Student Leadership

Student leaders empower themselves, their classmates and their school. See how to identify and galvanize student leaders as essential partners in learning.

Transcript

{Title up} Leading Success: Dynamic Solutions for Every School, Every Student.

CHALLENGE: Students will follow the example of their peers – good or bad.

PRINCIPAL VERA WEHRING (BF Terry High School) – {audio} There are a few key teachers on any campus and a few key students that you can pull into an idea and get a lot of work done very quickly. {video up} If they’re on board, everyone will be on board.

CHALLENGE: Empower the good, not just the popular

STUDENT (BF Terry High School) – {audio} Our school is a big machine and you don’t have one power source, you have many… {video up} You have your gears that turn but if there’s that one gear that doesn’t quite make it, it’ll slow the machine down. As long as we have student leaders – to me, that’s the gear: the gear that keep it running; because what a principal might think is right or a staff [member] might think is right is different from the students’ belief. The students have a voice here. Your voice is heard. And everything is taken into consideration.

M. COZINE (Northwest Prep) – Every child is different so you need to individualize your plan. Which not every school does. You need to have an individualized plan for every student.

BEST PRACTICES: EMPOWER LEADERSHIP BY IDENTIFYING AND DEVELOPING IT.

PRINCIPAL VERA WEHRING (BF Terry High School) – Picking the students who may not be the most fun, maybe not even the most popular, but that other students look up to and respect and know that if they say it’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay.

PRINCIPAL VERA WEHRING (BF Terry High School) – So it’s being observant and, again, don’t be afraid to ask: “If someone were going to do this, who would you follow?” And most of the time you’ll get an answer with that.

BEST PRACTICES: ENCOURAGE INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES THAT PROMOTE STUDENT QUESTIONING AND OPINION SHARING.

{B-roll from MO Ramay discussion class}

STUDENT (BF Terry High School) – The leadership is brought out when the teachers ask you something and you know it. It’s you that has it…you just don’t know about it quite yet. A piece of coal can become a diamond: a little bit of pressure, a little bit of polish…and you’re good!