Leadership does not come from the curriculum. Leadership comes from the students carrying this out. All of us were students.
Teachers can empathize with these thoughts on the curriculum change swap. Is this going to cut into my planning period? Do I need another degree? Will it be so horrible by the third week that I need to change my whole year’s plans? We know these are untrue thoughts, but how could we, at the time, know otherwise?
You do not have to reinvent the wheel and can just give us one simple beginning.
To start leading a successful year with the iLead curriculum, here are steps on how to get started.
Step 1: Ask to see a sample lesson
Before leaping to all conclusions, ask to see a sample lesson by going to growingleaders.com and requesting a sample lesson for either your elementary, middle, or high school grade band. A lesson will be shown with a picture to spark imagination, a round table question to stir deep thought, and a scenario without a right or wrong answer.
This is a risk-free start with no strings attached, and remember, please don’t forget to see one lesson before seeing all of them because if you loved the first one, then you will love the rest!
Step 2: Trial run with a test group
Let the other teachers talk, and now it is time to think small. Think one advisory, one class-period, or a group of students participating in an after-school club. Just run two or three lessons and report back about what happened.
An advisory teacher ran her first iLead experience with twelve sixth graders over three weeks before officially deciding to try this with her entire course load. By doing this, she could see who spoke in the first conversation and who spoke in the third. Her knowledge from the twelve students conversations came back to her to then take to her principal or to a curriculum committee to advocate for her students. This was extremely helpful to her because this information allowed her to talk to her administration to let her pilot the new curriculum for the rest of the year.
Step 3: Sign up for training (it’s faster than you think)
If you were expecting a seminar all weekend, you might be pleasantly surprised. We have plenty of video training resources and a facilitator guide already made so that you don’t have to spend hours upon hours learning how to facilitate the round tables. You learn how to set them up, when to jump in, and what to do if, and when, the conversation goes off track because, with a room full of ten or seventeen year olds, it most certainly will. Many teachers are surprised to find that there is minimal time required to learn how to run this round table. And once you have seen this modeled, you realize that is is much simpler than you might have originally thought.
Step 4: Have your first round table
Your first round table does not have to be a fancy one, just a round one. Sit everyone in a circle, pass out the materials, and go. What is most surprising is how much you can step back.
Think about a high school teacher before her first round table as she prepares to lead and fill the empty conversation time. But once it begins, the first student starts reading the scenario out loud, and another student begins asking a question not in the scenario. By the fourth minute, this high school teacher is not asking questions. She is writing characteristics of leadership she otherwise would have never seen in her students had she spent the period filling up conversation time for them.
That’s it. End of your week one round table.
What Week One Looks Like vs. What Month Three Looks Like
Let’s talk expectations versus reality.
Week one can be scary, but it is just week one. Do not be surprised to find awkward pauses, or students who speak in class but not in conversation, or you speaking more than anticipated to lead conversation time.
None of these are indications that you have failed; it’s just week one, and week one looks like this for everyone you are doing something new.
Month three, on the other hand, does not look like week one.
At this point, students will be using iLead conversation strategies outside of the round tables: group projects, in the halls, and, most importantly, in their reasoning for the decisions they make. There will be less pauses, more student-based conversations, and more leadership qualities. There will also be less time you spend facilitating because as a teacher, you will be surprised at what your students can do.
This is why we ask that you commit to the year instead of a couple of units, because this curriculum’s character building is almost subtle. It is a character building that can only happen if you’re not watching for it.
What you’re thinking right now is….
“I don’t have time for anything else.”
We know. We don’t expect you to make time for us, only to take that little time you have and apply it to this curriculum with either your advisory, your CTE class, or your after-school group in the new year.
“I’m not a leadership guru.”
Good, this curriculum was never intended for leadership “gurus”. This curriculum is for those of us wanting to provide more leadership opportunities for our students. This is your job: to provide leadership, not necessarily have a degree in leadership.
“What if my pilot group does not like it?”
A quiet beginning is not a beginning that failed, it is just a beginning that is week one. Give these students a few more lessons and you will find a difference. If you are ever in need of resources to figure out what to do next, we have plenty of training for you to access.
What happens next? You do not need to plan out your entire year, but you do need a next step. See a sample lesson, try one lesson with one group, and let the students lead you to your next one. Now that you know how to lead with the iLead curriculum, go to growingleaders.com to see a sample and get started with your first conversation.
