Payton Baggett Reporting
news@clarksvillenow.com

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Byrns L. Darden Elementary School hosted its first Leadership Day on March 14 to show parents and the community how teachers are using a program called The Leader in Me to better serve their students.

The event began in the school gym with students introducing themselves and the program to attendees. They talked about the skills that the program has given them and how it has helped them with schoolwork, physical activity and spiritual health.

Byrns Darden Principal Andy Lyons explained that the Franklin Covey program was founded by a principal at a struggling school and is based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that have been taught to the children. Lyons went on to say that Byrns Darden is the only school in the southeastern region to receive a grant for the costly program, and it has been gradually added to the school’s regular
curriculum since last year.

Leadership Day continued with students taking guests on a tour of Byrns Darden to see firsthand how The Leader in Me is being interactively used.

Lyons talked about the process of finding the program, saying that he researched schools with similar demographics, and was invited to attend a symposium in Myrtle Beach. “We toured schools and got to go to classrooms, and hear kids speak, and it was just amazing,” Lyons said. “I knew when they talked about the Data Notebooks and kids taking ownership of their learning that that was exactly what my school needed.”

Teachers at Byrns Darden attended three-day training over the summer to learn the language of the program. Lyons said, “The cool thing was that we learned that we have to do it first before we teach our kids. We had to learn all of the seven habits and how we have to incorporate them, not just in our teaching but in our everyday life, because the kids are watching you.”

Lyons also said that the program has made “an insane difference” in behavior. Students practice the 7 habits daily during a morning community circle time, and are all members of clubs that meet once a month. Older students are assigned as lunch time mentors to younger children.