Blake Leadership Academy
The Blake Leadership Academy is located at the Blake Elementary School in Lakeland. Gifted and At-risk children are trained to be leaders through various programs. One way the children learned to be leaders is running a tee shirt business. The students actually perform all duties in making the shirts for outside clients in the community. The proceeds from the shirts fund the Blake Leadership Program.
In addition, Leadership Training is provided on a ropes course. The children are trained in the following:
- Design and Construction
- Hard Skill Training and Operation (Ropes, helmets, safety, maintenance, etc.)
- Soft Skill Training and Operation (Facilitation school and district-wide, motivation, helping change)
Best Practice Classroom Strategies Based on Research are used such as:
- Teach (lead) by personal example
- Establish Community in the classroom
- Teach it to learn it. (Kids teaching kids – over 90% effective)
- Set high expectations
- Self-directed learning
- Self-monitoring and self-evaluation are self-directed activities
- Establish a connection with each student (be an invitational and intentional teacher)
- Specific Praise
- Peer to Peer Conflict Resolution
- Competency builds self-esteem – a teacher cannot build a student’s self-esteem
- Concentrate on self-determination: Self-determined kids tend not to do drugs, violence, early sex, act-out for attention; they can be a pain for their parents and teachers
- Kids do violence because they are devalued by their peers and not “heard” by the adults in their lives
- Planning
- Construction
- Presentation (written, DVD and in person)
- Sales and Marketing
Embroidery Services
- Specific Skill Development
- Project Selection
- Frustration associated with each new project
- Sales and Marketing
- Regularly Scheduled Sales Events
- Inventory Control (Tools, Supplies and “Stuff”) – Run as a Profit & Loss Operation
- Organization and Procedures
- Boundaries – rules before friends
- Consistency and Calm in the daily storms
- Support Services
- Administration
- Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, Access)
- Finance and Grant Writing
- Budgets and Financial Projects
- Writing
- Research Data
- Accounting
- Quick Books Professional
- Community Service
- Thank You Letters
- Projects to serve
In addition to T Shirt making, Blake Academy Leadership program offers leadership training for outside groups. The actual students are the facilitators and provide a leadership and team building workshop to other schools and businesses.
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