Elementary school students sporting purple ties, tiny suit jackets and dresses welcomed the community through Dana Elementary’s doors Tuesday, shaking each person’s hand inviting them to take part in Dana’s Leadership Summit.
Through a series of student-led workshops, Dana students showed parents, community members, teachers and their peers how leadership is incorporated into everyday learning at the school.
“This day is planned by the students and it is facilitated by the students – and it gets better every year,” said Dana Principal Kelly Schofield.
Fifth grade students Sarah McConnell and Ulises Vega De La Mora were the day’s keynote speakers, and shared how they’d gone from feeling lost or causing trouble to leaders with goals – like serving on the Principal’s Leadership Council.
Administrators and teachers from several other North Carolina public school systems – including Rutherford County Schools and Buncombe County Schools – visited Dana to learn how their peers have implemented methods from Steven Covey’s The Leader in Me program and its “7 Habits of Happy Kids.”
Brad Richardson, principal of Forest City-Dunbar Elementary School in the Rutherford County Schools district, said this is his school’s first year implementing The Leader in Me program and he brought his staff to Dana for inspiration.
“I want my teachers to see how the classrooms operate,” he said. An annual visitor to Dana’s Leadership Summits, Richardson added, “I’m always impressed with the level of engagement.”
After the children’s keynote speeches, students led adults in workshop-style breakout sessions and explained what it meant to be “21st century learners,” how technology is incorporated into their classwork, discussed the personal impacts of Covey’s “7 Habits of Happy Kids,” and how their individual Leadership Notebooks have helped them meet goals and are preparing them for future success.
In the breakout session on 21st century learners, students listed their dream jobs – computer engineer, teacher, meteorologist, doctor – and discussed what skills they’d practiced in preparation for their future careers.
Second-grader Sofia Hernandez-Romo said it was important for young learners to incorporate Spanish into their lessons so they’ll know two languages as children – and are free to learn a third as they get older.
Fifth-grader Jakob Olsen and third-grader Leiann Marshall said the students practice job interviews, and all Dana students have small jobs – or Leadership Roles – in their classes, for which there’s an application process.
The students take obvious pride in their roles as breakfast cart leader, supply stocker, class librarian, tech leader and attendance manager, and list them as “Victories” in their Leadership Notebooks.
Every year, students create Leadership Notebooks outlining their academic and personal goals, and data sheets tracking their individual progress. With specific deadlines in mind, K-5 students shared that they wanted to master certain multiplication tables, increase their reading benchmarks by 5 percent, or read every night at home.
Kindergartener Isabella Phillips proudly showed visitors some of her goals she’d already achieved – learning to tie her shoes and 50 first-grade sight words – and explained her next goal is to write an illustrated story with a problem and solution in at least two different settings.
Isabella’s mother, Mary Phillips, said Dana’s Leadership Notebooks are helping her daughter find her voice.
“She has great things to say, and she’s very intelligent. But she’s painfully shy,” Phillips said. “These goals helped her use her voice in a positive way.”
“She’s always curious about her next goal because she loves meeting them,” Phillips said. “That’s what this school is all about – using their strengths to find the leader in each child.”
For more photos of the 2014 Dana Leadership Summit, check out the HCPS Facebook page.