It Starts With Me, Not You

Our ultimate goal is for students to be their own problem-solver and advocate. Yet we can probably all relate to coming in from recess duty to a crowd of students telling you all of the problems that happened on the playground. Join Molly, Dr. Eve, and guest Ben Day, former Principal at Mitchell Elementary, as they explore the power of teaching the Paradigm of Change to the littlest leaders.

Transcript

12.19.23 Early Learning  - It Starts With Me, Not You

Molly: [00:00:00] From Leader in Me Studios, I'm Molly Garcia. This is The Empowering Teacher for Early Learning. 

Molly: Have you ever found yourself coming in from recess to a crowd of students telling you all the problems that happened on the playground? It's a tale we can all probably relate to, knowing that our ultimate goal is for our students to be their own problem solver and advocate.

Molly: The Paradigm of Change is a mindset we choose that keeps us from blaming others and staying away from looking outside of ourselves for the solution. We gain clarity around the things that matter most by first looking at ourselves. 

Molly: Today on our episode, I'm connecting with Ben Day, Principal at a K–2 early-learning campus in Nevada, to dig a little deeper into the power of this mindset. 

Molly: And to set us up for our conversation, I'm here with Dr. Eve Miller, FranklinCovey's Director of Research. So Eve, what research can we lean into when considering the power of this paradigm for our early learners?

Eve: Hi Molly. Yes. So the Paradigm of Change is [00:01:00] closely related to a term from developmental psychology called “locus of control.” Locus of control is like our internal compass that tells us the level of control we have over the things that happen in our lives. 

Eve: And there are two main types of this locus of control, internal and external. And with an internal locus of control, we tend to believe that we have a lot of control over what happens to us. We think that our actions, decisions, and efforts can directly impact our life. While with an external locus of control, we might believe that most things that happen to us are due to luck, fate, or other people. And while both are important and play a role in our life, it is critical to long term success that we help students develop their own internal locus of control.

Molly: Okay, so how do we build this internal locus of control for our early learners?

Eve: Between the ages of three and [00:02:00] six, it is developmentally appropriate for children to have an external locus of control. They are still learning basic cause and effect, and so have quite a bit of that magical thinking, which is so wonderful.

Molly: Mm hmm. Mm.

Eve: And it's helping them to learn about the world as they're slowly shaping it.

Eve: And so while this is true, that this is where they're at during this age period, there are still foundational skills they can learn that will help them more rapidly develop an internal locus of control.

Molly: Oh gosh. So let's hear a few of those.

Eve: Okay. So I was thinking about it and there are three really great approaches that with some intentionality can help build students' internal locus of control without changing much in what you're already doing.

Eve: So decision-making, problem-solving, and reflection.

Molly: Mm hmm.

Eve: So let's look at the most basic decision-making. So providing early learners with meaningful opportunities to select between two or three [00:03:00] activities or materials, as long as these things are meaningful to them, I want to emphasize that. And this may seem simple, but what they learn through these small choices is how their decisions have an impact and that they are capable of making those decisions, 

Eve: Right? 

Molly: Yeah.

Eve: So, for problem-solving, by asking open-ended questions where there's no right or wrong answers, like what can you do with a, you know, you can use something that's already in the classroom they're familiar with or how many ways can you, it also encourages that creative thinking and then you have each student come up with an answer.

Eve: But if they seem to be struggling with this, or as you're introducing this way of thinking and problem-solving, this is also a great way to introduce a reflection by modeling it. So you can model the way you think through that open-ended question before you turn them loose with a new question.

Molly: These are things we're already doing in the classroom. This is the [00:04:00] exciting part. And these skills and deeper understanding about the Paradigm of Change will certainly help the types of maps that we give them. Eve, thank you so much. I'm excited to jump into conversation with our guest around practical ways to bring this research to life.

Molly: Ben, welcome to The Empowering Teacher Podcast for early learning.

Ben: Yeah, thanks for having me, Molly. You know I'm a fan of the podcast, so I'm happy to be here. 

Molly: And we're a fan of you! We are so excited that you're with us today, and we are looking forward to our conversation around the Paradigm of Change.

Molly: So, let's just jump right into it. why is it important for us to teach the paradigm of change to students?

Ben: Well, the Paradigm of Change is honestly one that impacted me when I first learned about these paradigms greatly. And it's important that kids know it too, because, there's such a tie to that first habit.

Ben: And especially in these days, there is a lot coming at them. There's a lot in their environment. But what if they can't embrace this idea that change [00:05:00] starts with me, that there are certainly things outside of my Circle of Influence, but there are many things within it.

Ben: Imagine if every student can embrace this idea, right? That there are things that they can control even as a 5-year-old child and a 6-year-old child and a 7-year-old child. And if they can realize that, “Wait, there are things I can change. Not everything in my life is perfect, but there are things that I can make better,” and, I mean, if you do that, talk about developing every child into a leader.

Molly: Yeah, it's important. Yeah, and that's empowering. Just hearing you say that, knowing that I have control of something to make decisions, it has a sense of empowerment for our students for sure. So where do you think early-learning educators might hesitate when it comes to teaching this paradigm to students? 

