Resolve to Follow the 7 Habits in 2014

Happy New Year! As many of us reflect on our lives at this time of year and make some New Year's resolutions, why not resolve to make the 7 Habits a part of your daily life! A great place to begin is to create a family mission statement. By establishing who you are as a family, what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to do it, you Begin With the End in Mind. Sit together with your family and chat about the purpose of your family. Here are some suggested things to discuss:

• What are your family's highest priority goals?
• What are your unique talents, gifts, and abilities?
• What makes your family the happiest?
• What kind of home do we want to invite friends to?
• What makes you feel comfortable at your home?
• What makes each of you want to come home?

After your family discussion, work together to write a family mission statement that is meaningful to all of you and can be easily memorized. Be sure to consider all four areas: body, brain, heart, and soul. It should be something that is timeless and can be understood by even the youngest family members. Once it is finalized, post it in a visible area of your house as a daily reminder to all members of your family and to all who enter your home. As parents, be sure to model living the mission statement. By writing a family mission statement and living it, the message to your children is that your family is important; you know who you are, what you want to accomplish, and how you are going to do it.

Use the attached worksheet to get started!

Our future posts will take a more in depth look at each habit, so that you and your family can work on living the habits each day. Happy New Year!

Leadership Notebooks

Creating leaders at Cooper is an exciting process! One tool that we are using to help our students take charge of their learning is called a Leadership Notebook. This is a three-ring binder that each fifth and sixth grader owns, which contains data that they track about themselves.

The pages in these binders are created by teachers and are tailored to fit the needs of each child, but each student sets their own specific academic and personal goals. They then track their own progress. The content of the Leadership Notebooks evolves and changes throughout the year as students reach their goals and set new ones. Overall, it is an excellent tool that helps them take charge of their life!

 

Second Annual Walk-a-Thon

Thankfully the rain held off and the walk-a-thon itself was truly a celebration as the students came to school dressed in the colors of their favorite team (U of M or MSU) and enjoyed walking with their friends. We were also honored to have members of the Franklin marching band, cheerleaders and ROTC with us to help us celebrate! Many of these students were former Cooper students and they did a fabulous job! At the conclusion of the walk, all of the classes gathered on the blacktop to be congratulated on all of their hard work. The winning team (U of M) was announced by having the Franklin band play their fight song. Lastly, raffle tickets were drawn to determine who won the fabulous prizes.

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make our second annual walk-a-thon a huge success! Thanks to you, we not only met our goal, we exceeded it! This will help tremendously as we plan to use it to support the leadership culture here at Cooper.

Bully Prevention

The Leader in Me process helps build a culture where everyone is respected and feels valued. Sean Covey from FranklinCovey has written an article called Bully Prevention that explains how building strong leaders helps prevent bullying in our schools.

Only by working together can we make this happen.

Living the 7 Habits

Living the 7 Habits is a journey, but it is a life changing journey! We are working hard each day to live the habits at Cooper, and it is our hope that leadership and the 7 Habits becomes a daily part of our students' lives at home as well. A quick glimpse of the 7 Habits is listed below. 

1. Be Proactive ~ Habit of Choice ~ I am the product of my choices.
2. Begin With the End in Mind ~ Habit of Vision ~ I live by design.
3. Put First Things First ~ Habit of Integrity & Execution ~ I put important things first.
4. Think Win-Win ~ Habit of Mutual Benefit/Respect ~ There is plenty out there for everyone and more to spare.
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood ~ Habit of Mutual Understanding ~ I listen with the intent to understand.
6. Synergize ~ Habit of Creative Cooperation ~ Together we can create a better way, a higher way.
7. Sharpen the Saw ~ Habit of Renewal ~ I nurture the goose that lays the golden eggs.

If you'd like to read more about how your family can incorporate the 7 Habits into their daily lives, we recommend the book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey.

Welcome Back!

A new school year is filled with fresh beginnings, we look forward to leading and learning with you!

What is Leadership?

Cooper students were asked what leadership means to them, and this video was created to share their responses.