Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Leader in Me

I am super excited for school to begin this year. Not only am I moving to 1st grade with the opportunity to work with a teacher that I look up to so much, but our school is implementing The Leader in Me. Some of you have not heard of this so I wanted to give a quick overview of the amazing opportunity our students will have at Bowmar (and also at Bovina Elementary) thanks to the Chamber of Commerce and some amazing community sponsors.
The Leader in Me is not a program. It is an entirely new way of thinking. It is based on Stephen Covey's bestseller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". If you have not read this book, I've heard it's awesome. 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. I'm not going to go into descriptions of each habit right now. But if you want more info, go to www.theleaderinme.org for a simple overiew and to see some awesome schools that have already implemented LIM at their schools.
If you have a chance, come visit Bowamr this year and see all of our amazing changes! I feel that just going through this training has made me a better person. I cannot wait to see what it does for our already awesome students. This is going to be so beneficial to each and every one of them.
If you live in the Vicksburg area and want to sponsor The Leader in Me, contact Christi Kilroy at the Chamber of Commerce. It is our hope that LIM will be so successful at our two pilot schools that other sponsors will want to help it grow to each school in our district. Thank you SO SO much to those of you that are already sponsors and to those of you who believe in this program, believe in our students, and believe that we as teachers have the ability to instill these habits into our students. It will all be well worth the extra effort.

On another school related note: our school district has moved from "At Risk of Failing" to "Successful" in just two short years. This is amazing progress and amazing news for our district! Being a part of a state recognized "successful" district is so awesome. Everyone involved with the Vicksburg-Warren School District has worked incredibly hard this past year, and the efforts paid off. Thank you so much to all of you that support our schools. You are greatly appreciated!

Now time to enjoy my last summer weekend! I hope you all have a great one!