As we go through life we all dream to be better. We want to be a better athlete, a better runner, a better singer, a better entrepreneur, and so on and so forth. The question is how do we go from square one to achieving our dream?
In James Clear’s New York Times’ bestseller book, Atomic Habits, Clear describes the methods in which to achieve our dreams. He explains how important it is not to set goals, but to set up systems.
Clear’s explanation in how we need to set up who we want to be and focus less on the goal will lead us to continuing into our success and not make it just a temporary thing. The main ways that Atomic Habits looks to set you up for success are:
- Looking for the slightest improvement, even if it’s only 1%
- Making new habits attractive, easy, and satisfying
- Priming your environment for success
Below is the man himself on how we can ditch our old habits and incorporate the ones we want
Now, is how we incorporate these methods into the classroom for the benefit of our students in science education.
One of the ways we can help our future students is by first priming the environment. We want to make it so that each student can see the where the material is displayed, say the the whiteboard for example, but we can take it further by maybe putting up displays around the whiteboard that brings focus to it. That if students’ minds start to wander they’ll be quickly pulled back.
Another way of priming the environment would be opening access to students who may be too embarrassed to bring up issues in class. We could do this by giving students contact to us through email. We could also put a box on our desk that allowed students to drop questions or issues into anonymously and then those issues could be resolved as a group.
Next would be how we help our students achieve their dreams and become better students. Following in Clear’s examples we’d have to look for all the 1% improvements that our students could take.
One could be to have students read from the book as they come in before the class has settled and the lesson’s begun. Second we could always challenge the students to read for fifteen minutes every night. Lastly would be to help them individually and set up a system for the student’s improvement.
As you’ve probably already guessed these transformations don’t just apply to our students. It is our responsibility as educators to use these methods to reform our lesson plans and teaching strategies to reach every student.
Hi Anthony,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree that priming your classroom environment is really important for setting up a comfortable learning environment and a lot of teachers may not consider this factor as significant as others. I like your idea about putting displays around the whiteboard and how well thought out it is. Do you have any specific ideas on how to go about setting up a system for each individual student’s improvement? Do you think you would have to meet with them once a week? Once a month?
Anthony, Thank you for sharing such an awesome blog! I really like how you started broad with your positioning and then narrowed it down. Your introduction question really gets your reader thinking! The three main ways Atomic Habits mentions that leads to success from your blog were: looking for the slightest improvement, even if it’s only 1%; making new habits attractive, easy, and satisfying; and priming your environment for success. I agree with all of these! I would even add that behavior change should be included. There were so many great suggestions throughout Atomic Habits that I struggled to fit it all in one blog! I really like your challenge for students to read for 15 minutes each night! Would you enforce this in your classroom or will it just be “highly suggested?”