October, 2018
The rest of the story…by Ava Coffey
Each subcommittee has a unique role. The We Lead Wednesday Lessons division, overseen by Ms. Phillips and Mrs. Willoughby, creates lesson plans and teaches students about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. They have a constant four-week schedule. During the first week, members get their Habit of the Month lesson plans approved. The second and third weeks, they go out into the classrooms and teach the Habit of the Month. The fourth week is spent preparing for the next Habit lesson. The Service Learning subcommittee guides buddy classes during the fourth We Lead Wednesday of the month. Older and younger students are paired together. It is evident that friendships and comradery are sparking among all the various grade levels. These buddy classes choose a service organization for the year, such as Azalealand or Feed the Hungry. This group, led by Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Hubbard, and Mrs. Swanger, plan lessons and lead a class once a month. They are also responsible for the compliments and concerns of the entire student. In addition to their service projects, these student leaders conduct school tours. The Leadership Day subcommittee, headed by Mrs. Brooke and Miss Latimer, works on the preparation for Leadership Day the whole year even though it is months away, embodying Habit 2, “Begin with the End in Mind.”
This summer on July 31, the SLHT had its annual summer retreat on Tybee. Upon entering the beach house, one was engulfed into this accepting community and the smell of donuts did not hurt. We began the retreat like all other things at Blessed Sacrament, with a prayer. It put us in a strong, united mindset with key terms like, “Leadership is not about watching and correcting. Lord, let us remember it is about listening and connecting,” and, “Let our greatest passion, be compassion.” We then focused on this and habit five, seek first to understand, then to be understood, with a Twizzler icebreaker prepared by Mrs. Brooke and Miss Latimer. The task was to tie a knot with the twizzler while only using one hand per person from partner pair. This seems simple, but we had to use communication skills to create a “game-plan” especially when we had to close our eyes! Next, we developed the SLHT mission statement for this year, or the purpose and what we want to accomplish. After a delicious pizza lunch, we talked about what we wanted our meetings to look like and decided on some key concepts like “presume the positive” and open discussion time at the end of meetings. Next, we went round-robin and learned a little bit about each subcommittee. Lastly, we finished with a seven-habits scavenger hunt that ended at the Tybee Lighthouse for group photo.