Blog Post #13

Read about "The Leader in Me" and watch The Leader in Me- How schools can develop leaders one child at a time.

Discuss what you have learned about "Leader in Me" and how you feel about it.

I did my observation hours last semester at Elberta Elementary School. I found out that they were a "Leader in Me" school, which was something I had never heard of. I now love "The Leader in Me" and the 7 habits. The 7 habits are:

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win-win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the saw

"The Leader in Me" teaches 21st century leadership and life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on the idea that every child can be a leader. This program believes that every child is capable and every child is a leader. I think this is a great concept to have in a school. Children should feel powerful and capable when they are at school. There are four main concepts that make "Leader in Me" work so well,  and they are: It embodies a different paradigm; It works from the inside out; It uses a common language—The 7 Habits; The implementation is ubiquitous. 

I personally hope to get a job teaching at a "Leader in Me" school. Having seen first hand how well it works, I think it is a great approach to teaching 21st century leadership and life skills. Teachers incorporate the 7 Habits throughout the day in any way that they can. The students in the class that I observed actually came up to the teacher and said "We synergized today when we...", so they understand the habits and strive to use them in their lives.