Developing student leadership proves to be a big challenge for some schools. Adolescents and young people are increasingly becoming distracted. They are actually subjected to so many advertisements and media messages. They can be easily hooked by a lot of things.

Young people can easily spend hours upon hours just watching TV. They can even stay up late just trying to catch their favorite TV shows. This is probably one of the reasons why the incidence of obesity among teenagers and adolescents is rising. If they can be motivated to do something else and take leadership, they can probably bring down the obesity level in the world.

Video games can also hook kids easily. When they are addicted to a video game, they can even spend 24 hours straight just playing in front of the computer or the game console. This can be pretty alarming for parents and teachers because the kids may end up wasting their gifts and skills instead of developing their potentials.

Kids may also be distracted by texting and the less wholesome habit of sexting. In addition to this, the demands of school may keep them occupied and unwilling to participate in any activity that will lead to developing student leadership. They are also daunted by leadership tasks because they may feel that they lack the skills necessary for such tasks. Read the rest of this entry »

Related posts

• Legal Translation, A Special Language Made on Purpose
• Appreciating More About International Conference Calls
• Grow Your Member Organization by Collaborating in Smart Ways
• Business Ethics and Unethical Practices
• I Am Not Afraid of Peace, But I Am Wise Enough Not to Seek Or Succumb to Weakness

It is exciting times to be involved in student leadership training!

Many schools around the workld are beginning to rethink both the way they train their student leaders and also how they harness the tremendous leadership potential of their students.

Recently, I have been involved in two very innovative training programs that are worth noting.

First, a secondary school and four of its feeder schools conducted a training program together over two days at the end of 2004 for one hundred of their student leaders. The program focused on developing essential elements such as presentations skills and teamwork skills, as well as helping students clarify their roles. Classroom teachers conducted the sessions and the local secondary school was used as a base. A further training day took place at the start of the year to give the students an opportunity to develop their roles even further.

This training model has a number of benefits. Not only does it provide terrific professional development opportunities for teachers, but also it helps ease the transition to secondary school for many students.

Another good training program was organised by the Heads of Independent Coeducational Schools in Australia. Over two hundred and twenty elected student leaders gathered for a day of leadership workshops conducted by their teachers. Working in groups the students had the opportunity to expand their horizons when they mixed with leaders from over twenty different schools. As well as honing their skills needed for their particular roles this group began to look at ways to take their leadership to another level by developing self-initiated projects. Read the rest of this entry »

Related posts

• Grow Your Member Organization by Collaborating in Smart Ways
• Technology in and For the Instrumental Music Classroom
• The Generalized System of Preferences
• World Economy
• What Parents Need to Know About Educational Consultants and College Admissions

Leadership is a popular topic both in the business and education worlds. The main reason for this popularity is that effective leadership is a primary factor for the success of any organization. By implementing leadership at the middle school and high school grades, the belief is that this earlier intervention will ultimately help not only the students, but the local communities, small businesses and larger corporate citizens.

What constitutes an effective middle school or high school system wide leadership program that delivers a positive return on your investment? These 10 pointers may help you better answer that question.

1. All staff must be developed at leaders to ensure consistency of behaviors through modeling. From bus drivers to superintendents, these individuals become role models for many young people. If their behavior is not consistent with any curriculum, then the likelihood of sustained success is doubtful. Using a student leadership program that evolved from a proven adult leadership process is probably a better way to proceed.

2. The desired end results for this leadership program should be clearly articulated before adoption of any curriculum. Simple benchmarks could be improved grades, improved high school retention and less discipline referrals. All benchmarks need to be measurable because as the old adage goes “if you can measure it, you can’t manage it.” This is the beginning to determine a positive or negative return on your investment for the leadership program or any change initiative. Read the rest of this entry »

Related posts

• Role of Computers in the Promotion of Environmental Education
• Technology in and For the Instrumental Music Classroom
• Just Ask, Right? No!
• Hello from Ottawa – Darcy McGee’s on Sparks Street: An Irish Pub with a Bit of History
• Meeting For Fixing Meeting