High School Leadership Text

[Stephen Cronin]

I spoke to our running group this morning about a high school text which uses the high school history curriculum to introduce and develop the concept of leadership. I wrote the text to teach a class at LaSalle and Hope High last year and will begin to teach it again at Hope starting on February 4th. At one point last year, the kids from LaSalle and Hope came together with leaders from the community for a 'leadership forum'. Because I'm not a teacher and certainly not a leadership expert, I'm reaching out to you for ideas to improve the presentation of the document. For AP level kids, the presentation of this text was not an impediment to the class goals; it's what they're used to, ie reading lots of text. However, for other students, it's too much of a challenge and needs a different look (presentation) for their committment to read. John and a couple of his students I met this morning spoke about finding some RISD students for their ideas for a different design of the text. I open this up to all in 'Jogging With John' for any and all ideas about how to make, if possible, this text more appealing to the Hope kids I will meet in a few weeks.
Thanks.
Steve Cronin

[Rob Rock]

Anyone who is able to sit with Steve on one of his leadership lectures will not be disappointed. Having attended two of his talks on leadership and one of his panel discussions with the students of Hope High School I cannot begin to tell you how much I have learned. While the text is the focal point of the class, the discussions between Steve, the students and panelists offers interesting viewpoints of how each person would define leadership. The beauty of the topic is that each person defines true leadership differently. Seeing as there are no right or wrong answers it is the reasoning and evidence behind each viewpoint that makes the class and discussions so interesting. Anyone looking for good debate and a wide variety of viewpoints will not be disappointed.

[Sara Sabourin]

Hi Steve...It has been forever since WARA and I am not quite sure how I happened to this site as originally I was looking for a contact number for Peter Ottmar (I'm job hunting and may need references). In any event I got to reading about the Leadership class you present and thought that you might want to look into "digital storytelling." I have seen a few presentations made this way...and they can be quite effective for students who get bored easily by lectures (although I am sure your class is far from a talking head) I don't know how often you are on this site so I will send the suggestion via the postal service too! Obviously it comes too late for this leadership class but if you teach another, I think you would find digital storytelling helpful.

[stephen cronin]

Sara,
it's good to see your voice after all these years. Thanks for your feedback. I'm very interested in 'digital' alternatives. With my students, cost is a major concern. While all seem to have phones, not all have computers at home. Please send me the info as soon as possible. My next class could be as early as mid September.
I hope you're doing well and thanks. If you send me your address, I send you a hard copy of the text. Would love your feedback.
Best wishes.
Are you interested in joining us for a slow run and brisk conversation on September 2nd at 6am starting at the Starbucks on the corner of Elmgrove and Angell in Prov?
SC

[Stephen Etchells]

Steve, one of the ways to make the text more interesting to look at would be to insert "Tag Cloud" images before each chapter in your text. As described by Wiki- "A tag cloud or word cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site". Students could refer to the Tag Cloud images to pick out important topics they will come across as they are reading.

www.tagcrowd.com is a free online tool that can be used to generate these images for you. If you are interested I would be happy to show you how it works.

[Sara Sabourin]

Hi Steve...I don't think it would be possible to make a digital version by mid-September! I did download a hard copy of your text and as yet have not had an opportunity to review it, but suffice it to say that a digital version could be made if you combined your efforts with the school video programmers etc. Digital storytelling is similar to the work Ken Burns does (albeit his work is very long). But the principle is the same...a story or version of an event in history. You would need to have someone doing a voice-over of the most important text, and/or narrating the most important pieces of your text (most likely you), photos (in your case of leaders and or events that occurred due to great leadereship or events due to poor leadership) and video of your students interraction to the meaning of leadership. The schools video club and your students could combine their efforts to make a really great finished product. It would probably take most of this year, but it would be a great exercise and the finished product could be used for other classes. There are some great "digital story telling" sites on the internet that outline the process. My favorite links are http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html ; http://www.adobe.com/education/instruction/adsc/; http://cybersmart.org/africa/about/; http://www.storycenter.org/cs_education.html; http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/social_studies.html. I am sure you could find others as well...the process is a long one, but the finished product would be well worth the effort in the end. I don't think I can make the run this week but do you run every Tuesday??? Sara :o)

stephen cronin said:

Sara,
it's good to see your voice after all these years. Thanks for your feedback. I'm very interested in 'digital' alternatives. With my students, cost is a major concern. While all seem to have phones, not all have computers at home. Please send me the info as soon as possible. My next class could be as early as mid September.
I hope you're doing well and thanks. If you send me your address, I send you a hard copy of the text. Would love your feedback.
Best wishes.
Are you interested in joining us for a slow run and brisk conversation on September 2nd at 6am starting at the Starbucks on the corner of Elmgrove and Angell in Prov?
SC