Not every child is born a Pied Piper. Having effective leadership skills, however, is beneficial for individuals in school, the workplace, and even in one’s personal life. The ability to collaborate with a partner or a group to solve a problem or reach a goal, though, is equally crucial. At Mackintosh Academy, we intentionally work to help students, through all the grade levels, develop leadership skills as well as collaboration skills.

This year, the middle school teachers decided to pilot a discrete Leadership class with the oldest students at Mack to see if they could up the ante, so to speak. “We’ll likely change the name of the class to Leadership & Collaboration next year, because we ended up focussing on both equally this year,” said Brenda Parker, Middle School Director (and Leadership teacher).

During Leadership, the 8^th graders worked towards strengthening the Mack student community by planning games, advertising them, and then leading the games during recess for interested students in 4th-7th grades. They also prepared for leading the occasional all-school Mack Morning Meeting. They spent time planning their trip to Washington, D.C., which happens in May. “The 8^th graders have been involved with almost every step of the process, like researching and selecting many of their activities, looking at VRBO options, contacting vendors, gathering transportation information, and even planning cooking and clean-up duties during the week,” said Parker.

The majority of the 8^th graders’ time in Leadership, however, was developing a plan to fund the trip. Parker said, “I have been so impressed with the students’ dedication to this effort, their creative ideas around how to raise funds, and watching them come together as a class to work hard towards a common goal.” To name a few of the efforts: the 8^th graders ran Pizza Fridays (evolving to offer applesauce and juice with the pizza, and also offering online ordering); they cooked, sold, and served dinner at Mackoween; they organized a sock-selling fundraiser/service learning event; and they advertised for a Chipotle dinner fundraiser.

Spearheading the majority of their fundraising activities provided many opportunities for growth—the 8^th graders learned to work together to develop (and tweak) a long-term project, to plan one-off events, and to make and manage a budget. They made mistakes, made them right, and learned from them. They developed and practiced responsibility, communication, organization, timeliness, and preparation—skills that encourage and strengthen strong self-identity and confidence. The students demonstrated many of the IB Learner Profile attributes during this process, especially risk-taking, being reflective, communicating, and being thinkers. Parker said, “Probably one of the most important things they learned was to see different viewpoints in a situation—they will always encounter multiple opinions in a group setting, and they certainly learned to work through that this year.”

The 8^th graders learned that organization, hard work, collaboration, and dedication pay off—literally. Their fundraising efforts this year will pay for their entire trip to our nation’s capital.

Still, one 8^th grader, Toby, had more to say on the benefits: “Leadership and all of the fundraising activities were actually fun. We learned how to plot our own course, but we also made a lot of memories. I feel blessed and proud we earned all the money for our trip.”