Opp Elementary School faculty and staff recently learned more about the Leader In Me program that they school instituted in March.

“Last week, Opp Elementary School faculty and staff members participated in professional development over three days,” said Samantha Russell, director of student support services. “OES is beginning the Leader In Me process which 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.”

Russell said the Leader In Me process is based on Steven Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

“Faculty and staff members dove deeply into the 7 Habits this week during their training,” she said. “Our professional development last week was the next step toward implementation.”

Russell said the idea is that in order for teachers and staff members to teach the 7 Habits to students, they must first practice the habits in their owns lives.

“Over the remaining weeks of summer, we will develop our personal mission statement and work to put in place the habits that we learned about last week,” she said. “Our Leader In Me leadership team (seven to eight faculty members) will meet with our trainer, Connley Skeen, in July and our entire faculty will meet with him in August. Our training went very well and our faculty and staff are excited about what The Leader in Me will mean to us, personally, as well as our students and community.”