Future Leaders

Third-graders at are learning life skills to help themselves and others.

At the school’s Leadership Day on Thursday, third-graders taught by Cheri Arnaiz and Nicole Miletto showed community guests how they have learned to map their academic progress and help those in need.

Hallowell is now integrating such life skills into its curriculum, inspired by Sean Covey’s book “The 7 habits of Happy Kids” and Franklin Covey’s ‘The Leader in Me" program, which stress skill development and character-building.

The school is creating citizens and leaders, said Principal Steven Glaize, who looks forward to seeing how students progress with the program.  

“My job is to continue to be a cheerleader, a supporter, but to let other people showcase their talents,” he said.

Arnaiz's students explained how they chose a community service project to raise money for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for childhood cancer. The class designed a lemonade stand that they opened during lunch periods, which was built by Arnaiz’s husband and sons.

Additionally, the students were able to share experiences as they video-conferenced with students in other parts of the country who were participating in the same project. 

Arnaiz’s class also created a commercial video about their project, which they submitted to Alex’s Make a Difference contest. Arnaiz encouraged audience members to ‘like’ the video on YouTube, which can increase their chances of winning the contest.   

Miletto's students shared their data notebooks with guests, explaining how the notebooks allow them to track their academic progress and communicate their experiences to their parents.

Third-grader Emily Rivera enjoys her notebook.

“This is important to me because I can keep track of all my letters to my parents and all my goals,” she said.

According to Miletto, the programs have helped her students understand academic progress and learn how to be mindful of others.  They have become vocal about leadership, she said.

“They know what it looks like and feels like,” said Miletto.

Special guest Josh Covey - brother of Sean Covey - teleconferenced in for the event. According to Josh Covey, people can choose to develop their own talents and help others. 

“Leadership is a choice that everybody can make,” he said.

The next step, said Glaize, is to provide data notebooks to all students in the next school year, and to allow each grade to participate in a community service project.  There will also be new electronic data notebooks that will allow students to track their progress using 21^st century technology. 

“As we move forward it will be interesting to see where this takes us,” Glaize said.