Lead From Here

LEAD FROM HERE A groundbreaking approach to teaching and learning

Only at Ravenscroft

Citizen Leader Framework Equipping today’s students to succeed in tomorrow’s world.

LEADING SELF

LEADING WITH OTHERS

Self-aware

Empathetic

Growth-minded Motivated

Ethical Inclusive

Resilient Accountable

Collaborative Communicative

LEAD FROM HERE CHANGING YOUR WORLD Visionary Strategic Resourceful Reflective Adaptive

“For more than 40 years, the Center for Creative Leadership has been at the forefront of professional leadership education across the globe. We are proud to be partnering with the very best in the industry to combine citizen leadership learning into the excellent academic program for which Ravenscroft is known. Together, we are developing individuals who will thrive as students today and change the world of tomorrow.”

DOREEN C. KELLY, HEAD OF SCHOOL

Ravenscroft has joined forces with the Center

for Creative Leadership—one of the world’s top-ranked providers of executive education.

Together, we are pioneering a groundbreaking, PreK–12 curriculum designed to teach the leadership skills that hundreds of business, government, nonprofit, and education leaders from around the world have identified* as crucial—but frustratingly rare—in today’s workforce.

This initiative is called Lead From Here. It will prepare our students to become citizen leaders—to lead and collaborate with others to create positive change.

* From a survey of 462 leaders around the globe conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership in 2012.

That sounds so abstract.

What exactly is this new approach all about?

Think back to that disconcerting moment (most of us have experienced something like it). You’re at your first real job (or on your first day as a camp counselor or you were just appointed to a community committee or the high school student council).

You receive your first big assignment. You want to make a good impression, solve a problem, have an impact.

And then you realize you have no idea how to lead a project, inspire your peers, be an effective team member, or build support for your ideas. All that algebra, Shakespeare, and biology you mastered in school gave you a first-rate set of academic skills— but those are not helping you out right now.

Now imagine if you were introduced to those real-world skills back in pre-kindergarten, at the same time as you began learning your numbers and abc’s—and continued to develop them throughout your academic education—as part of your academic education.

How much better prepared would you be to succeed in the real world…to have a positive impact and make real change happen?

That’s what Lead From Here offers Ravenscroft students.

But aren’t those the kinds of skills you have to be born with?

Can they really be taught?

Yes they can! The Center for Creative Leadership has been doing it for more than 40 years. They identified the skills that characterize successful leaders—such as strategic thinking, collaboration, communication, and empathy—and developed a proven method for teaching them to adults. CCL has transformed the workplaces of major corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies—and the impressive results have been recognized worldwide.* * Ranked No. 4 overall in the 2015 Financial Times worldwide survey of executive education. CCL has earned a Top 10 ranking in the survey for 14 consecutive years.

At Ravenscroft, we wondered—why wait to teach these leadership skills until after students have completed their academic education? Why not integrate them into everyday classroom learning for kids? In fact, why not teach kids to use those skills to become better students, artists, athletes, and community members?

Ravenscroft educators and CCL trainers worked together to “translate” CCL ideas and training into concepts, lessons, and exercises that are engaging and appropriate to children at each grade level. Lead From Here gives students opportunities to practice these new skills while using them to master their academics—strengthening both simultaneously throughout their PreK–12 experience.

The result? High-achieving students with a leg up on the leadership and real-world skills they need to succeed in the future.

How exactly do you do it?

What techniques do you use to teach those skills?

As early as pre-kindergarten, Lead From Here introduces a set of fundamental skills that successful adults use in taking on real world problems. And our trained faculty teaches students to apply those skills to their academic, social, creative, and athletic challenges.

The best way to understand how we teach it is to experience it yourself through one of the many parent workshops we offer on campus. These workshops will take you through some of the same exercises developed with the Center for Creative Leadership that your children experience every day.

But the next best way is to read about Lead From Here in the classroom. Here are three examples—one from each division.

[ IN THE LOWER SCHOOL ]

Diminishing Circles Third grade students learn what it means to be inclusive, and why it’s so important.

IT’S NOT NEWS that empathy, open-mindedness,

and inclusivity are essential to positive, constructive relationships in the workplace, the family— everywhere. Yet most of us assume that we must simply wait for our kids “grow into” those qualities as they mature.

At Ravenscroft, we know that’s not true! Here’s how we teach those values with a Lead From Here lesson that does much more than explain the definition of those terms—it makes the children feel them in their bones.

Mrs. Baccus, third grade teacher, sets up the classroom before the children arrive. There are

ten circles of different sizes fashioned from jump ropes or hula hoops spread out on the floor. She tells the children the rules of the game: “Everyone—stand so that you place both feet in one of the circles. Then, every time I say ‘Change!’ you must move and find a new circle to place both your feet inside.”

Excitement builds, because each time Mrs. Baccus calls out “Change!” she removes one or two of the circles, diminishing the space where the kids can scramble to a safe place. Soon, there isn’t room for everyone, and the group must figure out what to do about the kids that can’t squeeze inside.

This is the moment when they start to experience what it feels like to be included or excluded, to be “in,” or to be “out.” They see the expressions on the faces of their peers who can’t find room inside a circle, and suddenly they can relate to one another’s feelings in a whole new way.

“The most heartwarming thing you will ever see is how they hold onto each other, squish together, and hug each other into the circles,” she adds. “They so want to include everyone!”

Invariably, the children pull together to find ways to include everyone. “Sometimes they join hands to create their own circle, sometimes they lie down on the rug to form a circle and put their feet in the middle,” says Mrs. Baccus. “One group took off their jackets and sweaters and used them to shape a circle that everyone could fit inside.”

After the exercise, the kids gather on the rug.

