Leadership opportunities for students to grow
With the widespread variety of classes that GlenOak offers, a new curriculum was added into the mix to assist students once they are out of high school.
The Leadership class offers students the opportunity to build essential skills that employers look for all across Ohio. Ohio Department of Education put together 15 necessary characteristics that business owners look for in students as they graduate high school and get into the workforce.
Teacher Beau Balderson is leading this program. Balderson taught at Marlington High School teaching World History and also the Leadership class they had there.
“This class is designed to try to teach those leadership skills to all levels of students,” Balderson said. “We teach character building to develop those skills and right now we are focusing on working on our determination and courage.”
Starting with the class of 2024, students will need two seals that showcase professional leadership and reasoning skills. In order to earn a seal, students must achieve a proficient rating in each category of the 15 characteristics.
“Every freshman or sophomore has to have two seals, and so this class is one of the seals that they can earn along with some community service opportunities that we offer during this class period and also outside of school possibilities,” Balderson said.
There are many students who take this class ranging from 4.0 GPAs to kids just looking for their last seal for graduating if they don’t already have the credits. Balderson has about 155 students that he is responsible for, just like any other teacher in the building.
“I try to mix it up when it comes to day-to-day class, and so some days we will have a hands-on activity or a guest speaker, and other days we will watch a video with guided questions and discuss as a class,” Balderson said.
Some students may be uncomfortable to get out of their comfort zones when participating in class, but students such as sophomore McKenzie Stevens believe it is what helps.
“I like it and sometimes it pushes you out of your comfort zone to be able to grow,” Stevens said. “I think it’s a good class to take because it helps you truly understand the importance of building skills that will help you with your future jobs and also determining which habits won’t aid you.”
Having an inclusive class can benefit the different cultures each class holds. With this, the class dynamic is not different from what other classes are like at the school.
“My class environment is like my other classes in which in some cases kids don’t get along, but it’s overall very calming and we do activities to help us grow in factors he’s having us learn,” Stevens said.
Stevens has learned a lot from Balderson and the messages that he is trying to get across.
“We’ve learned that if you want to be successful, you need to be able to have good communication skills and have leadership in what you do to take ownership in your future job and community,” Stevens said.
Stevens and Balderson both believe this is a class some people should consider taking for the sake of growing as individuals and understanding the significance of identifying and utilizing those skills that will enable them to apply in the workforce.
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