How to Build a Culture of Achievement in 20 Hours

In this post I want to share a planning and reflection tool I just made. I hope you can find some use for it.

When I try something new I look for small changes that will have the biggest impact if practiced faithfully. (Is that idea from Steve Covey?) Recently, I’ve been learning how to create a classroom environment built on relationships, and things are going very well. Serendipitously, I’ve come across two related resources that are helping me reflect and plan the next steps.

In his Ted Talk, The first 20 hours — how to learn anything, Josh Kaufman lists the four steps to go from “grossly incompetent” to “reasonable good” at something in 20 hours:

• Break things down
• Learn to self-correct
• Remove barriers
• Give it 20 hours of intense practice

He adds that emotion is a bigger block to learning than intellect.

In How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey list the five pillars present in a culture of achievement:

• Greeting
• Do no harm
• Choice words
• It’s never too late to learn, and
• We are the best school in the universe.

I recently attended an AZK12 Center PD featuring Fisher in which he presented the pillars. While listening I realized that I might become reasonably competent using Fisher’s  pillars if I applied Kaufman’s steps.  So I made up the attached tool that I’m going to start using as I refine my skills.

By all means watch Kaufman’s Ted talk and read Fisher and Frey’s book and visit their website to go deeper into their topics.

And if you find any use for the attachment, could you let me know? Thanks in advance!