Leadership Program

Leadership Overview

At Williamsburg Intermediate, we aim to provide the highest quality, online project-based education available to intermediate age students. We do this through offering an integrated curriculum with caring mentors, and engaging, meaningful projects. At the center of everything we do and offer is our Leadership program.

Curriculum

Our Leadership curriculum covers the following subjects:

Self leadership
Public leadership
Heroes, Adventures, Gifts & Barriers
Literature/biographies
Creative writing
Crocodiles International Leadership concepts
Effective study and scheduling concepts and habits

Self leadership

Self-control lies at the base of sound institutions of every level of society. In Leadership classes we explore what it means to lead one’s self, and we discuss how this base serves as a critical societal support.

Public leadership

Great leaders come in many shapes and sizes. We discuss what leadership means – individually and collectively. We do projects that help us to become the leader within.

Heroes/adventures/gifts/barriers

We develop a personal repository of our own, personalized lessons pertaining to each of these things. This serves as a sort of journal; a personal guide; a compilation of what inspires us most and helps us do our best even under challenging conditions.

Literature/biographies

Stories serve as inspirational guides along our path towards leadership. We read fictional, and real, accounts of people who faced incredible barriers and lived to share the lessons they learned.

Creative writing

Every person has the capacity to write with fluidity, thoughtfulness and creativity. We build this into our Leadership program because communication is such an essential element of life, and we want students to be prepared to lead through writing.

Crocodiles International

We will cover the following animals and leadership characteristics: armadillos (mind mastery) & falcon (effectiveness & efficiency); snow leopard (timing and timeliness) & rhino (commitment); goose (value) & meerkat (effective goal setting); giraffe (continuous improvement) & flying fish (innovative thinking). We will also ask the following questions:

How does mind mastery = life mastery?; How does focused activity increase productivity? How does mastering timing help us develop wisdom? Is commitment at the heart of successful endeavors?; How does working towards goals you value help you follow through?; How does clarity of purpose help me achieve purposeful activity?; How can challenging myself help me improve?; How can daring to be different help me to grow beyond existing obstacles?

Effective study and scheduling concepts and habits

Students who learn to study and schedule effectively in middle school are far more capable of excelling in the middle and high school, and beyond. We mentor students in these topics through weekly scheduling submissions, and through projects and class time lessons and discussions. Initially we rely on parents to schedule a weekly session with their student to review the coming week’s assignments and create a workable schedule with them. Our goal is to not only understand basic concepts of effective study and scheduling, but also to make those concepts habits in our lives, adapted to each person’s unique personality and abilities.

Why leadership?

Students moving from childhood to young adulthood are experiencing unfamiliar, uncomfortable change. At this age it is natural to begin asking questions about identity, potential, capacity and nature. They begin to push beyond boundaries of family and home, and their wonderings and wanderings move towards people and experiences outside of what they have previously known. At the same time, students this age often experience mini-crises when previous definitions of self, worth, truth, and friendship seem to collide or contrast with new experiences and ideas. Typically, pre-teens chart their course through this emotional wasteland without map or compass; they attempt to navigate based on shallow friendships, fluctuating emotions, unstable self worth, and uncertainty about their future.

At Williamsburg Intermediate, we begin every day with helping students discover the hidden potential for leadership in each challenge they face. Rather than seeing this time of life as a time to be endured, students come to see the particular significance their efforts have. They begin to uncover nascent leadership capacities.

In small classes with inspiring mentors, students learn to survey their lives and themselves with the help of unchanging truths; life soon feels less accidental and more creative. In Leadership classes students identify their own unique heroes, adventures, gifts and barriers, and establish patterns of turning to these guidelines. They learn that amidst changing hormones, friendships and circumstances, they can uncover their inner strengths and inspirations, and find anchoring guidance through purposeful patterns. The path of self-discovery becomes a joy and an adventure rather than mindless, purposeless race to the end.

How it works

Live class interaction

Live interaction in the Leadership program centers around pod meetings, and tutor hours.

Leadership Pod Meetings. Students meet daily in groups of 9 to 12 with a leadership coach. In these personalized settings, students find daily inspiration and accountability. Small group meetings and leadership coaches are key elements in allowing each student to be known, be successful and be recognized for his or her educational efforts on a daily basis. We visit with guests who have overcome incredible odds; we share what we have learned about ourselves and each other; and we discuss inspirational literature.
Tutor hours: All Leadership Coaches have time on Fridays during the regular class time to meet with students. This one-on-one time helps students focus and personalize their learning, and helps mentors get to know their students on a more personal, relatable level.

Individual work outside of class

In addition to seminars and pod meetings, students spend time outside of class working on readings, assignments and projects their mentor has assigned. Frequently these goals will intersect with other program material. For example, a student enrolled in the STEM program might make goals revolving around their work in STEM class, along with a personal goal for that week. Students also spend time reading inspirational works, preparing to share what they have learned with their pod group, family and friends.

Here is a downloadable list of all texts used in the 2013-14 school year: Texts for 2013-14

2013-2014 Curriculum Outline

Term One: Leadership Curriculum Outline

Learning Targets	Guiding Questions	Projects	Texts
I can identify heroes worth emulating and habits of excellence I can create a schedule that works for me, and stick to it each week	How does mind mastery = life mastery? How does focused activity increase productivity?	*determined with leadership coach	Little Britches, Ralph Moody
I can describe adventures that inspire me and patterns that help me be successful	How does mastering timing help us develop wisdom? Is commitment at the heart of successful endeavors?	*determined with leadership coach	Little Women, Alcott
I can list my unique gifts and challenges, and habits that help me be my best	How does working towards goals that you value help you follow through? How does clarity of purpose help me achieve purposeful activity?	*determined with leadership coachh	Black Gold, Marguerite O’Henry
I can meet challenges head-on and demonstrate mastery of myself in measurable ways	How can challenging myself help me grow? How can daring to be different help me to grow beyond existing obstacles?	*determined with leadership coach	Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O’dell

Term Two: Leadership Curriculum Outline

Learning Targets	Guiding Questions	Projects	Texts
I can relate important leadership characteristics and how they are part of who I am	How do I see myself for who I really am?	*determined with leadership coach	365 Manners Kids Should Know: Games, Activities, and Other Fun Ways to Help Children and Teens Learn Etiquette Call it Courage
I can draw on others for help and encouragement	How can I be a team player?	*determined with leadership coach	Pollyanna, Eleanor H. Porter
I can demonstrate habits of mind that help me to enjoy life and succeed in my goals	What gets in the way of my success?	*determined with leadership coach	The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom
I can help others through what I say, how I think, and what I do	What brings me my greatest joy?	*determined with leadership coach	Laddie, Gene Stratton-Porter