Develop Leaders of Today and Tomorrow: Create Student Leadership Opportunities
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
– John F. Kennedy
INTRO
Create leadership courses and set up structures for students to take on meaningful leadership roles, empower their voices, and engage them in decision-making processes that impact the students, families, and staff.
GO skills and behaviors include elements of student agency– self-awareness, self-knowledge, and an understanding of who you are in the context of the world around you, including your family and your community. This includes leadership skills, advocacy skills, self-care, and healthy habits as well as skills like kindness and empathy. Many of these skills are necessary to successfully navigate big life transitions such as attending college, enrolling in a vocational program, starting a new job, or even beginning a new personal relationship.
OBJECTIVES
- Create leadership courses and set up structures for students to take on meaningful leadership roles
Activity
- Create leadership courses
- Ensure all student groups at the school are represented
- As part of these courses, set up structures for students to take on meaningful leadership roles, and empower their voices
- Engage students in decision-making processes that impact the students, families, and staff
While it doesn’t necessarily provide ideas specifically for student courses, the provided Inflexion Blog post (and the ideas and practices of Carmen Gelman, Director of Professional Learning at COSA) is a great place to start for getting inspired about how you and your school can develop courses that elevate students into active leadership roles.
TIPS
- Key Moves are efforts that require a bit of planning, such as the activity above, but can be implemented within the next three to six months.
- Like this activity? Check out Inflexion’s full-page GO document for more ideas.
Responses