Growing Great Leaders

The following is from a parent email sent to a teacher in our building.  Many thanks to this parent for her permission to use her story and words.  Any changes I’ve made are mostly in parentheses and were only to make the story clear for everyone or to protect names of our students.  Read on, and be prepared to better understand my school, our entire staff, and all of our supportive, remarkable students and parents.

I wanted to make sure that I shared this heartfelt moment with you regarding your wonderful class.  I was in (my daughter’s) class to take pictures and observe the 2nd Grade Bake Sale.  This was my first experience with it and what fun!

Prior to your class arriving, there was a little boy that did not bring in cookies to sell.  I heard the teacher ask if he would like to go down to (another teacher’s room) during the bake sale or if he would like to stay and watch.  He stated he wanted to stay and watch.  In front of him, he had his red bowl for the kids to deposit the money in when purchasing cookies.  It sat there even though he had no cookies to sell.

I watched your classroom come in, walk around and pick cookies to purchase.  I started noticing your kids placing money in his red bowl.  One by one, with no prompting and receiving NO goodies, the kids were adding money to his bowl. When your class left, he looked in amazement with the money he had collected.  (My daughter) sat next to him  and said,  “Wow, you collected more money than me!”

What a touching moment to see this all unfold!  I thought how hard it would be for that child to have no cookies to sell, but how wonderful your kids were to share the giving with him as well. This is one of those inspirational moments that sticks with you. No one will truly know or understand the impact this giving might have had on that little boy, but you know it is there!  One thing for certain, your kids got it! They understood how hard it must be for him to be there with no cookies and they gave freely to boost his spirits.  Now to all of the other classes, it will look like he sold out instead of him not bringing any cookies.

I thank you and your work with these kids. This story just brings tears to my eyes and warmness in my heart!   I know firsthand what an impact you have had on (my older son). The change in him this year is mind boggling to parents that thought he would never graduate (and I am actually being serious on that one). It is clear that you have that connection with all of your students! This is our first year at Novi Woods and without a doubt, it was the BEST decision to make that move to this school!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the kindness, guidance, support and love you provide to OUR children!!  YOU DO HAVE AN IMPACT! It is so deep and pure that it will be carried with them past the multiplication facts and (other weekly assignments).  This is something MORE, you are teaching them to be Great Leaders and what that truly means!  This is something that will take them farther than any other math problem or spelling test.  This is something that is needed more in our young generations and our future!

Please know that you are appreciated and thought very highly of!! You also hold a special place in my heart for all you have done with (our son)! We cannot thank you enough and his future WOULD not have been the same!!

Novi Woods…Growing Great Leaders!  Our building officially adopted this as our vision statement in December of 2011.  We recite it each day as part of our daily announcements.  It’s on our letterhead and email signature lines, and we prominently post it in the halls and over the front doors of our building.  We have a building program called Dens where we regroup our entire student body into small, multi-aged groups and teach a common lesson about leadership.  (Yes, I will need to write more about our Dens program in future Blog posts.  Quite simply, it is amazing.)  Our teachers and staff regularly use leadership language, and at least three times a year I teach school-wide, common lessons about leadership across the building.   

Even more, Novi Woods is a “Leader in Me” school as we work with the Franklin/Covey Institute to develop our students as leaders.  All K-6 staff in our district were trained in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and we are scheduled to participate in “Implementation Day” training this August to better help us bring the 7 Habits to our schools.

Yet, how do we measure leadership?  All of our students will be participating in our district’s Measures of Academic Progress testing over the next month.  We’ve had training on how to use the computer-based system, how to analyze and use the data from those tests, and how to communicate the scores to our parents.  While I welcome high academic expectations and am extremely confident our students will do well on these high-stakes, standardized tests, nothing…absolutely nothing…means more to me than stories like what this parent shared with us…stories of examples where our kids are making a difference.  I applaud my students--your children--,our parents, and my entire staff who understand that achievement can’t always be measured by a test.