We just completed our second week of the "Yes We Can Lead" apprenticeship with our sixth grade students at the the Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, MA. This is our second semester running this apprenticeship, and each day seems to get more exciting. Below are a couple of highlights from our first two weeks:
Week 1: What is Leadership?
- We worked as a class to better define "leadership" and the qualities that make someone a leader
- We set class norms that we'd all abide by as a class
- We watched a video on Mother Theresa and discussed what made her a leader
- We identified different leaders in the community that we admire, and talked about which of them we might invite to our final WOW! presentation
- We played games to get to know one another as a class, such as "Pass the Thunder"
- Melanie, our Director of Quality and Effectiveness, prepared a survey for the kids so we can track our effectiveness and progress this semester
- We played a game that got the kids pretending that they were at a 10-year class reunion and imagining where we would all be ten years from now
- Reid, Dalumuzi and Ujunwa demonstrated their acting skills by leading us in skits on identifying the difference between a 'boss' and a 'leader'
- Sheba led us in an exercise that helped students figure out what style (or color) of leadership they most identified with, also discussing that there were different kinds of leaders
- We closed by having the students reflect on what they had learned in their journals, and started brainstorming ideas for the WOW! social change projects for this semester
Sincerely,
The Social Outreach Team
