The new year ushers in opportunities for new ways of being and doing; a time to re-establish new habits.  

I read “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg several years ago and this book has continued to provide materials for considerations in various aspects of my work.  

The book uses anecdotes and stories to explain and illustrate how habits are built and how they work in, and for, our lives. 

Habits begin with a trigger or cue that formulates into a set of routine.  The routine eventually leads a person to receive a reward.  

The author’s fundamental point is about our responsibility to change the bad habit when we recognize its existence.   It is about finding the pattern of the routine that leads to the bad habit and altering the pattern so that we can gain the reward that we desire. 

Everyday our students are surrounded by cues and routines.  

On the soccer field at recess time, we receive cues of ways to interact with others cohesively.  

We build routines to play together to defend the goal or we build routines to say mean words to other teammates when something goes wrong. 

On the internet, we receive cues to sustain playing because of the reward at the end of a game. 

In the cafeteria during mealtimes, we receive cues of ways to make healthy or unhealthy choices. 

Inside the classrooms, we receive cues to understand and comprehend the content material.  

We build routines to listen to the information and then to ask questions when we need help.  

We build routines to become better writers, reader and speakers of the English and Chinese languages.  

Overall, these experiences can provide rewards for successful collaborations in a project, and sometimes these experiences can lead to a less tangible or desirable reward than we had imagined.   

As educators, we concern ourselves with teaching our students about the “cues, routines and rewards” - how to recognize them and what to do with them.  

We are approaching another reporting period that marks the student’s learning journey.  Let us work together to harvest the student’s potential by helping them build powerful and effective habits in the months ahead. 

Mr. Yeung

Principal

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