'Strategies for Success' for colleges
Columbine...Virginia Tech...the Amish
School house
Is there anything we as educators
could have done to prevent these tragedies? These questions will
plague all of us for years to come. The solution is a puzzle,
complex with many missing pieces.
I believe I have an important piece of that puzzle and I want to
share it with the schools throughout the US. I am a 28 year veteran
of the classroom and a finalist in the Cable in the Classroom's
Leaders in Learning Awards. On the day of Columbine, I decided that
we all have to help find solutions - educators, parents, teens,
society as a whole. I grabbed a notepad and began writing what I
thought teens needed to survive and thrive in the 21st century.
That notepad became the basis of a program that changed the climate
of my high school and to date the lives of the over 2500 students
who have been a part of it. It addresses issues that face the
students in your schools: bullying, poor attendance, boredom, lack
of interest, low achievement, and disconnection from each other and
their world.
'Strategies for Success,' a one semester academic course focusing on
leadership and success skills, not only addresses these issues, it
also creates a sense of community, achievement and overall success
that is often only found in extra-curricular activities or outside
of school. What's most important is that teens love the course and
how it prepares them for life at a time when they often feel lost
and neglected in a world over saturated with media and poor role
models.
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