It is 8:05 AM on a Friday. Leighton has come in early to be a Walmart greeter, welcoming students to school with some music and a wave. They see that we will be coloring today and gets excited. You see, once a semester students spend the first half of class coloring. Then the class puts their fine art up around the classroom like one large fridge door at home to properly display them.
Grade 12 Leighton then tells me the reason they signed up for Leadership class at Centennial. Leighton visited the Leadership classroom during Gr. 9 tours and saw all the student coloring on display. They said that looked like a class they wanted to be a part of. Leighton then quickly assured me they have done many other awesome things in the class beyond coloring.
Turns out you never know what will draw a student to your program.
Instagram Idea – Back In The Day Post
Students interviewed staff that were at Centennial when it first opened and are still teaching here today. They asked them three questions
- What is your favorite story in all the years you have been teaching at Centennial?
- Why are you still teaching at Centennial?
- What do you love about Centennial now?
A week prior to the Instagram posts student leaders put up some posters of dinosaurs that said “coming soon”. There were lots of questions about why the dinosaur posters were up. We got lots of positive feedback about the Instagram posts once they were up. As one of the original Centennial dinosaurs I enjoyed some of the stories that took me down memory lane.
Check out @chscoyote for examples of what we posted.
Quick Classroom Leadership Lesson – Hamburger or Hotdog?
Each student needs a scrap piece of paper. Tell them to listen carefully and do exactly what you say. Tell them to fold their paper in half hot dog style. (See illustration above – folding paper hot dog style leaves the paper looking like a hot dog bun, hamburger style like a hamburger bun) Then you fold your paper in half hamburger style in front of them. Repeat once more for them to listen carefully, tell them to fold it hot dog style, then hold up your paper folded hamburger style and say “See!” Most or all kids will fold it hamburger style because that is what they see even though you told them to listen carefully and do what you said. Then pull out another piece of paper and fold it hotdog style. Point out how they folded their sheets incorrectly because you told them to do what you said.
Debrief with class
- Did you notice? – describe with specific examples what you saw them do – eg you all folded your sheets hamburger style even though I told you to fold hot dog style
- Why did that happen? – have them answer why they folded the wrong way – typical answers come like that is what we saw – or you pressured us to fold that way
- Does that happen in life or school? – have them make connections – eg we tend to follow peoples examples rather than their words
- Why does that happen? – eg the power of actions or examples are far more powerful than words
- How can we use this? – eg as student leaders we need to make sure that our actions match our values
This is one possible direction the questions can take. Be prepared to go with what students bring up and the direction they take the discussion.
Looking for some good clean fun? Hire me 🙂
As the world gets more “normalish” and our programs are ramping up are you looking for a speaker? I would love to come to your school and give a whole school assembly, leadership student and / or staff training, run a retreat, workshops, or or all of the above. Email me at bdicksoncalgary@gmail.com to discuss what would work for you.
Click here to see presentations I can offer. Or we can make something custom fit for you. https://brentdickson.net/speaker-presentations/
It is 9C in Calgary and sunny today. December is coming. We got this friends. All the best.
Brent Dickson 