Schoolcraft elementary school teachers met for three days of training from the Franklin Covey group focusing on “The Leader in Me,” a book written by Stephen R. Covey, during their August back to school orientation.
It is a three-year training commitment by the Covey group that would ordinarily cost around $70,000, but Principal Aimee McCaw obtained a grant through the “I am a leader” foundation out of Arizona, thus the cost came to $5,500 a year, she said.
The goal for the teachers is to empower their students, advocate for themselves, believe in themselves and to embed this in the school’s culture, McCaw said. A Lighthouse team will provide the core group to continue the program throughout the elementary school during the three year commitment and become a Lighthouse certified school during the process.
The trainer, Barbara Cogburn, stressed the buy-in by the staff and community to make teachers more effective. “This training will give infrastructure to an extremely talented group of dedicated teachers,” Cogburn said. “In two and a half days, we hope to have the teachers be more effective for themselves and then have ownership from the kids in the classroom after that.”
The vision that was hammered out included:
1. Have a common vocabulary in the school based around the 7 habits of highly effective people
2. Have common, clear increased expectations from everyone 3. Be role models
4. Have collaboration – students, parents, school, community, that equals pride
The results will empower students for leaning so they can be the best they can be, the group decided.