. I was doubtful at first about this book, but I’ve seen first hand some of the improvements I’ve made in all aspects of my life. I would highly recommend it to anyone because I’m sure at least some of it can help you for the better for your entire future.