May 13, 2019
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Now, whether you’re a classroom teacher, an afterschool professional, sports coach, even a preschool teacher, I’m here to tell you that you most definitely have a role in molding your students’ leadership abilities, and you definitely have a responsibility to help them find their true inner voice.
PART ONE – CHOICES
Your students’ abilities to recognize and make choices is strengthened through repeated exposures and opportunities to practice making choices in a real-world setting … and we will cover how to get that going in your program.
PART TWO – TEACHER TRAINING
Now, this may seem like a given – but, just like any other subject that you want to teach to children and youth, in order to be successful, the teacher has to have an understanding of the subject beforehand. You can google a whole host of “Top Ten” books… but I’ll give you three of my favorites to start with. Remember… it doesn’t matter where you start… just start!
PART THREE – ALLOW for EXPERIENCE
In their own way, the school and afterschool settings, it’s like they’re their own “miniature societies” where social learning is taking place all the time. We talk about how to bring in the leadership aspect to you program, being more intentional about social-emotional learning and nurturing the self-esteem and leadership skills of our students.
PART FOUR – CREATE SMALL CHALLENGES for GROWTH
Finally, today I’d like to share with you a quick technique that is an easy and quick way to implement leadership development and youth voice skills in your classroom, school, or center. This technique can be fitted to whatever topic is happening in your curriculum and it takes very little effort on your part beyond intention.