The Leader in Me

It has been a while since I've posted on the blog. It is hard to believe that the 1st quarter of school has come to an end.  While I started the blog as a means to update the community about summer construction, I've decided to continue it to share more happenings at Lopez.

As many of you know, Lopez Elementary began its' journey to becoming a Leader in Me school in 2011. After discussions and research by the staff, families, and administration, this focus was selected because it maintained all the best of the school and added an important piece- student leadership.
This year, we are on the path to become Colorado's first Lighthouse school. This designation is reserved for schools who undergo a rigorous process to accomplish three levels within nine categories. Lopez would join only 58 other schools worldwide who have achieved Lighthouse status.

Our school Lighthouse team identified three action areas to focus on this year: Leadership Environment & Culture, Student Leadership, and Displaying School-Wide Goals (WIGs).

Within Leadership Environment & Culture, we've begun plans to add the 7 Habits and other messaging to our Flex Room.  PSD is helping us to develop a design plan.  Additionally, we will continue to create leadership displays throughout the school.

For Student Leadership, we have expanded our Student Lighthouse team into three branches:

• Education/Assembly Leaders
• Service and Philanthropy Leaders
• Leader in Me Ambassadors

 The first two branches consist of 4th and 5th graders who have applied to be part of the groups. The last group has representation from each classroom, K-5.

The Assembly/Education branch creates and performs skits about the 7 Habits at our monthly assemblies.

The Service and Philanthropy branch identifies and coordinates service projects for our school to participate in. They most recently completed a food drive for the Larimer County Food Bank and built a sculpture at "Canstruction" on the CSU campus on 10/9/13.

The final branch of the Student Lighthouse team is the Leadership Ambassador group. These are students K-5 who were chosen from each classroom by their teacher based upon their daily use of the 7 Habits. This group will lead their classrooms in leadership meetings, school-wide events, and advisory about our implementation of the Habits.

Parent involvement is a huge part of our success as a Leader in Me school. Access the Leader in Me parent guide if you haven't had the opportunity yet at www.leaderinmeorg. This week, your child participated in student led conferences. Please give us feedback about the conferences and how we can continue to communicate about our goals with the Leader in Me!

Traci Gile