Last summer I read an article about a school implementing a program that had improved student ownership of their learning. It was based on a book titled, The Leader in Me by Stephen Covey. Basically it involves teaching children the seven habits of effective people, habits that had been used by corporate executives for decades.
I checked the book out from the library and was hooked- we need this program! When I brought it up at a staff meeting in September, another teacher mentioned her mother's school was also implementing this program and she agreed it sounded great. The two of us were convinced we should find a way to to bring this program to Manor Elementary. After meeting with the regional representative we were slightly discouraged- the training and licence fees would require a large amount of fundraising. Although we may not be able to do it school wide right now the two of us could begin implementing small parts in our own classrooms. It was amazing! The students began noticing the characteristics in our read alouds and the habits became part of their vocabulary. With a little more effort and training imagine what we could do.
Beaumont Elementary sponsored a Leadership Day in December. Erin, Jill and I attended the event to find out more. WOW! The students completely ran the event. They showcased their incredible speaking skills in presentations to large groups, facilitated tours of the school, welcomed us into their classrooms and gladly showed us their data notebooks and other artifacts of their learning. When the whole school participates the results are amazing. We need this program!
We went back to school and were now on a mission. How can we get our community behind this program when they don't fully understand- it was time to do some educating. Erin put together some slides from the pictures we took at Beaumont's Leadership Day and we did a staff presentation. Next we started writing grants and made sure our principal was signed up to attend a Leadership Day. Soon we had almost all of our staff attending various Leadership Days and they were excited too.
While our principal was at an out of town conference she got the call. We were being awarded enough grant money to make it happen! Training would begin this summer. INCREDIBLE!!!
