SWAT reflection

Top 10 Takeaways from my Research & Experience with SWAT:

1. The Alberta Health Services website has a wealth of resources for classroom teachers and school
health initiatives. From leadership lesson plans to Nutrition projects and steps for building healthy
school communities, every teacher should know about this site!
2. The School Nurse has also a wealth of knowledge and amazing resources to help teachers promote
health across all curriculum outcomes. In the words of 13-year old Logan LaPlante, what if we
based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy? The school nurse has
taught me that health must be a cross-Curricular focus, indeed it is a life skill.
3. Leadership must be explicitly modelled, practiced, and experienced within the classroom and
school community. Make students aware of their strengths and areas for growth in leadership and
collaboration.
4. Students love to work with younger students. Whether it is through BFG activities or performing in
front of them, teachers should take advantage of cross-grade mentorship opportunities!
5. Students need to learn how to collaborate. Teamwork activities such as the Human Knot will fail
miserably if students do not trust one another. Trust must come before student can take risks and
step outside their comfort zone. Just like teachers must Connect, then Direct (Kim John Payne)
students must do the same with their peers if they are to collaborate successfully.
6. Create classroom procedures with the intention of developing leadership skills. In the words of
11-year old Adora Svitak (2010), Kids need opportunities to lead and succeed. These
opportunities are plentiful in the classroom from helping others use technology, choosing a class
story, or managing a student bulletin board.
7. Schools must have a united vision for how students are to treat one another. This vision
establishes school culture and sets the tone for student interactions.
8. Develop a Common Language. Whether it is the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or Fill each
other buckets, a common vocabulary will be used by staff and students and can be integrated
into lessons, hallway displays, assemblies (Covey (2014) p. 72).
9. Leadership affects academics. Students need opportunities to set goals, solve problems, and think
critically and creatively. These skills are indeed Cross-Curricular and help students be successful in
conflict resolution, extracurricular activities, and their academic work.
10. Show you value student input. Plans arent set in stone! Empower students to contribute positively
to a group effort and change projects. Encourage students to find their voices!

Please visit www.swat5.weebly.com for resources, links, and other documents.

SWAT reflection

How should teachers facilitate leadership opportunities to empower elementary

students to become healthy role models and leaders?
On the first day of school at St. Thomas Aquinas, the whole student body gathered in the gym to
read the story How full is your bucket? The principal emphasized Respect, Responsibility, and
Resiliency as the core values of the school and throughout the first month, I heard these words repeated
to emphasize how students should behave and treat one another. In grade 5, my teacher mentor
emphasized how the grade 5s are the leaders of the school and need to be positive role models. Thus, I
observed how schools and teachers begin to encourage a school culture of respect, inclusion, and
responsibility for ones actions and treatment of others. This safe and secure school environment is not
only necessary to learning, but to fostering leadership skills in all students.
I was initially approached by the AM Kindergarten/ DLT teacher about the possibility of working with the
school nurse to establish a Grade 5 Health/Leadership club. She wanted the club to encourage students
to intervene in conflicts on the Playground and recognize their potential to be health role models. These
events and observations inspired my Inquiry Question: How should teachers facilitate leadership
opportunities to empower students to become healthy role models? Over the course of leading SWAT
meeting and researching leadership models, I have come to the following conclusion: teachers should
integrate leadership opportunities into classroom procedures, offer extracurricular activities, and
promote whole school initiatives to make students aware of how to develop leadership skills.
In my classroom, I observed how the Class Leader has roles to fulfill such as delivering items to the
office, taking milk orders, handing out papers, etc. The excitement that young students experience when
acting as the teachers Special Helper demonstrates their eagerness to fulfill responsibilities, lead their
classmates, and feel successful. In the school opening assemblies, I observed whole school initiatives to
promote healthy choices and inclusive attitudes toward others. My work with the Grade 5 leadership
club SWAT is an extracurricular opportunity to give students a safe space to work on healthy habits
projects.
Healthy Role Models
Teaching students to be healthy has a crucial role in student learning and is a primary goal for SWAT. In
fact, the Alberta Health Services Comprehensive School Health plan (2014) states that healthy students
learn better. Similarly, in his article Healthy and Ready to Learn, Satcher (2005) states wellnourished students tend to be better students, whereas poorly nourished student tend to demonstrate

