Article Contributed on: 10/29/2007 11:29:21 AM
Loud cheers of enthusiastic teen mentors and elementary students could be heard coming from the gym and filtering into the halls of Red Rocks Elementary School as the school's first ever Leadership Launch Day came to a close on Oct. 26.
The day helped inspire fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students at the Morrison school to become leaders in their school and community. Helping to inspire the children were about 25 teen leadership mentors from Chatfield High School who volunteered their time to help lead the students.
Wanda Hamilton, principal at Red Rocks Elementary, said Leadership Launch Day was first presented to her by two parents in the school --
Mariam MacGregor and
Angie Halibush.
Hamilton said developing leadership skills has many benefits. "We want all children to develop leadership attitudes," Hamilton said. "We want the students to create a culture of leadership at Red Rocks and to develop skills they can take to middle school."
Mariam MacGregor is the founder of
youthleadership.com. She has taught leadership at the college level, but wants to focus on passing leadership skills to the younger generation. She said the idea for the day came to her and Halibush after she presented to parents at the school about raising leaders. She said Chatfield High School volunteered to help with the day.
Chatfield, who already has an established leadership team among the students, jumped at the opportunity to get involved.
| Goals of Leadership Launch Day |
~To inspire a leadership attitude in all students in fourth through sixth grades.
~To promote leadership behaviors as a "standard" for all students.
~For students to inflluence a culture of leadership at Red Rocks.
~To motivate fourth- through sixth-graders to take on roles and responsibilities as everyday leaders at Red Rocks, eventually including all students.
~To provide additional leadership opportunities sepcifically for sixth-grade students; eventually increasing opportunities for all grades.
~To provide support for sixth-grade transition to middle school.
~To develop sustainable mentor relationship with area high school students and Red Rocks students.
-Mariam MacGregor |
Kathleen Lacy, assistant principal at Chatfield High School, said about 80 students are active in the leadership program and 25 volunteered to help at Leadership Launch Day.
According to Lacy, Leadership Launch day gave the high school student-leaders a chance to be leaders and allow them to teach younger kids what they have learned about becoming a leader.
"We've never done it before," Lacy said. "There may be more opportunities to mentor. We will have to see what the next step is and see if it is something they would really like."
Red Rocks students were broken up into several groups and led in numerous leadership activities by the Chatfield High School students throughout the day. Activities included interactive team-building exercises, leadership discussion questions, brainstorming ideas about how to define leadership at Red Rocks and creating leadership posters to display in the gym.
Sixth-grade students even had a special session with Hamilton. During the session with Hamilton, the mentors offered sixth-grade students helpful tips about how to leave a legacy and how to transition into middle school.
"Middle School is a good time to figure out who you are, what you believe in and what kind of people you want to be friends with," said
Kailey Peterson, a Chatfield mentor.
The sixth-graders brainstormed many ideas about how they can leave their own legacy at Red Rocks and become leaders within the school. Students said they could show leadership by being nice to others, being responsible, being a good role model to other students, having good communications skills and more. Hamilton also announced she is creating a Principal's Council. The council will be made up of a group of sixth-grade students who will meet with the principal to talk about leadership and work on leaving a legacy behind at Red Rocks.
Participants gathered in the gym at the end of the day to celebrate and display their leadership posters. Chatfield mentors taught the elementary students a leadership cheer. The elementary students were encouraged to carry what they learned with them throughout the rest of the school year.
"Our eventual goal is to integrate leadership curriculum into the classroom," Hamilton said.
| Leadership Launch Day gets ball rolling for leaders at Red Rocks |
By Wanda Hamilton
Red Rocks Elementary Principal
After the event was over, I talked with fourth through sixth grade students and their reactions have all been positive. There was a consistent theme of team-building, communication, listening, working together, etc. One student made the comment, "Leading is not having one boss, it's about everybody using their ideas." The students talked about everyone having the ability to lead and that students lead in many different ways, (i.e. quiet leaders). As we walked around to the different activities during Leadership Launch Day, all students were engaged and contributing to the conversations. We were pleased with the high quality of the discussions. The culminating activity in the gym, including the leadership banners, showed school spirit, enthusiasm, pride, energy and confidence! I think the high school leaders were important to the success of the day. Our students connected with the high school leaders and saw them as positive role models/mentors. Our next steps are to identify high school leaders who could assist with more activities at our school such as Student Council, Principal's Council and Field Day. I will be starting a Principal's Leadership Council for sixth-graders and we will discuss next steps in creating a leadership culture at Red Rocks. |