Leadership for Students Activities - December 2014, NASC Edition - (Page 5)

Questions & Answers A Zero Can Be A Hero Q Our principal has tasked my middle school council with taking a lead role in schoolwide efforts to improve the climate in our building. After a good discussion during one of the council meetings, the students decided to stake out certain locations in and around the school where they knew certain student behaviors could likely be observed. I was very impressed at how seriously the members took on the task, not telling any of their friends what they were doing, and how inconspicuously they behaved while they were making their observations. Once the observers compared notes and identified the most frequent types of actions, they reported them to the whole council. Interestingly, the observers all agreed that the behavior they witnessed the most was one student verbally belittling another. The members also commented that the person being "mean" usually targeted a student's clothes, how they behaved around others, or just their overall appearance. The council listened to the report and different members made suggestions, but the council as a whole seemed at a loss for what kind of project could address the behaviors they had seen, much of which was enacted by their friends. Can NASC suggest a concept that middle level students would understand and use to help stimulate project ideas? A In both middle level and high schools, the way students perceive each other and the value they attach to some students is one of the dynamics of teenage development that bounces every single day between the positive and negative. This behavior december 2014 5

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Leadership for Students Activities - December 2014, NASC Edition

Editor’s Note
Questions & Answers
Take Note
Being a Leader
From the Director
Sophisticated Selfies: Looking Inward
Teaching Tolerance
Student Leaders Take Responsibility
Middle Level Activities
Lessons for Leaders
Scholarships & Awards
Project Showcase
Activities Exchange
Things to Do

Leadership for Students Activities - December 2014, NASC Edition