By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph School District has established principles it would like to see its students learn through life to prepare for a successful future.
The five aspects the district is focused on for students are communication, respect, courage, problem solving and being a more engaged citizen.
School Board member Ronda Chesney says courage plays a big role for students when they go into college or go into a job interview
“All those things take courage, and I think we have the opportunity to encourage our students while we can still support them in an educational setting to have that courage,” Chesney tells KFEQmunnity host Brent Martin. “Then in turn, that will be embedded in them as they go out and do the things that adults have to do on their own, I think that’s important.”
Chesney points out these skills are not just being taught as students are about to graduate, but rather instilled as students in the district start in preschool, so when they are ready to graduate the skills are not new to them.
Assistant Superintendent Ashly McGinnis says what they are doing with these dispositions is breaking them down, to what it looks like at each grade level
“What does communication look like in second grade, third grade, fourth grade, all the way up to a high school senior, because it does look different,” McGinnis explains. “But there’s little things, even I’m thinking of communication and this is something I see often when we go out to eat, if a parent is ordering for their child, sometimes that’s appropriate in elementary school, but as they get a little bit older they should be able to order off a menu or go through the drive-thru and say what they want.”
McGinnis says what the district sees a lot today is kids who are shy and timid, so allowing students opportunities to communicate will be helpful in the classroom, but also as students become adults.
McGinnis says these dispositions have been in full effect, and are being utilized to this day in the districts classrooms
“Just going with the courage and communication piece, this is something we see daily in our classrooms,” McGinnis says. “If a teacher is giving a lesson and trying to engage kids and a student might have something valuable to contribute to the class, but a lot of the times they don’t speak up, so having that courage to communicate or volunteer to go to the board and work out a problem, that’s something we want out of our students.”
Officials hope by instilling these traits within students, starting in preschool, they can be successful once they leave the St. Joseph School District and move into their future endeavor.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
