It is all about Leadership Skills for every learner.

Being a leader and permeating our lives with faith in God is truly a heart-task! The season of Advent calls us to ‘wait in joyful hope’ for the coming of our Saviour Jesus. It is a time to remind us of our connection with God on a daily basis, and not just on Sundays. Throughout a regular school day, our faith in God becomes the support and guide to our words, actions and growth. Everyday learning is affected by this Spirit of God that makes the difference in how we look at those around us. We pray daily that every single child will develop their leadership skills and couch these skills with their longing and love of God. It is an encompassing task that we have. It is a package deal. Permeation is the fancy term that says ‘we are together in this’. We cannot separate our God lives with our regular lives. I believe that when these two actually come together the result is energy, enthusiasm and life changing experiences. What a joy it is to teach and learn in a Catholic School with leaders at every age!

It’s not hard to say we expect all students to grow up to be leaders. The truth comes in the resulting outcomes. Is it possible for every single student to learn leadership skills that will affect them for a lifetime? Here at St. Charles School we believe this is true. We also know it is true by the results of our Leadership project. Throughout the past school year we gathered data and compared this data to our baseline year 2008-2009. One statistic alone helps us to believe in our project. We have reduced behavioural issues by nearly 90% in comparison to our baseline year. That is simply amazing! Does that mean we don’t have behavioural issues? Of course we do. However, the difference comes in the way students learn to handle their own behaviours and make choices to support positive behaviour. The old axiom stands true: get the behaviours in line and the learning will increase. Once again, our resulting data proves this statement. Our goals support our desire for every single student: Be the change in the world. As we role into the month of November, we continue to work hard at the 7 Habits, effective behaviour and social justice for our world. Leadership in our world starts with skills learned in Kindergarten!

Literacy was her life. Literacy was her passion and everything she did supported this passion. St. Charles School was blessed to have the life, love and energy of Helen Hohmann as the Assistant Principal for four years. Her legacy will never be forgotten as the students of this school continue to be readers and leaders for a lifetime. Friday, October 07, 2011 marked a beautiful tribute to our Helen. The renaming of the library to the Helen Hohmann Multi-Media Centre is a most fitting and appropriate way of caring on her legacy. With a wonderful contingent of her family members present, personal friends of Helen and the entire student body, we remembered Helen and reminded ourselves of her wonderful gifts and love of literacy, learning and life. Two beautiful plaques will be permanently fixed at the two doors of the Multi-Media Centre. Both plaques have a picture of Helen and represent the way we will remember her. One plaque was presented by the St. Charles School Council of parents and the other by the family members of Helen. Thank you to all who made this a most special and significant day in the lives of all of us who live at St. Charles School. Thank you to all the guest speakers and to the leaders of ceremonies (Sophia and Daniel). Everyone did a spectacular job, and the result was a memory that will never leave us. Blessings to every student and parent at our school as we realize an angel in heaven is watching over us and drawing us closer to our God.

As much as the above title sounds rather dull and boring, as an educator I find it to be the root of good teaching and planning. Throughout the month of September every single teacher is doing just that. We are assessing every student, identifying strengths and gifts; identifying areas of concern and areas for growth. This may be in learning, behaviours or health issues. Our goals are quite simple actually: to identify what work needs to be done for each individual child to become effective learners and leaders in our school. Once areas of growth and needs are identified, the strategies fall into place and are implemented. This includes excellent conversations with parents, with colleagues and especially with the student. The beauty of a sound education incorporates every asset possible and implementing strategies for growth, excellence and effectiveness. It is not about passing tests. It is about teachers knowing where their students are and taking them to the next level. Welcome to September. May our work as a team of educators with all our students bear fruit that will last.

I told you it wasn’t going to rain. Thirteen years and it has never rained on the first day of school. What a great record. The back yard of St Charles School was once again filled with the excited voices of young children straining with their new backpacks, anxiously waiting to enter their school and new classroom. 355 leaders all ready to go! We have entered our 3rd year of Leadership for ALL. The results are amazing. Our leadership skills have escalated, our disruptive behaviors continue to drop and our social justice projects flourish and change the lives of our students and community. Keep an eye on our school as we deepen our leadership skills. Check out Kindergarten as we ‘open the walls’ and ‘think outside the box’ about the real power of individualized learning. It’s going to be another powerful year of leadership learning. Come and see!!

