@birdeye21 I think you may have shaped my writing. I now think about how to encapsulate my thoughts in one word haha

So my word for this question is: habits.

What do you know? I’m a teacher and today is the 3rd day of the new school year. I’m tasked to teach 7th graders who are new entrants into my school. So I have been trying to begin with the end in mind and start the new school year right.

I believe that before we can inculcate noteworthy qualities like resilience and adaptability in the young, we must teach them to build good habits first. To do that, we must be cognisant of their learning and developmental needs. So I teach at a low progress school, where many students learn to manage their difficulties like dyslexia and ADHD. Poor working memory and undeveloped emotional regulation are all in a day’s work for me.

In order to instill good habits, I must help them organise their minds and surroundings. So, I just learnt yesterday that some of them don’t remember their mobile number. I have already assigned the task of memorising their contact number as their homework. I expect to teach them how to chunk information into smaller bits so that they can concentrate their effort in acquiring information, bit by bit.

Moving forward, I hope to help them form good habits by sharing with them how I formulate SMART goals. For example, I plan to use my TRUST debit card on food and groceries five times this month so that I qualify for a higher interest rate. I believe that sharing my life authentically helps them to apply the concept of SMART goals themselves.