The focus of my teaching is to educate the whole child. It is vital that the children I am fortunate enough to have in my classroom for their first grade year leave after 180 days not only better readers and writers, but also better learners. With work, people can develop Habits of Mind to better understand and grow from what they have learned. I intend my impact as an educator to be two-fold. First, to teach my students new information, skills, and strategies that will help them academically and professionally for years to come. I have previously done this through explicitly teaching academic lessons and fostering my students’ love of learning. The second component to my impact is to help my students develop socio-emotionally. I have previously done this through modeling kindness and openness as well as fostering a loving and welcoming environment. Focusing on Habits of Mind in the classroom can help students develop a mindset that allows them to approach a new challenge in a way that creates a world experience that is “powerful, of higher quality, and of greater significance” (Costa & Kallick, 2000, p. 1). Explicitly teaching two Habits of Mind altered how I approach academic and socio-emotional learning in my classroom. These Habits of Mind allow my students to thoughtfully and reflectively interact with the world.