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LEADER IN ME GRANTS ASSIST STUDENTS AT TWO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
- Updated: November 1, 2013
Students at Dora Romero Elementary are part of Leader in Me program. Photo: LFCISD
Successful grant applications have resulted in two Los Fresnos CISD elementary schools – Palmer-Laakso Elementary and Dora Romero Elementary – adopting The Leader In Me program for 2013-14.
The Leader in Me is a whole-school transformation model based on “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” a best-selling book by Stephen Covey.
The Leader in Me produces transformational results such as higher academic achievement, fewer discipline problems, and increased engagement among teachers and parents.
“The Leader in Me brings another dimension to our campus,” Dora Romero Elementary School principal Melanie McCormick said. “Learning these habits and integrating them into our daily lives is helping all of us, staff and students, be better students, friends, educators, and citizens. We want students to be able to take responsibility for their own learning, choose to have a good attitude, and have a vision for their future.”
The “Seven Habits” include Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win-Win, Seek First to Understand – Than to Be Understood, Synergize, and Sharpen the Saw.
“The habits aren’t anything extraordinary, but they are practical ways to live,” McCormick said. “These are skills that will help our students beyond the doors of our school into college, the workplace, and in their families.”
Palmer-Laakso Elementary principal Jerri Gomez hopes that students are learning to be more responsible learners as well.
“As students are learning the Seven Habits, they are demonstrating higher personal accountability,” Gomez said. “The reaction has been positive excitement, high participation and ideas on how to apply the Seven Habits to their own lives and those of their families.”
The program has made a big impact on students at Dora Romero Elementary, as well.
“We have already seen changes in how our students carry themselves,” McCormick said. “Students look for ways in which they can be proactive, realizing that they are in charge of their actions and attitudes. Beginning with the end in mind and putting first things first are two habits that we are seeing our students embrace.”
There are nearly 1,500 schools, mostly elementary, around the country using the program that teaches principles from the book, including “think win-win,” ”seek first to understand, then to be understood” and “synergize.”
Parents have also told both principals that they have noticed changes in their children. Several parents have said that students come home in the afternoon and immediately sit down to do their homework before they play.
Matthew Padilla, fourth grade student at Dora Romero Elementary, says his favorite habits are Habit 6, Synergize and Habit 7 Sharpen the Saw.
“I’ve always liked to work on my own, but I realize that by working together we make a better team,” Padilla said. “I like to Sharpen the Saw after working hard. I like to play in baseball tournaments and spend time with my family.”