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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