In PLP we just finished a project on Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits book. Throughout this project, we read the book and did an assignment on each section of the book. We wouldn’t improve one ourselves by just reading his book so we also had to take action by completing assignments on each section. The 7 Habits is all about making yourself the most effective person you can be. To get the most out of this experience we had to ask ourselves “how can we be our most effective self?” In this project, we were being assessed on two competencies. Empowered Learner, with the question “How might I use technology to construct knowledge?” And creative learners asking “How might I use technology to create and communicate?”

My answer to these:

I used technology to research topics and look deeper to further understand each topic. This constructed my knowledge of the subjects that I was researching as well as constructing connections between my notes using the app Craft.

I used technology to create and communicate through many different tools and apps to create my assignments and communicate the message in each assignment.

The first part of the 7 Habits was called the setup. In this section, we learned about our paradigms and how they can shift depending on different factors. I found the paradigm’s particularity interesting so I decided to make my assignment focus on that. I made a 3 song playlist which represented my paradigm shift over time and how my music taste changed based on what I was exposed to at the time. My first song was from my mom’s playlist and it showed how I listened to that kind of music because my mom was always playing that kind of music. The next song is a hip/rap song which is the kind of music I listened to for most of my life because I was listening to that kind of music in the Hockey dressing room. Finally, I had one of my personal favourites right now which is more pop-like which shows how now I am finding my taste in music.

In the second section of 7 Habits, we learned about being proactive and not reactive, begin with the end in mind and putting first things first. This section was called the private victory. During this section, we made a personal mission statement table which had our role models sitting around a table with our personal mission statement around the table and our end in mind goal in the middle.

For the final assignment of this section, I decided to make a children’s story which incorporates the habits from the private victory. I made my story about Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh because he is always sad. The plot of my story is how Eeyore is sad and gloomy at first but then he starts using the habits from the private victory and becomes happy. With this assignment, I used technology to create and communicate a story that tells the story of the private victory’s habits in use.

Finally, there was the public victory which consisted of 4 habits synergize, think win-win, seek to understand then to be understood and finally sharpen the saw. For me, I thought synergize stood out the most because in PLP we work in groups a lot so this habit would be the most useful for me in school. Synergize talks about how putting two heads together is more efficient than one and if you use it properly you can combine everyone’s strengths to make a product better than what you could on your own. For the final assignment, I made a review of my favourite habits in this section. In my review, I summarize what each habit is and gave it a rating out of 5. I also explained why I gave each habit it’s rating.

 

Our final assignment was to make three pieces of work that represent the competencies and habits. We had to make a kinaesthetic, audio and visual creation for this assignment. My first idea was to show my workout routine that I use as my kinaesthetic piece. My routine is an example of how it sharpens the saw because working out and doing sports is how I refresh myself so I can come back at 100% and do better work. Without doing these activities my saw would get dull as time went on and I would not do as well, so taking time to do these things helps me more than if I just kept doing the same thing and getting worse as time goes on.

My second idea was for my visual creation. I decided to make a drawing using the app Sketches Pro I drew a kid working at a desk with a thought bubble above his head showing a paper with the grade-A on it. This represents the habit begin with an end in mind because the kid is thinking about how he is going to get an A on his assignment which shows how he is beginning with an end goal in mind. While creating this drawing I experimented with the use of different layers and different tools like the fill tool.

My last idea was to make a voice note for my audio creation. My voice note is me explaining what the habit synergizes, hows it’s helpful and how to tell when you are using the habit. I used the app GarageBand to make my voice note. I find that GarageBand is a very powerful app and is great for recording music podcasts and creating music. I used it because I want to get more familiar with how the app works and how I can elevate my other work using GarageBand.

Synergy voice note

Reading the 7 Habits and doing other assignments throughout the project deepened my understanding of how I can the 7 habits to my advantage. Overall I am happy that I got the opportunity to read the 7 habits and learn about how I can improve my habits. In the future, I plan to keep practicing these habits and improving myself each day even if it’s in small increments.