Ben: I think the only hesitation could be sometimes we're afraid that they're too young to, to understand. But what I found is that they're not too young really to understand any of this. When we started Leader in Me at my school [00:06:00] over a decade ago, we would go to other schools and we would have students share their Leadership Notebooks and take us on school tours, and almost always, it was the oldest kids in the school, 5th graders, 6th graders, which, yeah, sure, I would do the same thing if I was them, but my school's K–2, so immediately we began to think, well, how is this going to work at Mitchell Elementary School because our students are so young?

Ben: And what we determined is, we're just going to try it, and what I found over the years is that the only limitations students will have in embracing any of this will probably be the limitations we put on them, but if we remove all limitations, it'll just be amazing what they can do. Students can absolutely understand the idea that I can take responsibility for my own life. They can absolutely understand the idea that as a student, I have primary responsibility actually for achieving my goals. Really, I think the only barriers are those that we frankly imagine in our minds that we think that they won't be able to [00:07:00] do it because they're so young.

Ben: But they can and they will.

Molly: It's a direct impact of our own paradigms that impact our students. So when we say, yes, they can, they then believe, yes, I can. 

Molly: So let's talk more practical. So what are some strategies that we could actually use to teach this paradigm to students? And really what does that look like on a daily basis? 

Ben: Sure. I went down to a classroom yesterday morning because we had a student who is typically a pretty positive kid had been sitting in class apparently for an hour. Just kind of looking down in the dumps just sitting there like a statue. So I pulled him out of class. I brought him into my office and I pulled out a piece of paper and we drew the Circle of Influence, a Circle of Concern and said, “Hey, are you familiar with this idea?” 

Ben: Like, no, I don't think I know what this is. This is like a bullseye mystery. I'm like, well, it looks like a bullseye, but let me tell you what this actually is. And turned out his mom had yelled at him that morning and I said, that's in your Circle of Concern. you know, your mom had a choice to make. [00:08:00] She yelled at you. But let's look at what you can do. What are, what are the things you can do? He's like, well, I'm sitting here and doing nothing. I'm like, yeah, how's that been going for you today?

Ben: So we taught him that idea of Circle of Influence, what are the things you can do to make this day better? Even though someone else's choices kind of got you a little bit down today and uh, bottom line is he finished the day and had a great day And those of us trained in the 7 Habits, you know, understand that concept to teach that to kids. They're not too young to understand. 

Molly: Ben, are there strategies that you've seen teachers use that, you know, our teachers are so creative and we know where they find these places to naturally teach this paradigm.

Molly: What are some other strategies that you have seen teachers use? 

Ben: So, I mean, a lot of those strategies around proactive behavior. You can always pause and choose your own response. Little kids can understand this. Uh, and then also, the use of Leadership Portfolios. so if there's a particular behavior, for example, that a student, Is working to improve on or that we're helping to improve [00:09:00] them on.

Ben: I think the power of those Leadership Portfolios can never be understated because a student can track, I mean, really anything that they're trying to improve on. And we have a lot of pages in our Leadership Portfolios that are standard across the school. But then there are many that are customized to the child.

Ben: And when they can track their own progress toward how they're doing a particular behavior, they can begin to see, whoa, the things I do can actually help me improve, whether it's an academic goal, a behavioral goal or some other goal that they're just trying to improve in. 

Molly: That's a great reminder that this isn't something extra. We're not saying to teach the Paradigm of Change it has to be this additional strategy to, take the things we're already doing: we're already teaching habit number one. We're teaching pause and respond. We're teaching Circle of Influence and our Portfolios. Goodness gracious, are we using those on a daily basis?

Molly: And now it's just another tool to be able to show, look, this is something that you're influencing and you're impacting. Thank you for that, for just bringing that to light, Ben, to remind us of this isn't [00:10:00] something extra. It's what we're already doing. Okay, so what are some of those just benefits that we know that teachers gain when they are intentional about teaching this paradigm to students?

Ben: When you empower your students, you have everything. So, you know, any teacher is going to have a better managed classroom if every child is empowered to be a leader in their own room.

Ben: I think the other thing that teachers will find, uh, cause I've certainly found this in my own, um, work as principal, is something amazing happens when we teach children these paradigms and these practices that we know will help them be more effective. Whether consciously or unconsciously, guess who else starts to embrace those paradigms even more?

Ben: We ourselves do. And when we do that, there is magic there. I think that is maybe the greatest benefit that comes with teaching any of these practices that we don't even realize happen sometimes. 

Molly: Yeah. that's a statement I'm going to tell you, Ben, I wrote down, when you empower your students, you have everything. That is such a great way to just [00:11:00] really bring back to the power of our paradigms and the power of modeling when we live those ourselves.

Molly: Thank you for that, Ben. Thank you for jumping in a conversation with us around the paradigm of change and the impact it has on our little learners in the classroom. And of course, a big thank you to our listeners. Keep shining. You've got this.