Mrs. Baccus facilitates a discussion to reflect on what happened and why it’s important. One child says, “Sometimes you have to step out of your circle to make a completely new circle to include everyone.” Another says simply, “You really need to make sure everybody is in.”

As our world grows ever more complex and interdependent, and our kids find themselves living and working with people from across the globe, what could be more important than understanding that “you need to make sure everybody is in?”

[ IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL ]

Mental Models Expanding minds in eighth grade WE MAY NOT LIKE TO ADMIT IT, but we

learn about characters and themes—the teachers all make assumptions about others based upon begin the lesson well before the books are even appearances, gossip, or our own prior experiences. handed out.

CCL calls these assumptions mental models.

Students are asked to consider their own childWhen we let these assumptions get in the hood. What does childhood mean to them? What way, they limit our understanding of people or privileges and protections do they take for granted? situations, and reduce our effectiveness at solving They research what childhood looks like in othproblems. er countries, and compare it with their own expeBecoming aware of our mental models is the first riences. This sparks questions, and more research, step in learning to be truly objective, to see beyond about justice, poverty, and labor laws. They are our own perspective. But how do surprised to discover that these ideas we teach something so abstract to “They start to impact the lives of millions of children middle-schoolers? question their like themselves.

Ms. Baker, literature teacher, and In other words, they are exploring assumptions.

Ms. Finn, librarian, have developed and expanding their own mental models an approach to teaching social of childhood. They are seeing a bigger, It gets studies and literature that makes the uncomfortable more real world than they did before. concept of mental models concrete When the children finally get to for them ... and and easy to understand. Even better, the novel, they bring a broader, more that’s good.” students begin to see why it’s so mature perspective. They have new important to see past mental models. insight into the context of Iqbal’s tragic Here’s a classroom example, built around a hisstory. They have a genuine recognition of how torical novel about Iqbal Masih, a boy who became fortunate they are, compared to so many children in an international symbol of abusive child labor. Born the world. They have a desire to take action—to do in Pakistan in 1983, Iqbal was sold to a carpet-weav- something to help. ing factory when he was only four. He worked 14 But perhaps most important, this lesson hours a day, seven days a week, in chains. gives students a powerful demonstration of how Iqbal’s story, thankfully, is far outside the expetheir own mental models can get in the way of rience of our students. But Ms. Baker and Ms. Finn understanding people and important issues. Or, want to make the story real, to make the children as Ms. Baker puts it, “They start to question their feel that it is relevant to them, even if they can’t assumptions. And that’s good, because it puts the quite imagine it. situation in perspective, and it shapes their values Instead of teaching the novel as they might have and future actions.” before Lead From Here—by sticking to the text to

[ IN THE UPPER SCHOOL ]

Social Identity Maps Taking the angst out of the dreaded college essay (and adding cheesecake) WHAT WEIGHS ON THE MINDS of juniors and

seniors—and their parents? The college application process, of course.

And what’s the most daunting step in the process?

The essay.

Students worry, “What should I write about?”

“How can I make the admissions committee notice me?” “What if I haven’t already found the cure for cancer or launched a multi-million-dollar startup!”

Ms. Moore and Ms. Kelly, upper school English teachers, have tried various approaches to coax original, revealing essays from our seniors. Now, thanks to Lead From Here, they have a new tool to use. Students are very familiar with it, because they’ve been using it since ninth grade in their literature classes.

It’s called social identity mapping, and CCL has been using it in executive leadership training programs for years to facilitate sensitivity and open-mindedness within teams.

At Ravenscroft, students use social identity mapping to help them understand and empathize with literary characters’ traits and values. With the aid of a visual diagram, they categorize characters’ various qualities as either: given (things you don’t have control over), chosen (things you choose), or core (intrinsic values and beliefs).

Come junior year, when it’s time to begin brainstorming the college essay, students are asked to begin by turning the social identity mapping technique on themselves.

Instead of writing essays on the same old, tired topics as their peers across the country (favorite sports, or their summer internships), identity mapping encourages students to delve into what makes them unique: who they are, what they believe, and how they got to be that way. It’s a path to a level of self-awareness that is rare among high school students. And thinking this way leads to outstanding college essays.

Social Identity Mapping GIVEN CHOSEN CORE

Here’s a great example that Ms. Moore and Ms. Kelly love to share about a student who graduated recently.

“He’s a great kid,” recalls Ms. Moore, but you couldn’t tell that from the first draft of his essay.

“He’d had a business-related internship, and by gosh, he was going to write about it and what he learned.” He wanted to be responsible, to play it safe.

Unfortunately, the essay was ordinary—even a little dry. It didn’t say anything about who he was or what was special about him. And it was not likely to make a strong impression on an admissions committee.

Ms. Kelly sent him back to his social identity map. And he was reminded that in his chosen circle, he had written that he liked making cheesecake.

He crafted his essay about why he loves to bake cheesecake, and what that said about him: he’s precise, he likes to measure meticulously, he’s creative, he has an unusual talent, and he likes to make people happy.

Cheesecake. Now that’s memorable. And there’s proof. Today he’s a student at SMU! But social identity mapping gave him so much more than admission to the college of his choice.

It helped him build a stronger sense of confidence, an acute self-awareness, and great communication skills—qualities that will give him an advantage for the rest of his life.

We invite you to learn more.

For more information, to arrange to attend a parent workshop, or see Lead From Here in action in the classroom, please contact Colleen Ramsden, Assistant Head of School for Academic Affairs, at colleen.ramsden@ravenscroft.org.

OUR MISSION

The Ravenscroft community, guided by our legacy of excellence, nurtures individual potential and prepares students to thrive in a complex and interdependent world.

7409 Falls of Neuse Road

Raleigh, NC 27615

919-847-0900