Students of all ages have the capacity to lead.
For a few years now I have taken a group of Grade 7 and 8 students to our feeder schools to teach the incoming Grade 5's the "Seven Secrets of Leadership", but really it is about so much more than that!
This is from the e-mail I send to our feeder schools:
What you get:
12-15 of our Leadership Students and a teacher running sessions on “The 7 Secrets to Leadership”.
An opportunity for your grade 5 teachers to meet and/or work with the grade 4 students in their classes. (Your teachers do not need to be in the gym, although they are invited to see what we are doing, and stay as they wish.) A reflective journal written by all the students to use as a discussion starter or as feedback for what the students have learned. A positive experience to help make transition to grade 6 less stressful for your Grade 5’s. What your students get:
A carousel of 5 activity based lessons run by our Leadership students.
-In one activity students all Grade 5’s learn to open combination locks.
A few group activities that teach students about leadership.
A reflective journal to keep after the session is done.
A chance to see grade 7 and 8 students as positive role models.
A positive experience the helps students with the transition to Middle School. What we get:
An authentic leadership experience for our grade 7 and 8 students.
Grade 6 students entering the school next year with positive expectations about what Middles School students are like. (Also, no tears from the stress of opening a combination lock as well as the stress of dealing with everything else that can overwhelm a new student on their first few days of Middle School). We require the use of your gym for 2 to 2.5 hours. All grade 5 students are invited, even if they will be going to another Middle School- the program is not specific to our school. |
The Agenda looks like this:
12:30 Arrive at feeder school and set up
1:00 Grade 5 Teachers brings students to gym.
-introductions
Truss -Journal, 'Secrets' intro.
Journal Entry – "What makes a good leader?" -Truss
Ice Breaker 2- Leadership Games – 1 or 2 groups
- Alphabetical by name - Tyler
- Birthday - Sarah
Continue games but no talking anymore
- Height - Deighton
- Hair Colour - Callie
- Shoe Size - (optional)
Journal Entry –Truss
SECRET #1 – TREAT OTHERS WELL
12:20 Split into 5 groups and move them to the stations
Truss "Get a secret - keep a secret" - Don't talk about the stations.
'Don't you hate it when someone tells you how a movie ends?'
5 Sessions run 5 times by our student leaders:
12:30 Session 1 :: 12:45 Session 2 :: 1:00 Session 3
1:15 -Break from the rotation–
Read '
The Butterfly Story ' - Sara
SECRET #2 – THINK BEFORE YOU ACT
Journal Entry, then rotate to next station
1:30 Session 4 :: 1:45 Session 5
Station # A - Balloon Challenge SECRET #3 WORK TOGETHER
Station # B - Maze SECRET #4 BE POSITIVE (Cooperation)
Station # C - Blanket Fold SECRET #5 EVERYONE MATTERS
Station # D - Locks SECRET #6 ACCEPT NEW CHALLENGES
Station # E - Human Knot SECRET #7 LISTEN FIRST, THEN TALK
1:55 QUICK Synthesis: What Secret to Leading by Example did we learn from…
The final secret
SECRET TO SUCCESS IN GRADE 6 (A bonus secret) -Truss
When you can’t solve a problem by yourself… ASK FOR HELP
-Homework (3 questions in the middle of the journal)
- - - - -
10 min. Debrief for our Crew
I will be building a resource package to explain the events soon (with the help of my students).
If things work out with funding, I will be helping to implement this program with a number of Middle School Student Leadership teams in our district next near. [Update: I did a Pro-D session in January, though I am not aware of any additional schools doing this to end off '08. I think there was enough interest from a teacher here at my new school, (even before I got here), that these sessions will happen in the '08-'09 school year.]
One important note is that the lessons, 'the secrets', are decided upon by my students. This year students continued on with 4 of the 5 activities that we did last year, but one (the Balloon Challenge) is new, and one of the older activities has a different lesson, as was decided by the group that is running that activity this year. Two years ago, one of the Leadership Lessons was "Take a Risk". I wasn't a fan of this initially, but the group did a fantastic job of running a related activity and explaining how leaders take smart risks rather than poor chances. I am glad I trusted them and didn't try to change their idea because of my bias.
For me, the best part of the retreat is seeing my students improve their ability to communicate their instructions clearly and lead a group of students with enthusiasm and intent. An excellent learning experience happened this year when students running the blanket fold were over-explaining/demonstrating their activity. The blanket fold instructions were given such that not only did Grade 5 participants understand that the blanket was to be folded, as small as possible, while everyone stood on it (no one can step off or touch the ground), but they also got a demonstration on
how to fold the blanket. I told my students, "you are cutting open their cocoons", in reference to the
The Butterfly Story and my students fully understood my message... let them figure out how to fold the blanket on their own - don't do it for them!
Last week Monday I took a few of my leaders and we ran our activities with some Grade 3's & 4's at a Peer Helper retreat organized by two great principals, Dave Sands and Mark Clay. Their combined effort involved students from two very different Elementary Schools, one that could be classified as 'Inner City' and the other from a very upper-middle class neighbourhood, both out of my school's catchment area.
When we arrived at 5pm the Peer Helpers had already had a full day of training so we took the distinct 'lessons' out of our activities and made the activities much more focussed on fun. We started out with a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors for candy, with my students making sure that everyone always had candy to participate, (a chance for them to lead by example). Then my students ran their activities at 5 stations around the gym. Next, I did an activity for the Grade 3's and 4's to 'put together the pieces' and relate what we did to their Peer Helper programs. But in the end it was these Grade 3's and 4's who help me put some ideas together and taught me something...
We should be teaching Grade 5's at the start of the year to help them become leaders in their school, rather than just at the end of the year to help them transition to Middle School. Later in the week, in talking with two other Elementary Principals when we did the Seven Secrets Retreat at their school, they too thought this would be a great idea. One of them, Perry, suggested that we train Grade 4's at the end of the year and come back and do more with them at the start of the next year. The challenge for us would be getting our program up and running at the start of the year. A lot to think about!
The simple fact is that students of all ages have the capacity to lead... they just need to be provided with the opportunity, along with a little training and support.
Keywords: datruss, Dave Sands, David Truss, elementary school, empathy, Grade 5, lead by example, leadership, leadership lessons, learning, life lessons, Mark Clay, mentors, middle school, pair-a-dimes, peer helpers, reflection, reflective journal, retreat, role models, student leaders, student leadership, success, teaching, transition
