Chapters 7 & 8
The Leader In Me
Chapters 7 & 8
Chapter 7: Engaging the Community
- How community members help to expand the impact of The Leader In Me
Chapter 8: Shifting to Secondary and Beyond
- Focuses on how to adapt the program for secondary schools
Questions:
1. According to several sponsoring agencies, which voids does The Leader In Me address?
2. What are the biggest challenges in taking The Leader In Me to the middle and high schools?
Many students have not acquired the "secret code" of society; those unwritten rules that successful people know. If they don't learn them at home, chances are they never will, unless we teach them in school. The 7 Habits teaches students those societal expectations such as how to get along with others, being on time for work, and how to plan ahead. For some adults, the 7 Habits teaches them people skills they never learned and when that happens, they find that they are happier and more confident.
ReplyDeleteThe whole first part of the book was focused on implementing the 7 Habits in elementary schools. One of the challenges for middle and high school is that students change classes rather than stay with one teacher for most of the day. It would not work for all teachers to teach the 7 Habits everyday. Students would get sick of it very quickly. It has to be taught purposefully, like in Foxes Den, but also modeled everywhere by everyone and messages supporting the 7 Habits should be visible everywhere in the building.
As Leslie stated, not all students acquire the unwritten rules of successful people. I feel in the past that these were skills taught at home through modeling, experience, and face to face interactions with others. I know I learned from advice my mom gave me as well as taking on summer jobs as soon as I was old enough. I also participated in many after school activities that helped me practice interacting with others and working as a team. Unfortunately, not all students today are getting these experiences that help them learn needed life skills.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the biggest challenges we would have in implementing the 7 Habits in middle school is that we only have our students for two years (hopefully three soon!). But, I don't think that doesn't mean that we couldn't make an impact in that short time. Students do see many teachers each day, and all teachers could use and model the language of the 7 Habits and incorporate the habits into their lessons frequently. We could even assign a habit to each subject area to teach.
I like the idea of all students creating their own personal mission statements. This could be a writing assignment in English class. I also liked the idea of students having their own "legacy" folders. I know as a parent I save the best work that comes home for my own children. They have a folder for each grade of school, and they enjoy looking back at their past work and successes. Students at the middle school could each have a folder to save their best papers, art work, test score, etc. It could be a great self-esteem builder for some.