Student Leaders

Last February, my Superintendent gave all of the principals in our district a copy of Yong Zhao's World Class Learners. First of all, I would recommend this book in its entirety to anyone who has an interest in public education. However, my biggest take-away came from the following text as it became crystal clear to me that there was a need to establish some sort of leadership opportunity for our students at Riverside Elementary School.

"Student voice has a positive effect on the school culture, increased student engagement, and overall improvement in children's well-being." (Zhao, 2012, pp.183) 

"Students bring unique perspectives and knowledge that can help improve the school environment and academic quality. Students can point out structural and cultural obstacles in the school that may be overlooked by adult administrators and teachers. Thus students should be considered "capable and valuable members of a school community who can help initiate and implement educational change." (Zhao, 2012, pp.183)

"Students should be considered an integral part of the school leadership in the new education paradigm." (Zhao, 2012, pp.184)

Adding to my excitement, over the summer, I read a book, Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind, that a former principal that I'd worked with had given me. This is another book that I'd give high praise towards, as a resource with great strategies for engaging all students. The following two-passages, shared below, only heightened my sense of urgency to provide our students with a leadership role.

"How can I expect to keep kids invested in the process if I don't give them a piece of the action?" (Jensen, 2013, pp.76)

"Taking leadership roles and collaborating in teams increase student responsibility and help students become more confident. The more self-reliant students become, the more control they feel over their learning, and the more likely they are to actively engage as a matter of routine.

"Developing students' leadership skills begins with granting incremental increases in responsibility to students while providing relevant instruction in the skills they need to succeed, offering encouragement, and holding them accountable for the obligations they take on." (Jensen, 2013, pp.140)

After much reflecting over the summer months, and thinking aloud with colleagues, I started to draft a plan for this idea. I am excited to announce that we are going to create two Student Advisory Teams at Riverside Elementary School. We will have one team with a student representing each classroom from kindergarten through second grade, and we will have an additional team with a student representative from each classroom in grades three through five. Each team will meet weekly over their lunch time. Depending on how much interest students show, team members may rotate quarterly to maximize participation.

Last week, I visited each classroom to explain the leadership opportunity that students will have by being a part of our Student Advisory Team. The conversation covered logistics, and the following slides were shown as talking points re. leadership.

Student Advisory Team - Leadership images/slides.

Older students, grades 3-5, who expressed interest in the idea of having a leadership role were asked to answer the attached questions. Younger students, kindergarten-2nd graders, who showed interest in the leadership opportunity had the option of drawing a picture or writing about what leadership looks like at Riverside Elementary School. 

My goal is for these teams to be formed and begin to meet by mid-September. Hopefully, these meetings will give students the opportunity to identify things that have the potential to be improved at Riverside Elementary School and then brainstorm solutions for how to make these improvements a reality. I think this will be really exciting for two main reasons: 1) I am excited to witness our students flourish when given a leadership role, and 2) I am excited to explore implementing the ideas that our students have to improve their school.