The summer is moving quickly, yet at just the right speed.  I have managed to travel from Edmonton to Jasper, to Banff, to Canmore, to Calgary, to Medicine Hat and then back.  Spending time with family, especially my two grandsons has been incredible.  It has also been a time of totally relaxing, reading, biking, walking and getting odd jobs done around the house.  My head is just now starting to go back to school, so I will need to make time for a quick visit.  I am trusting the wall opening in the Kindergarten classroom has been completed as well as a new Smart Board installed in the Library for staff meetings and student use.  I am confident about the staff for the coming school year, knowing that every year we grow stronger and more effective with our students.  Students continue to grow as leaders and we are able to demonstrate the results.  September will see the release of the data for this past year and a comparison with the first year of our Leadership For All project.  I want to say to all the students and parents of St. Charles School:  enjoy the remaining weeks of summer.  I look forward to connecting with all of you, to hear your stories and to set new goals for our coming school year.  Blessings to all of you.

It’s done!  Really!!  And for all intents and purposes, it has been a most successful day for us at St. Charles School.  Our students were gems!!  The leadership of every single student, staff and parent all came together for a day of sharing and memories.  From our top notch keynote speakers, Mayor Mandel, Joan Carr, Rob Fortier, Chris Hilgendorf, Thomas Lukazsuk,Gail Green and of course Abby, our day set a standard beyond words!  The delegates were superb!  The energy in the room carried the day with smiles, support and a comment that it felt like they were all at a spa, with the wonderful care of the parent volunteer group!  Now THAT’S service.  Way to go parents!!  I can only begin to thank everyone.  I first thank the students for just being themselves.  It is because of you that this is all possible.  Thank you STAFF.  The sharing of this vision was so clearly reflected in the words of Mayor Mandel when he said ‘I am only one vote!”  Well folks, I am only one vote!! I can’t do anything worthwhile in this school without this team!  You are all stars.  Thank you parents.  Your love and support of the children of St. Charles makes all this real.  Keep coming back.  Thank you wonderful support staff.  From food preparation, decorations, organization, colour, right down to the finest detail…it was truly appreciated.  I want to name all of you, and I do!  I also want to name Peter, Linda P, Linda P and Helen!  Whew!  You were right beside us all the way!!  Way to go Grade Level teams!!  Your energy and enthusiasm is what makes the glue for our school.  Thank you Essey and Meghan!  What true leaders you are, to the core!  I know you will never forget this day.  I know you will speak about this day when you take the podium as adults!  Yes, you truly are Leaders for a Lifetime!!  We will celebrate this day for the rest of the school year as we continue our journey into Leadership, caring for our world, and growing in maturity and faith.  Thank you St. Charles School.  I am truly proud of you!  Look out next year.  April 20, 2012 is our next Leadership Day.  Mark your calendars!!

After an incredible experience in Red Deer at the end of January, we are now ready to pull together our own Leadership Day 2011.  What does that mean?  Actually, the sole purpose of Leadership Day is to showcase to interested educators and visitors the importance of teaching leadership skills to all students, why this is so important, and what the results look like.  We have already had two staff meetings and two Core Leadership Day Planning sessions in preparation for our big day.  I am very happy to inform you that Mayer Steven Mandel (Mayor of our wonderful city) will be the keynote speaker in the morning, giving us his take on the importance of being a leader in the 21st century.  I am told that he is especially excited about coming to an Elementary School to talk about leadership.  We have a very exciting DRAFT schedule of the day with many events being finalized.  The cost of the day will be $50 per person to attend, which includes a continental breakfast, lunch, and prepared materials for the day.  ]Every single student will be involved in some way during the day.  The highlight of the day (besides our speakers) will be the classroom visits.  Every delegate who attends will have a hands-on opportunity to visit classrooms and watch our leaders in action.  Be prepared to be wowed!!!  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school at 780-456-5222.  Advertising will be sent out and linked on our web site in the coming weeks.

Friday, January 28, 2011 will go down as a Red Letter day for the staff of St. Charles School.  We travelled to Red Deer to visit Joseph Welsh Elementary School.  It has been incorporating the 7 Habits for the past four years and has become a Lighthouse School.  Friday was their Leadership Day: a day to share with everyone just what is going on at their school and why teaching leadership is such an important part of the culture of a school.

