page 4 LACEY LAPP Project TEAM is a school-wide program that fo- cuses on building leadership and team work through educa- tion. Lindsey Covert, the founder of the program, started to design the program seven years ago right after grad school, when she was a coun- selor at Hamilton Heights Ele- mentary School. It is one of the first team building pro- grams, and the ultimate goal, ‘according to Covert, is to “teach leadership and team building... and give students a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose.” There are 10 goals in Project TEAM, based on six foundations. The foundations consist of helping others, posi- tive changes in behavior, anti- bullying/social skills, problem solving and conflict resolu- tions, resiliency, and leader- ship. The first goal is to “give students a sense of belonging through working together as peers and as a school toward one common goal.” Covert hopes that if students feel con- nected to school, they’ll want to be there, and if they want to be there, “they’re going to do better academically, socially, and emotionally.” The next two goals are to “create an environment where every adult in the build- ing has an opportunity to help with this effort” and to “involve parents and the com- munity to create relevance for our students.” teachers have personalities that don’t match,” Covert explains. “The hope is that this gives students the opportunity to get reinforced through other adults that they have connections with.” When students can get reinforcement from an adult they connect with, whether it’s a teacher, a parent or someone in their community, the hope of Project TEAM is that an adult can create relevance for the student. Covert states that stu- dents are able to understand things better if they understand the relevance. Two more goals are to “motivate our students to do the best they can and be the best they can be” and to “decrease bullying by reinforc- ing leadership and teambuild- ing skills.” Covert states, “a lot of programs try to intervene or have interventions for bully- ing... but I think it’s important to be proactive and teach, ‘this is how you treat other people, and these are some ways you can prevent bullying.”” The last five goals are to “help to increase leadership and teambuilding skills through student teams and classroom teambuilding ses- sions”, to “create quality con- nections and relationships for 3 aciEEert our students”, to “give kids a sense of ownership and respon- sibility”, to “promote a physi- cally and emotionally safe en- vironment”, and to “help stu- dents understand they can make a difference.” The symbol of Project TEAM is a house. Each side or part to the house stands for one of the six foundations. The school has a painted dollhouse that they put “Teamwork Tick- ets” into. As counselors talk to the students during each foun- dation session, and teach them each of the six foundations, the foundations are visually depict- ed on the house. As the ses- sions progress, students slowly begin to build the house as each foundation is covered. Students also get in- volved with small volunteer programs for Project TEAM, such as their own “mini- THON” and a hat, gloves and scarves collection. Last year, the students had a talent show at the end of the year to raise . SCA Vn esident money and got to choose dif- ferent organizations, such as Haiti, to send the money to. According to Covert, these programs give students the “opportunity to connect project TEAM with really cool stuff that’s going on in the world.” Currently, the program is being used by Guildford Hills Elementary School and an elementary school in New Jersey. The program is current- ly for students from Kindergar- ten through fifth grade, but Covert hopes to eventually have a program that goes all the way through high school. According to Guildford Hills Elementary School counselor, Erica Pattillo, since the pro- gram was started in October, students have been “working more as a team and working together.” (Continued on Page 6)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers