The Beginnings of Leadership!

Today was the third day of school and we decided it was time to start walking through classrooms to see how the classroom cultures were building, using the 7 habits as a lense. In the small amount of time that we visited classrooms, it was amazing to see already how the habits and leadership were already seamless being integrated!

Many classrooms have posted their classroom rules, often referred to as a "class contract" and the language in their rules was so proactive! Some examples were, "We take responsibility for our learning", "We listen and try to understand while others are talking", and "We always laugh with each other, never at each other."

When we visited one class, the teacher was explaining the possible leadership roles and encouraging students to consider what would fit their strengths. We were amazed that the teacher mentioned needing safety patrol students for the afternoon and that another teacher would visit them later in the day to explain the role. Our teachers took initiative to arrange this after signing up for their teacher leadership roles. Not only are our students stepping into meaningful roles based on their strengths, but our teachers are modeling it too!

In another class, some students were doing a spelling activity where they need to calculate a word's worth and 2 students disagreed about the total value of the word. They discussed that they could use the Habit, "See First to Understand" to see how they both came to the answer that they did and find out where they went wrong.

The librarian introduced routines and procedures with the Habits in mind. For example, in the library we put first things first by placing our books in the return cart before we shop for new ones.

Another teacher was using kid-friendly language to help her students create a vision for their lives. She modeled thinking through her 2 goals: 1) Getting her masters degree and 2) Becoming a super teacher. She then asked the students to think, "What would it look like if I met these goals" and modeled this by drawing a graduation hat and a super teacher on a pair of sunglasses, representing "Vision." Above is a picture of 2 students hard at work drawing pictures of themselves achieving their goals. These students are beginning with the end in mind.

The reason that the teachers are able to seamless integrate these habits into their classroom so quickly is because they have been focused on living them first. It has been common recently to overhear teachers talking about how they are progressing on their goals, planning to meet with their accountability partner, or smiling when talking about how they "sharpened the saw" the day before. This is creating an overall climate of not just effectiveness, but joy in everyone. If this is what is possible in 3 days, just imagine what is to come....

What's your punchline?

I was invited to a friend's church tonight for a somewhat atypical sermon. The sermon was not led by a pastor, but rather, a comedian, Michael Junior. While he did an amazing job tying comedy in with Christian beliefs, I am not going to discuss that in this blog. What I WILL discuss is the theme from his sermon. 

Michael Junior discussed the format of a joke- the setup and the punchline. The set up is using your strengths, talents, and resources to ensure that the audience is following along with your "story". Essentially, the setup is what you have. The punchline is when you slightly alter what the audience thinks is about to happen, or expects. Essentially, the punchline is what you do, which grabs people's attention. This results in revelation and joy. A good comedian takes the strengths they have and USES them with their audience to create happier people. 

The setup in "real life"- First, we need to know what strengths we have to give to the world. Many of us are fortunate enough to know what strengths we have, usually by proxi of a mentor or inspirational person in our lives. If you haven't reflected upon what strengths or talents you have to give to the world, close your eyes, think of a person that made you feel special or believed in you, and think, why did they believe in me? What did they see in me that I did not believe in myself? That helps you find your "setup". 

The punchline in "real life"- Unfortunately, many of us stop at the setup. Your talents and strengths mean nothing unless you use them to serve the common good. Ask yourself, how can I use my "setup" to impact other lives? Michael made a paradigm shift during his career as a comedian- Instead of thinking, "How can I GET people to laugh?", he started asking himself, " How can I GIVE them the opportunity to laugh?"  Many of us know our strengths and talents, but we use them to get things. Instead, how can we use our talents and strengths to give to others, resulting in revelation and joy? 

This is one of the major paradigm shifts of The Leader in Me philosophy- I have strengths and talents and can use them to be a "transfer person", building capacity in others. WOW. Imagine if we all made it a goal to use our talents to impact others' lives... How different would this world be? The truth is, it would be drastically different. While some people may say that our school is "too small", we know that it only takes one person to make an impact, just like Michael Junior made an impact on me tonight. 

My question to you now is.... what is your setup and how will you play out the 

punchline?

CSE Teachers Put First Things First

We have never seen a more dedicated group of educators. 

Did you know that we had at least 15 educators volunteer a morning of their summer to create a vision and mission for our school? They did not get paid; they volunteered their time. They had such a clear vision of what we want for our students that they finished in less than 2 hours. In fact, had many of the staff not already dedicated their time to professional development that day, we bet almost all of the staff would have attended. We wonder if our CSE parents know how lucky they are to have these people take care of their children's hearts and minds. Here is what we nailed down after a year's worth of discussions about our beliefs about our school and our students.

Our Vision for College Street Elementary:

A welcoming community where individual strengths are valued and EVERYONE feels empowered to be positive leaders.

Our Mission for College Street Elementary:

Each day we build relationships while modeling and teaching habits of highly effective people through authentic learning experiences.

We will all hold each other accountable for working toward this vision and dedicating ourselves to the mission on a daily basis. We hope that all teachers, parents, and students will join us in working toward this endeavor.

Another reason that we have the most dedicated staff EVER- 40 of our staff spent 3 days of their summer this week learning about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. They are true learners. They know that until they can learn about these habits and practice them in their own lives, they will not be able to teach students about them. These are staff that want to be the best that they can be so that they can help bring the best out of all of our students. Here is a photo of them hard at work:

We wonder if other parents can say that their child attends a school where teachers volunteer their summer to make a clear vision and mission for their students? Can they say that they spend time on self-development to ensure they are the best leaders of students that they can be?

We hope so and We hope that all of our CSE families know how lucky they are. We am so proud to work with these people.