Thursday, November 19, 2015

Adams Elementary incorporates Leader in Me program

At the beginning of this school year, Adams Elementary began applying the Leader in Me program to its curriculum. It is a Franklin Covey program designed to help children be successful and happy. The school received an $8,000 grant in joining the program. Leader in Me incorporates seven habits from Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

“It has been a really fun change, especially because it’s only been a few months since this has really been introduced to the kids,” said Jordan Anderson, a first-grade teacher. “It’s been really fun to see them really grab hold of it and really have a good understanding of the seven habits of what it really means to be a successful person and a happy person.”

Anderson is also the representative for first-graders and kindergartners on the Lighthouse team. This team consists of teachers chosen to represent the different grades in Adams for the Leader in Me program. The meetings are open to any other teacher that would like to come.

Part of the program includes students being in charge of jobs around the classroom and the school. Fifth-grade students are in charge of announcements as well as helping younger students with announcements. Cari Bodily, a fifth-grade teacher and part of the Lighthouse team, gives students jobs that vary from class librarian to supervisor of the class responsibilities.

“I have a student who said, ‘I’m getting bored. I need more to do.’ So we found another job that needed to be done,” said Bodily.

“Even in a first-grade classroom all the children have jobs,” said Anderson. “They may not have a job every day, but they all have had a job.”

During one of the parent nights, the fifth grade was in charge of posters and fliers. One of the students said that the fliers needed to be bilingual. The students then wrote a Spanish version on the other side of the fliers.

“The kids not only thought of it, but they took care it,” said Bodily.

Bodily and Anderson said they have already noticed a difference since the program has been implemented.

“We have noticed in our school that kids have been kinder to each other,” said Bodily.

“It’s been fun to see out on the playground,” said Anderson. “I still have a lot of kids that don’t know how to zip up their coats or tie their shoes. But older kids, even ones that aren’t siblings, will just notice that this kid is really struggling to zip up his coat or tie up his shoe. They’ll just sit down and help them.”

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