SWAT reflection
weaker academic performance and score lower on standardized achievement tests . . . Healthy
Choices, while a crucial component of the Healthy Schools Model, must be paired with physical activity
to maximize benefits for students: Physical activity also plays an important role in students
performance . . . better attendance, a more positive attitude toward school (National Association for
Sport and Physical Education, 2001). . . stronger academic achievement; increased concentration; and
improved math, reading and writing test scores (Symons et al, 1997). SWAT has begun to create
projects which focus on promoting healthy habits as demonstrated by the Handwashing training and
How to Fill Buckets student video.
I also developed a facilitators guide with a tentative timeline of projects for SWAT. Each month is
aligned with an AHS health promotion or awareness day, such as Mental Health Awareness in May or
Pink Shirt Day in February. These projects are intended to be suggestions and not a plan because a plan
without student input will not inspire and motivate students.

Leadership
Along with Healthy Role Models, the goal of SWAT has been to teach student leadership and teamwork
skills. At first, I intended to make students aware of 4 of the 10 Cross Curricular Competencies and
structure teamwork and leadership lessons for each meeting. I quickly realised that students wanted to
complete projects rather than just lessons.
I also read Stephen Coveys The Leader in Me to understand how schools can teach leadership. The book
offers a whole school approach to inspire leadership using the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: 1. be
proactive, 2. Begin with the end in mind (set goals), 3. Put first things first (prioritize), 4. Think win-win,
5. Seek first to understand then to be understood, 6. Synergize (collaborate), and 7. Sharpen the saw
(health-first habits). A.B. Combs adopted this leadership model and experienced success in developing a
positive school culture, involving parents, inspiring communities, and improving students academics.
Thus, teaching leadership has an impact on student learning and teaching. The reason for academic
success is that when students are empowered to create goals for their school and an Action Plan to
achieve it, then they can apply this process to their academic goals.

SWAT reflection
The Leader in Me (2014) offers three ways that schools can involve students as leaders:
1. Give students leadership opportunities such as classroom duties and mentorship roles
2. Value student opinions
3. Help students find their voice through Leadership events with student-led activities or
presentations. (Covey (2014) p. 82)

I also looked at the historical and well-known community and school-based extracurricular leadership
model 4-H. 4-H stands for Head, Heart, Hands and Health. Member age 9 to 17 practice leadership skills
while engaged in projects in a range of disciplines including agriculture, crafts, technology, and science,
to name only a few. Again, extracurricular projects and clubs give students opportunities to be involved
in settings and projects which promote the 10 cross-curricular competencies, particularly Identify and
Apply Career and Life Skills.

Conclusion
SWAT gave me an incredible practical Inquiry Project. Not only did I lead an extracurricular club, but I
was able to observe and reflect how schools, teachers, and clubs provide leadership opportunities to
students. While I did not focus on the 10 Cross-Curricular Competencies like I had initially proposed, I
developed a new appreciation for how teachers may integrate these throughout classroom routines,
subject-lessons, and extracurricular activities to educate the whole child and promote Engaged
Thinkers, Ethical Citizens, and Entrepreneurial Spirits.
SWAT students were Engaged Thinkers when they optimistically identified goals for the club: to
encourage healthy habits and to be positive role models. SWAT students were Ethical Citizens when
they collaborated to create skits to communicate their bucket-filling messages. SWAT students were
Entrepreneurial Spirits when they took risks to present handwashing presentations to younger students
with improvised and enthusiastic public speaking roles.
This Inquiry project has allowed me to develop my vision of teaching. I will strive to empower students
to develop Cross-curricular skills such as Leadership and Collaboration. My wish for my students is to
find their voices and realize their ideas are important and valued. I want my students to have a safe
space to risk new ideas and feel successful as peer mentors and role models. To echo Logan LaPlante
(2014), I want my students to be healthy and happy, and to do whatever they dream, using the toolbox
of skills they have collected in their brief time with me.

SWAT reflection

Resources
Alberta Health Services. (2014). Comprehensive School Health: Healthy Schools Rubric. (p. 1)
Covey, Stephen R. et. al. (2014). The Leader in Me. Second ed. Simon & Schuster.
LaPlante, Logan. (2014). 13 year old Logan quits school and starts home schooling education
system. TED. Video.
Satcher, David. (2005). Healthy and Ready to Learn. Educational Leadership 63:1.
Svitak, Adora. (2010). What adults can learn from kids. TED.