How to Combat a Rising Trend in Students: Artificial Maturity

Format

Individual Presentation

Location

Plimsoll

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance

Research shared about on “millenials” provides educators insight into complexities and best teaching practices for developing the “HEAD” and the “HEART” of today’s at-risk student. Solutions offered during this session help educators close achievement gaps by fostering social and emotional skills of youth especially in high-poverty populations. Take home learning opportunities from this session can been applied in academic classes, advisement periods, afterschool programs, and summer programs. Social-emotional intelligence is relevant to Title I educators and students because while character, leadership and soft-skill development are challenges in all school settings, they are exacerbated in high-poverty populations. Character education curriculum shared during the session, called Habitudes: Images that form Leadership Habitudes and Attitudes®, results in fostering student achievement motivation, academic resilience, positive identity development, life skills, emotional intelligence, stronger communication skills, decision making and goal setting skills. The timeless leadership principles discussed yield improved school climate, student acceptance of social diversity, and a stronger a sense of community in classrooms & schools. Today, almost one half the world’s population is 21 years old or younger. Ready or not, they will lead our world into the future. However, many students enter college having been protected more than prepared, and lack the necessary life skills to enter adulthood and succeed outside the classroom. A recent survey by ForbesWoman and the National Endowment for Financial Education shows that 59% of parents provide financial support for their adult children who are no longer in school. Approximately 60% of college students return back home to live with their family after graduation rather than enter the workforce. Yet in the next 15 years, approximately 45% of the workforce in the U.S. will retire. This will create a leadership vacuum unless the next generation of leaders is prepared for life and career.

Brief Program Description

In this session, Growing Leaders diagnoses today’s high school student and offers a prescription to build social & emotional skills that lead to academic achievement, self-leadership and career readiness.

Session segments include: understanding, connecting with, equipping and empowering Generation iY.

The session introduces principles from Dr. Tim Elmore’s Habitudes®: Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes, each based on an image, a conversation and an experience.

Summary

This session addresses the latest trends from Generation iY, (the latest batch of Generation Y) and how their style will impact the school campus, communities and corporate America. It is no longer accurate to refer to Generation Y as one collective generation. The Millennials born after 1990 are a whole new batch of students. They are being called Generation iY because their life is dominated by the iPhone, the iPod, iTunes, etc. They’ve been identified as the Digital Generation, Mosaics, Techies, Millennials and Screenagers. They are the talk of Human Resource professionals and newspaper journalists, they are the prizes of their parents, and they are the market share every retailer covets. They are the kids born between 1990 and 2002 and are part of the largest generation in our history. The older you are, the more you’ll feel like an immigrant among natives with this new generation. They’ve shifted from our Gutenberg era into their own Google era. Their bias is for action and interaction. We have the privilege of shaping their future. Research shows that high school students today are often advanced biologically, cognitively and socially when compared with earlier generations. Yet, significant cultural shifts, like technology, have delayed emotional maturation, which affects their values, behaviors, paradigms and learning styles. Alysse Whatley, presenter, will share how emotional intelligence, robust character and leadership perspective are three key success factors that every student must develop, due to the changes in culture. According to author Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence includes self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. These are the fundamental life skills that are often missing in students. Designed for teachers interested in social emotional development in students, the session introduces principles from Habitudes®: Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes, each based on an image, a conversation and an experience. The resource and session are based on sociological research that describes this generation as EPIC: Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich and Connected. Understanding this data prepares educators to evaluate their current pedagogy and curriculum, and implement more relevant character education curriculum. Throughout this session, attendees will also have a chance to engage with one another and share ideas on practices they can use both in and out of the classroom to cultivate emotional intelligence, character, and leadership perspective in their students.

Evidence

Growing Leaders has hosted eight student focus groups and conducted assessments in 45 schools after implementing the Habitudes curriculum. The respondents identified the following results: • Student attention spans have diminished over the past five years. Habitudes engage students longer through experiential and right-brained learning. • Students are more visual in their learning style. Habitudes teach by the power of images. • Students are more engaged and participatory in class by discussion rather than merely listen to information. Habitudes spark conversations for students. • At risk students frequently have undeveloped Emotional Intelligence. Habitudes deals with self-awareness and self-management which is a part of Emotional Quotient. • Students desire to engage with right brain learning experiences. Habitudes utilize images, which engage their imagination. The chart below shows the year over-year decline in disciplinary incidents during a pilot program with Fayette County Schools: Year Discipline totals Number of students Incidents per student Percentage Reduction 09-10 11,462 7,544 1.52 10-11 8,738 7,204 1.22 24% 11-12 6,847 6,867 1.0 21% 12-13 5,465 6,793 .81 20% During the 2012-2013 school year, Growing Leaders partnered with Georgia State School Superintendent, Dr. John Barge, and the Department of Education to offer Habitudes as an innovative character and leadership development program for high school students. More than 15,000 students and 850 teachers from all over the state participated in the pilot program. When asked to rate the Habitudes program: • 70% of the students said it will make them a better person • 68% of the students said it taught them what it means to be a leader • 67% of the students said it helped them learn how to make better decisions • 68% reported that learning with images made them want to pay attention in class In addition, both school principals and teachers gave positive feedback about the program and the impact it in the classroom.

Biographical Sketch

Ms. Whatley is the Development Coordinator of at Growing Leaders, a non-profit organization created to develop emerging leaders. Growing Leaders’ President, Dr. Tim Elmore has authored more than 25 books for next-generation leaders as well as adult educators, including Habitudes: Images that Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes®, Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future and Artificial Maturity—Helping Kids Meet the Challenge of Becoming Authentic Adults. Elmore and his team have worked with more than 7,000 schools and organizations to help them nurture a leadership culture for students. Alysse Whatley leads The Growing Leaders Foundation in order to make Growing Leaders’ resource, Habitudes: Images that Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes®, available to underfunded schools and organizations.

Ms. Whatley is a graduate of Gwinnett County Public Schools and The University of Georgia with a degree in Communication Studies and a Certificate in Personal and Organizational Leadership. Her passion for student development began in high school with her membership in the Gwinnett Student Leadership Team. While at UGA, she served as Executive Director of UGA HEROs, an organization that raises funds for children in Georgia affected by HIV.

Keyword Descriptors

Career readiness, School climate, Creating a sense of community in classrooms & schools, Achievement motivation, Student empowerment, Student leadership skills, Character education, Positive identity development, Life skills, Emotional intelligence

Presentation Year

2015

Start Date

3-4-2015 11:15 AM

End Date

3-4-2015 12:30 PM

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Mar 4th, 11:15 AM Mar 4th, 12:30 PM

How to Combat a Rising Trend in Students: Artificial Maturity

Plimsoll

In this session, Growing Leaders diagnoses today’s high school student and offers a prescription to build social & emotional skills that lead to academic achievement, self-leadership and career readiness.

Session segments include: understanding, connecting with, equipping and empowering Generation iY.

The session introduces principles from Dr. Tim Elmore’s Habitudes®: Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes, each based on an image, a conversation and an experience.