Creating Little Leaders

   Today was the last day of our school wide Leader in Me training. As in previous posts, my school received a grant in May to help fund licensing our school to become an official Leader in Me school. The past three days we were exposed, in-depth, to the 7 Habits, establishing mission statements, and creating leaders. It was very enlightening for myself and the rest of the staff. My team and I are already busy thinking of ways we can incorporate the 7 Habits from day one in August. The word leader has been engraved in my brain and heart, after the last three days, and I want to make sure my little kiddos coming in my room in August are walking out leaders next May. I decided to change the name of my data notebooks to Leadership Data Notebooks. I want my kiddos to become leaders in the classroom with their knowledge and implement their skills at home and in the community. Please download my data notebook to get the updated version with a personal and class mission statement, personal and academic goal, and homework goal tracker.

  

   My kiddos Leadership Data Notebooks will be apart of our daily routine. Here is where I plan on storing them all...

   Each green bin (my newest IKEA find) will house notebooks from each of my four color tables. I have them by my classroom door so they are the first thing my kiddos see in the morning as they arrive and the last as they leave to go home. The wall above the shelf holds my "Classroom Leaders" board. This is where we will pick eight kiddos a week to have specific leadership roles in the classroom. And on the side of the black shelves I have four Command hooks that hold my Leadership Lanyards. I plan on placing the lanyards on my kiddos tables for them to wear when they display the behavior, goal, etc. My kiddos then communicate with everyone who asks them throughout the day what they accomplished. You can download my Leadership Lanyards below.

 

On the other side of my classroom door is my 7 Habits wall.







 My teammate found these posters and shared them will me. I love the bright colors and how they match with the borders I have around my room. I have a few more projects to finish before my new future leaders walk through that door. First, its time to prep for my second session of summer school on Monday. I can't wait to see my former students faces again!

Data Notebooks

   I am so excited that my school just received a scholarship for $75,000 to help become a certified Leader in Me school! Both my boys attend a Charter School that is a Leader in Me school and I love how all the students, staff, and parents are so invested into the school everyday. They also strongly push and teach the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Kids. Everything from my boys homework, to bulletin boards, to artwork around their school is based on one of the 7 Habits. I am so excited to be attending a 3-day training in July, at my school, to help all staff become more familiar with the habits and how to incorporate them daily into our schedule. My classroom kiddos and I focused on Habit 1: Being Proactive for most of the year. For those of you that would like more information about Leader in Me and the 7 Habits please visit their website by clicking on the image below.

 

   A large part of The Leader in Me is for kiddos to take ownership and accountability in their learning. This can be accomplished with data notebooks. These notebooks let kiddos track their learning and set goals for their learning. I spent the last months of the school year practicing with behavior notebooks. I was worried that this would take a lot of time out of our day, but I was pleasantly surprised that after one week of practice my kiddos could fill-in their behavior data in seconds at the end of the day. So I am super pumped to implement data notebooks with academic and behaviors this upcoming year. I will place one of my black shelves by the front of my classroom door to house each kiddos 3-ring binder data notebook and place all of my 7 Habit pictures above the shelf on the wall. I will upload pictures as soon as my room is done being painted and I am able to decorate. Below is the link to my TPT store where you can get my data notebook that I will be using!