From the Archives: March

It was great seeing so many of you in Grand Rapids at States 2020. The student leaders and advisors from Dakota did an amazing job planning and then providing attendees with a meaningful three days of leadership speakers, workshops and activities. Dave Conlon did a great job in sharing his insights and observations from across the border on role of the advisor. Kevin Sutton’s update on legal issues related to student activities was again well received (and not long enough)! The afternoon of sharing ideas in the Best of Best session and round tables gave advisors the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from each other. We hope you found some additional good ideas in your Jostens Renaissance box. Mrs. Heethuis was also  smiling when I came back from Grand Rapids with eight fewer boxes of stuff than I left Traverse City with. The materials are much more useful in your hands than in our basement.

In Grand Rapids, several advisors asked me if I had any information on starting a Leadership Class or Leadership Class curriculum. This was also one of our round table topics and is the focus of this month’s From the Archives.

The Leadership Class has been a frequent topic at national and state workshops for 40 years. The increasing complexity of required curriculum and the curriculum proposal process have made it necessary to share the learning objectives, topic areas, class activities and grading schemes with the committees that approve curriculum. Most of the articles attached have been collected at workshops presented at the annual NAWD/NCSA conference I talked about in Grand Rapids. You will also find a copy of the PowerPoint Matt created to share our organization’s Leadership Curriculum Standards. I also have attached a pdf copy of the NASSP-DSA publication How to Start a Leadership Class by Linda Teague Rogers. There is no single right way to establish the curriculum, activities and grading scale. Hopefully the attached documents will give you some options to consider. As a final note, when I proposed the Student Leadership Class for Chippewa Valley High School many years ago, the course was not assigned to a particular department. It was a non-departmentally assigned elective credit. This allowed the current S/G Advisor or Activity Director to teach the class. I was a science teacher, my successor was a math teacher and his successor was a Social Studies teacher. This allowed us to deal with “are you certified to teach the course” questions and requirements.

As always feel free to contact me if you any questions or if you have a suggestion for a future “From the Archives”. Enjoy Spring!

March Digital Archives Folder