Dear Difference Maker,

I think we’d all agree, there are just some people who are born leaders while other people must learn to lead.   

Regardless of how we are neurologically wired, learning to be the leaders of our own lives can help any community we live and work in be better for having us in it.  This is what we want our students to come to know and experience.

I’ll never forget the conversation I had once with my second husband when he shared that he didn’t believe there could be two leaders in one family.  This was news to me.  I had been an independent provider for myself and my son for many years before meeting and marrying him.  I had thought it was understood that we were both leaders of our own lives and that by coming together it was a shared leadership.

After much discussion about this one topic, we decided that the healthiest thing we could do for our marriage is to collaborate and be a team.  Now, twenty-eight years later, it’s still working well for us!

There’s no better time than the present to experience the healing power of interpersonal leadership through community building.  The last 9-Weeks of any school year are pivotal in creating the excitement and expectancy of getting on with the next school year.

Learn more about how to make your classroom safe, all-inclusive and hum with academic productivity with my “9 Weeks to A Make A Difference Year” program.

Click the link for more information and be the one to set the tone!

Reaching out …

PS … For purchases over $100 Pre-Apply to Buy with a Purchase Order. School-Wide licensing is available.

Founder of Heart Productions & Publishing, the Pacific Northwest

The Importance of Community and Leadership 
Excerpt from 9 Weeks to a Make A Difference Year Curriculum

How many leaders can one classroom community have?

You’ve heard the statement, “Be careful what you wish for.”  Well, if what you wish for is a classroom that is self-regulating, self-advocating, self-governing, safe, all-inclusive and a high-performing group then you will need to be able to do your part to reach, teach and guide them in the ways of Interpersonal Leadership, and then let go of micromanaging.

You will need to encourage them all to be the leaders of their own lives and also how to come together as a community which understands that there is no “i” in team.  Diversity makes us stronger when we lean into each other’s strengths to find the best pathway forward.

Our unity is our strength and diversity is our power.
-Kamala Harris

In order to nurture and grow each student’s “inner leader” you will need to be able to hear their “truth” as they are finding their voices.  As a counselor, I found that as I worked with students on getting in touch with their thoughts and feelings, that when they went back to their classrooms more empowered than when they left, not all teachers welcomed individual leadership in every student.

All this means is that as students are learning how to lead their own lives, they must also learn that they are not an island. Once you’ve taught your students how to speak to things that are important to them, in ways that others will listen, you are well on your way to a truly amazing teaching experience.

So realize, if you really want your students to become self-leading, self-advocating and self-regulating but if by chance you have an unconscious bias toward certain students and those students start calling you out on your bias, it’s going to stretch you.  Just sayin’!

The best way forward is 1) own it if there’s even a seed of truth to what they are feeling coming from you, 2) apologize for not realizing it and doing something about it before now, and 3) invite everyone to go forward with you into a better way of doing things.

Week 7 of my 9 Week program emphasizes trust as an essential ingredient for empowering community and leadership.  This week’s activity explores, “Do you trust yourself to lead?  Do you trust your fellow classmates’ leading capabilities?  If not, let’s explore what’s going on for you that you don’t.”

In addition to the leadership activity, this week’s movie observes one teen’s willingness to do the right thing, just because it was the right thing and a life was not only restored, it was saved.

This week’s objective is to demonstrate how trust makes a way for support, leadership, collaboration and cooperation to take place.  To build a safe community, we must be willing to communicate and care for each other’s personal and emotional well being.

When leaders see something going on that is hurtful and harmful, they will stand up for their peers.  What if you developed 30 leaders in your classroom who will make a stand in and out of the classroom when needed?

But here’s the thing:  Doing this for others creates a caring, safe place for ourselves.

Finding Each Student’s Inner Leader is Key

Peer pressure can be a very good thing when it’s encouraging and calling out the best in our fellow classmates.  There’s nothing so empowering than a group of your peers cheering you on to take the lead of your life.  It’s confidence building.

Leading your own life requires doing the right thing even when it’s the hardest thing.  Doing so builds confidence in yourself and your ability to navigate the emotional ups and downs of life.

One of the unexpected gifts that came out of 9 weeks of daily vigilance came when I’d see my students leading the way by standing up for our most vulnerable students on the playground, in the lunchroom and hallways.  They were following what they’d seen me model with WIW by talking “with” not “at” the offending students. That’s when you know, as an educator, that you are making a lasting, positive difference.

There’s no better time than the present.

The last 9 Weeks of any school year – and particularly this chaotic school year – are pivotal in creating comradery, so they can end the year with the excitement and expectancy of getting on with the next school year.

Learn more about how to make your classroom safe, all-inclusive and hum with academic productivity with my “9 Weeks to A Make A Difference Year” Curriculum.

Your Road Map:  1) one class period a week for nine weeks: play a heart connecting movie and/or engage students in a community building activity which you will then use to, 2) direct the conversation using my “done for you” questions to, 3) explore what is really on in your students’ hearts and minds. When you follow my 9-Week Make A Difference Year Curriculum you will …

• slow everything down and breathe a collective breath.
• ease your students into constructive and productive social emotional engagement with “done for you” activities and discussion questions.
• learn deeper levels about each student by listening to them discuss “what came up” for them about the movie or activity.
• start tuning-in to your students’ “hidden stressors” that each of them is struggling with daily, not just academically, but socially and emotionally to build a common bond.
• experience the transformational power of my WIW – “What, If, When” – technique, to shift the energy of the room in 30 seconds or less as intense situations come up (and they will come up)!
• see unskillful behaviors with new eyes of understanding, hear with healing ears.
• be thrilled at how a safe, inclusive and caring community will yield calm minds and accelerate learning.
• marvel at how quickly students – particularly those who are normally behind – are able to catch up and even pull ahead.

Click the link for more information and get started now!

For purchases over $100 Pre-Apply to Buy with a Purchase Order. School-Wide licensing is available.