by Kaela Williams
Bonner Springs Elementary students are learning new character traits through community service.
This school year the school has integrated the “Leader in Me” program into the classroom, working to further enhance the school’s character curriculum, according to a spokesman.
“The Leader in Me,” developed by Franklin Covey, teaches 21st century leadership and life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on the idea that every child can be a leader.
During a “Leader in Me” lesson, students in a first-grade class watched a video about Socktober, an initiative started by Kid President to give socks to the homeless. The video was shown to demonstrate how students can learn to set goals and develop plans as leaders. Instead of just discussing the video, students asked their teacher if they could do their own sock drive and give back to the community.
“Immediately my class wanted to do more than just discuss what it means to be a leader,” Jody Moeschler said. “They wanted to make a difference.”
During the course of a few weeks the first-grade class worked with their peers to establish a goal and a timeline, get the word out about their project and start collecting.
Students have now collected more than 1,000 pairs of socks, which were donated to Vaughn-Trent, a Bonner Springs-based social services agency, and the Bonner Springs Elementary school nurse. This project was special, according to school personnel.
“Their excitement about wanting to make a difference was contagious,” Moeschler said. “Students took ownership, felt a connection to something bigger than themselves and wanted to talk about how they can help even more people in the future.”
Kaela Williams is the communications coordinator for the Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Public Schools.