Tony Wagner’s “Seven Survival Skills for Careers, College, and Citizenship”

Connections I can make between Tony Wagner’s “Seven Survival Skills for Careers, College, and Citizenship” and the Habits of Mind fall within the seven main ideas he shares for survival. Critical thinking and problem solving, working collaboratively, respecting differences, agility, adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurship, affective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, as well as curiosity and imagination are one in the same with the habits of minds we have been exposed to during our course. They all express the same basic perception, being effective thinkers, how and why. The two previous blog post helped me extend my thinking by allowing me to visualize various scenarios in which I would not only need to apply habits of mind, but also teach them to others. The very process of visualizing such scenarios forced me to put to practice concepts such as managing impulsivity, listening to others, thinking about my thinking, applying past knowledge to new situations, as well as creating, imagining, and innovating. All this occurred as I planned how I would accomplish a tasks, thought about what I had previously assumed the task would be and how I would accomplish it. Formulating my response based on experiences I have had as a teacher and figuring out how I could tweak them to improve their worth, and transforming potential outcomes also proved helpful in my career. Challenges I see in my practice lay in various aspects, both conceptual and actual. Conceptually, challenges arise in my practice when it comes to applying these newly found skills with the philosophies and the religious beliefs that guide our school. Finding a way to seamlessly combine and create learning experiences for my students that provide them with Reggio Emelia, religion, and habits of mind while attempting to not blur them with my personal beliefs is tough. In actuality, the main challenge my practice faces is time. It seems to be that there simply is not enough time to accomplish everything especially with how unpredictable life is.