hello

traditionally schools have a student council where they elect so many individuals to be part of student council. You're only allowing so many people to step into a leadership role. Sometimes it's a popularity vote and some of these kids may lose out on an opportunity when they have so many potential but were terrified to get in front of anyone. We switched that to our 6th grade service crew - they have the opportunity and have to be in good standing and following the rules and participating in some of these things, but they can be part of different committees - safety patrol (keep kids safe during carpool), recycling, leadership breakfast (help serve food and clean up after, greet people as they come in for students who receive their leadership awards), halloween parade (help organize parade), book fair, birthday table, treat walk (like trunk or treat but no trunks, just a walk), veteran's day breakfast, evening with santa, candygrams, purple up month (different events for that), kindergarten round-up. students get to choose the committees they are most interested in. we follow up and allow them to run with it. they have to write a short essay saying why they are good for that position - like what leadership skills or strengths they have to make them the best choice to serve on that committee that they wanted. so each of them get an opportunity.

each 6th grader is assigned a homeroom class they represent - so there is a classroom rep for that grade. so about 2-3 kids for each classroom, and they are there to help the teachers and the students as often as the teacher would like, but a minimum of twice per month, but usually more than that. the teacher will request them to come help with class parties, read to a kid, help with science projects, end of unit celebrations, any kind of learning project they help with. they also lead their circle up (flight crew) time once a month. the 6th grader will go to that class and lead the flight crew time, circle up, and lead a small activity for the kids. like for kindness week, they have an activity where the kids all make a paper chain of saying that would uplift someone versus put them down. led completely by the 6th grade in each classroom once a month.

start the year off with 6th grade with crew excursion / team building adventure / crew adventure which could be an obstacle course of something like that, they do service projects throughout the year. one student in Layton saw they needed recess equipment, put together a fundraiser and video talking about the need for it, and how they would get more PE equipment, so they led their own service project when they saw something needed to be done.

end of year is 6th grade retreat adventure / culmination "crew adventure week" - a celebration of what they achieved that year - lagoon one of the days, crystal hot springs one of the days, all specific reasons why - they practice the creed 4 adjectives, dinner one night, service project, that whole week they celebrate. each day of the week represents one of their core values - like resilience core value - they do a rock climbing and ropes course and test their resilience. then community - they go to the retirement center and help people in their community. day 3 is integrity - going to crystal hot springs because any time you have a day of fun, that's when it really tests your integrity, last day is respect - and they're going to do a formal dinner where they practice manners etiquette and how to be respectful in a formal setting, then a hike to show respect for nature and our world.

with leadership, we really honed in on those 4 values - the flyers creed. there's the umbrella of so many things that fall under those, those are the 4 main ones. eventually he wants to go into more depth with a crest on each one. what each is and why we chose those as a whole. took feedback from parent surveys - teacher surveys - etc and that is how we came up with those 4 values. a lot went into that - what parents want to see in those 4 children.

each class is a flight crew - they have their crew, do circle-ups. teachers to circle-ups once a week with their crews - teacher crews. we talk about different things, we greet each other. everyone has a voice and feels valued and welcomed at our school. 

every two weeks teachers will have a topic - you can think of it as character building, like conflict resolution - and lessons are all through the lens of the flyer creed - like how does it help our community if we can resolve conflicts peacefully? so core values not just something that hands on the wall, but something talked about in classrooms every day and used for character building exercises every day.

beginning of the year crew adventures the staff went on - like escape room, ropes course.