We left at 6:00 a.m., picked up three staff on the South side and then headed for Red Deer.  Just being together in the bus ride to and from Red Deer had a wonderful way of connecting the staff. We continue to share in many experiences that tie us together as a unified group of people with the same vision and mission.  Once there, we only had to ‘take in’ the day.  It was amazing.  We are greeted by students right from the start.  We are invited to the gymnasium and need to walk the gauntlet of beautiful rainbow t-shirt coloured students as they welcomed each and everyone of us to their school.  Once in the gym, our personally named folders and tags are given out and we find a seat in the completely filled room.  After O Canada, a performance by a student choir and some general introductions, we are now able to listen to the lady who really did start all of the ‘Leader In Me’ concepts, Mrs. Muriel Sommers, principal of A. B. Combs school in North Carolina.  Her message is simple, yet powerful:  give students the principles of leadership and they will succeed beyond our wildest expectations.  Not only that, behaviours will improve and academics will improve.

At St. Charles, we have been incorporating the 7 Habits, Effective Behavioural Supports and Stages of Social Justice for a year and a half already, and we know what Muriel says is true. Our students continue to grow, learn and experience the traits of leadership that will take them into adult life, helping them become the leaders of their future. The key to this is:  ALL students regardless of grade, age, ability or background can become leaders.  We know that and continue to prove that day after day.  Our experience at Joseph Welsch School helped us to see that we are truly on the journey and will continue with this journey.  At the same time, we wanted to ‘steal ideas’ from the school to help us prepare our own Leadership Day, to be held on Friday, April 15, 2011.  Over the next two months, our entire staff will be working directly with students to prepare ourselves and help us to demonstrate to our school community just how effective and important Leadership skills are for every student.  More information will be made available over the next 4 weeks, letting you know how to register for our event should you decide to come and see what is happening at our school.  At the same time, that day, after school we will be hosting our annual Kindergarten Open House.  As always, this open house will be completely lead by current Kindergarten Students who are eager and excited to share with new students and parents just how important Kindergarten and Leadership is for those who attend our school.  Keep that date open and watch our web site for more information.

Thank you Joseph Welsh School (Red Deer) for allowing us to catch a glimpse of the power of leadership in your school.  It was a wonderful day, with many ‘ahha’ moments as we watched you ‘be yourselves’ and BE LEADERS!  A special thanks to Mr. Michael Fritz (principal of Joseph Welsh School) for inviting us and allowing us to join his school for the day.  Also, thanks to Gail Green (from Franklin Covey) for your wonderful support and energy.

We now begin the work of preparing for our Leadership Day.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  Remember:  Leadership for ALL.  Check out  www.theleaderinme.org for further information.  Our school even has a red flag on the World Map to show you where we are.  Very cool.

On Wednesday, January 26, 2011 our school was visited by two very cool ladies, one from near Toronto and one from Salt Late City, Utah.  Their mission was to see how the 7 Habits have affected the life and culture of our school.  Gail and Sarah had a chance to meet with half of the teaching staff who were working closely together, collaborating and discussing how the 7 Habits continue to be integrated in our daily teaching and learning with our students.  This was followed by a visit to the Kindergarten classroom.  I have always been very proud of Kindergarten.  Our enrolment numbers continue to rise and there is a life and energy in our Kindergarten that seems to flow over into everything that is happening in our school.  Today was no exception.  The ladies entered the classroom and were immediately greeted by two  students who walked up to them, looked them in the eye, extended their hand, said their name and said, “Welcome to my classroom!”  The teacher did not cue them, or tell them to do this.  In fact, the teacher continued with her lesson while this was going on.  What followed was a smile maker.  The teacher led the students into an activity that called them to select their ‘big rocks’ or the most important things in their lives.  Things like God, friends, numbers, and especially ‘Change the World’, were spoken out loud.  As these were named, the teacher wrote each item on a small piece of paper.  This paper was then taped to a rock, about the size of a fist.  It didn’t take long to realize what was happening. Students were trying to figure out how to set up their lives so that all the ‘big rocks’ or most important things would get done, while at the same time having fun, playing DS, and relaxing would still fit in.  If you would like to see an ‘adult’ version of this lesson, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VDxKLSyksI

By the end of the afternoon I could only marvel at the growth of all of our students (from Kindergarten to Grade Six), the things they learned and the excitement they demonstrated.  The lives of every student in our school have been affected by the 7 Habits.  The results in one year include over 50% reduction in disruptive classroom behaviour.  As well, students know that each one has a mission in life to ‘change the world’.  Our three pillars: The 7 Habits, Effective Behavioural Supports and The Five Stages of Social Justice have become our guide posts.  Our results are clear and visible.  Thank you students, staff and parents.  I love coming to work every day with the finest group of people in the world.