Knoch introduces Leader in Me program at intermediate elementary school
JEFFERSON TWP — The Knoch School District prides itself on not just creating better students, but better leaders.
This school year, the Knoch Intermediate Elementary School — which houses fourth- and fifth-graders in the school district — is in the first full season of running the Leader in Me program, an educational program aiming to instill in its students the habits and ways of leadership.
The Leader in Me program had already been in place at Knoch Middle School for four years. Toward the end of the last school year, the program was partially rolled out at the intermediate elementary school for the first time and was fully implemented at the start of this school year.
“I was over at the middle school and I saw the success that they were having over there,” said Kim Fitzgerald, principal at Knoch Intermediate Elementary. “So we thought we could better support Leader in Me if we began it at the lower grades.”
Developed and marketed by FranklinCovey Education, Leader in Me is a nationwide student leadership program based on Stephen Covey’s popular self-help book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” According to FranklinCovey’s website, there are 2,905 schools in the United States alone that have adopted the Leader in Me program.
The Leader in Me program stresses improvement in three key areas: leadership, culture and academics.
Throughout the school day, instructors regularly work the lessons of Leader in Me into their regular teaching. In addition, four days a week, students at Knoch Intermediate Elementary are brought together for a 20-minute block dedicated to the program.
“Kids have an opportunity to talk about leadership and how they can be leaders and what that looks like,” Fitzgerald said. “There's a little video attached, and there's a couple questions that the students answer. It's basically just learning the language of the Seven Habits and putting them in action.”
“It's just all about encompassing how we can be the best version of ourselves,” Fitzgerald said.
According to Denise Chybrzynski, gifted support teacher at Knoch Intermediate Elementary, each week staff members choose and honor a group of children who best demonstrate the leadership traits encouraged and taught by the program.
The most recent honorees were 11 students from all of the intermediate grade levels. Among these were Beau Jackson, 9, who said he was recognized for “being kind, helping other people” and for “picking up stuff for people … helping people with their work.”
Also among the honorees was Gavin Graff, who said he was recognized for “being proactive, helping people out, putting first things first, and always getting my work done on time.”
The other nine students honored recently were Alyssa Salasky, Charlotte Phillips, Roman Thompson, Bryson Gourley, Matthew Castilyn, Sophie Connor, Payton Volpe, Gunnar Foreback, and Taylor Caplan.
