West Side named a Leader in Me campus
West Side Elementary in Jacksonville, Texas is proud to join over 5000 public, private, charter and magnet schools worldwide in becoming a Leader in Me school. Leader in Me is a whole school transformation process that teaches 21stcentury leadership and life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment where we believe every child can be a leader.
The content of Leader in Me is based on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The 7 habits is a set of universal and timeless principals of interpersonal effectiveness. These principles include responsibility, integrity, vision, teamwork, collaboration, and self-care. They will provide our children with the tools to build stronger relationships as well as skills for a promising future.
By developing the whole child and instilling the content from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we believe we can change the normal trajectory path for our students. Instead of seeing some children as naturally smart and others not, we believe that every child is capable and every child is a leader.
Leader in Me uses a model that creates new paradigms, effective practices, and real results and is based on a theory of change known as the See-Do-Get Cycle. When you change the way you See things, it influences what you Do and the results you Get.
Leader in Me uses five core Paradigms to see differently. Through this, educators begin to see their role, student potential, and the purpose of school culture in a new way. The Leader in Me helps educators rediscover their passion through Leader in Me as it redirects their focus back to a deeper understanding of student achievement. These five core paradigms are:
- EVERYONE CAN BE A LEADER
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- Not this: Leadership is for the few
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- EVERYONE HAS GENIUS
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- Not this: Only a few are gifted
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- CHANGE STARTS WITH ME
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- Not this: To improve schools, the system needs to change first
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- EDUCATORS EMPOWER STUDENTS TO LEAD THEIR OWN LEARNING
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- Not this: Educators control and direct student learning
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- DEVELOP THE WHOLE PERSON
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- Not this: Focus solely on academic achievement
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The Leader in Me program is an additional choice Jacksonville ISD provides for students and parents as they navigate the ever-changing landscape of education. JISD Superintendent Dr. Chad Kelly says, “We are excited to add yet another choice for our elementary students and families. Our four elementary campuses each offer a complete and thorough curriculum, but each identifies a “focus” area or a specific program. We are extremely proud of our 25 year-long Dual Language Program having tremendous success at Fred Douglass Elementary, the Applied Learning Community (ALC), which involves Project Based Learning offered at East Side Elementary, and Joe Wright Elementary’s focus on STEM-based learning and STEM Clubs. We could not be happier to add Leader in Me to the West Side Elementary campus”.
“We would like to thank Leader.org for helping us reach our goal of becoming a Leader in Me school. The Leader in Me grant of $42,000.00 sponsored by Panda Express will help our school reach our goals for our students faster and even better. We are committed to creating a school that knows no limits to the future success of our students. We only get one chance to prepare our students for their future and that time is NOW!”, states Alicia Tennison, Principal of West Side Elementary.
Students in elementary grades may specify and apply for a certain program when enrolling. An application process is in place for each these already established programs, and the Leader in Me program will be implemented during this school year. More information will be available soon on the jisd.org website, and West Side parents are asked to complete a Leader in Me parent survey recently e-mailed to them. For more information about the Leader in Me program, please visit the official website, leaderinme.org.