Synchronicity is an amazing thing.

This past summer, I became aware of the work Angela Maiers was doing through Twitter. I visited Angela’s  website and found a write up on her book – Classroom Habitudes. After reading the summery of the contents, I ordered an e-copy to read. Classroom Habitudes looks at learning by exploring the Habitudes — behaviours, habits and attitudes — that will ensure student success inside and outside classroom walls.  The Habitudes are:

• Imagination
• Curiosity
• Self-Awareness
• Perseverance
• Courage
• Adaptibility

I was extremely impressed by the book and ordered a number of copies to share with various staff members with the intent of stimulating some thinking about work we are doing with technology integration, new library resources and iPod in the classroom projects.

Recently, I read the book again and was thinking that these Habitudes also qualities that I want in my staff. At a recent leadership program I completed, one of the areas studied looked at the importance of knowing your staff well, relating to them on a personal level and knowing how to ‘stretch’ them a little in pursuit of learning and career goals. Stretching, or challenging them to think out of box as they investigate solutions to problems or look at process improvement in new ways, is a key ingredient in the growth process.

This week, I made a few notes about writing a blog post about the notion of these Habitudes in the workplace, a natural extension of student success outside the classroom walls and put things in the perspective of life long learning. Today, I sat down to do some blog reading and write this post. As a faithful reader of Doug Peterson’s blog Off the Record,  I started reading Doug’s blog first. I was amazed to see a link to a post titled Habitudes of Professional Learning Communities.  Talk about SYNCHRONICITY!

In today’s world and workplaces, rapid change and the need to adapt are givens. We are life long learners and 21st century learning applies to adults too. In my view, the Habitudes are just as important in the workplace as they are in the classroom. As leaders, it is important to find ways to continue to nurture these characteristics in our staff. It is great to see how many people are thinking about, setting and leading opportunities for  personal learning and growth plans and professional learning networks.

~ Mark