Chapters 3 & 4
The Leader In Me
Chapters 3 & 4
Chapter 3: Teaching the 7 Habits
Chapter 4: Creating a Leadership Culture
- Explains how educators see The Leader In Me as a better way of doing what we are already doing, rather than just one more thing to do.
Questions:
1. How can specialist teachers and nonclassroom teachers be involved with The Leader In Me?
2. Which events do we currently have that could incorporate student leadership?
As pointed out in chapter two, all adults in the school building should be trained in the 7 Habits so that everyone can act as a model of leadership for the students. The book gave examples of ways nonclassroom teachers can be involved and demonstrate leadership skills, such as the janitor who chose to greet students each morning, as does our administration. In many ways, nonclassroom teachers at KGMS already show daily involvement with students and could probably do even more if trained and given the opportunity to be a part of incorporating the 7 Habits into the daily life of our school. When students sent to ISS or ASD work with our custodians, the custodians have a chance to talk to the students and could refer to Habit 1: Be Proactive. They could also talk about taking pride in the school building / environment.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading chapters three and four, I kept reflecting on many of the things we are already doing at KGMS that do incorporate student leadership. Our assemblies are mostly student ran, students take ownership in the cafeteria by cleaning their tables, students act as library aids, and we have a student forum that meets monthly. We can first build on what we already have by beginning to use the language of the 7 Habits and then incorporate more leadership opportunities for our students. I would love to see students designing the subject area bulletin boards or helping beautify the outside area of the school by picking up trash or planting flowers/trees.
I am really enjoying this book and especially liked the Booker T. Washington quote included on page 92: "Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him." This is a quote I have followed many times at home with my own children when I notice them misbehaving or treating each other poorly. Instead of punishing them, I will quickly involve them in something that needs to be done around the house and make a point of telling them how important the job is to me. This usually clears up problem behaviors if done consistently. I'm not sure why I haven't tried it in the classroom, yet.
These chapters made me think of Mr. Russell, my principal in 2nd grade. Someone told him about the dreadfully foul language I used on the bus. He sought me out in the hall and told me he heard what I had done but didn't believe it because I was too nice to do something like that. What a profound impact on that had on me! To this day, I rarely ever curse. I think that everyone in our school from the cafeteria workers to the principal can have that effect on students by looking for the good in them and expressing our faith in their ability to do the right thing. Everyone can let students know, by how they act and what they say, the values that are important here in our school. I love the quote "What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear a word you say." Every teacher, staff member and office worker has an important role in modeling the 7 habits, as well as talking about them and teaching them to students. Every teacher can integrate 7 habits into their class discussions.
ReplyDeleteSome things we do now that could incorporate student leaders are open house, career day, lunch, dress code enforcement,. Why not have 8th grade students direct parents and students to classrooms and give tours of the building? We could assign table leaders who are responsible for seeing that the tables and areas are clean at the end of each lunch period. Students could assist with career day, by having a table where they answer questions and distribute information about school events. Students might be assigned a dress code leadership role where they help to determine what is appropriate dress for school and speak to peers about following the dress code. We could have student leaders from each department in charge of designing and decorating the bulletin boards each month. I think the more responsibility we give to students the more often we will see them stepping up to accept those roles.
Leslie I completely agree with you about incorporating more student leaders. Back my first year when we had students sitting at assigned tables I had 2 8th graders propose table leaders for the very purpose of being able to sit where they want and have more freedom. At the time, I don't think our entire student body was ready for that responsibility but our students have definitely shown that they are capable of being leaders and I look forward to seeing more and more students in leadership roles!
Delete1. How can specialist teachers and nonclassroom teachers be involved with The Leader In Me?
ReplyDeleteWhat I loved reading in the chapters about nonclassroom and specialist teachers is that everyone was included in being involved in the Leader theme. It didn't matter what your job or position was in the school if you were IN the school - you were included. Including ALL staff and support in the training would start putting everyone on that "same level" the student mentioned in the book. Then once the teachers/faculty/support know what to do we would bring the students up to that level, too.
Being a specials teacher, I know first hand how you can use these leadership skills in classroom teachings. Songs that tell these stories is one of the easiest ways to teach lessons to younger students. As a MS teacher, I use the songs that I choose for our performances and we discuss what the words mean and what our job as a chorus is when we are performing the songs. Is it to entertain? Is it to tell a story? Is it music for music's sake? Or even is it historical or a genre themed piece?
2. Which events do we currently have that could incorporate student leadership?
Since I'm still learning some of what the middle school does I'll list a few from this past year that we are already doing:
*Students giving tours of the school to new students
*Student run assemblies
*Students cleaning the cafeteria and being responsible for the cleanliness of it
*Students doing the announcements
Where could we add more?
The possibilities are endless. I feel like starting this in the school would be a really awesome experience but we'd need to start small. They mentioned the students have 5 years to learn the steps since it's elementary but the MS kids only have 2 years. How could we start incorporating all 7 in two years and not get overwhelmed?
It would be nice too see more student bulletin boards and fresh paint in the hallways and office areas. In all honesty the school in my opinion doesn't have a "bright" and "fresh" feeling. Obviously, it's an old school but just starting with some new colors would be helpful to set a new mood.
It would be a great idea to involve students in our hiring process like the book mentioned! Having students involved in the "rules" we use like dress code and code of conduct.
Like I said, there are so many ways we can use these ideas but it's almost overwhelming and we'd need to come up with a way to use them and make it simple yet effective until we really find out what works best for KGMS.
I agree with Jen that in order for this to all work, we will need parental buy in and support. There are so many ways to teach leadership and life skills daily in our classrooms, and I am sure many of us already do, but these are the lessons that I worry will upset some parents. I am concerned that there will be parents who will say we are over stepping our boundaries as classroom teachers. Regardless, in today's society not all our students are learning life skills at home. They need to be taught somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAs others have mentioned, we have many activities that are run by our students, but I feel like we are not always allowing them to "lead". In many cases, teachers and administrators have lain our a framework of ideas and theme for an event and allow the students to "run" it. I believe that we need to look at taking this to the next step.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I remember visiting the "Haunted House/Trick-or-Treat" at KGMS last year that was put on by many of my former students. I found it refreshing to see that this was not only something that was their idea, but that they had planned, built, and implemented. Learning from that, I believe that in some cases, we need to loosen the reigns on our students and allow them to leap in this way.
That said, the 7 Habits must come first. The variety of ways for teaching them and having them appear in every facet of the school (ubiquitous, to use the author's word) is something that must be done. As others have mentioned, having the students teach this to peers and teachers is a great idea, but we can't have it stop there. Similar to our attempts to promote civic growth with "Building Productive Citizens", we need the ideas of the 7 Habits to surround our students daily. Given the breakdown into (1-3) (4-6) (7) I think it would be beneficial to start with those "Personal" levels of development and proceed as we can.