Building Personal Responsibility with our Students

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of." -Jim Rohn

Ms Linda Dempsey and Mr Gregg O'Neill recently talked about the subject of personal and communal responsibility in our school. Two key areas as identified by Gregg were Responsibility in our class rooms and demonstrating responsibility in our wider CBC community. It was commented by Gregg that developing a sense of responsibility in our students would promote greater engagement, improve behaviour, create a sense of pride in self and the group and improve quality of work. Some of the actions currently undertaken by teachers to promote responsibility in the class room are:

(1) Students designing their own posters and you tube videos for learning (2) More autonomy given to students over project work (3) Peer to peer learning between students (4) Designing spaces in our school using Communication, collaborating, designing and organising to see a finished outcome.

Ms Dempsey talked about developing a greater sense of responsibility with students throughout the school by giving key roles of responsibility to students. These roles included:

Environmental issues, canteen duties, looking after locker rooms and taking class rolls.

She believed that students need to apply in writing and go through an interview process to attain these roles. Also students would need training days to help them in their roles. These roles can be developed from first to sixth year in our school! These rolls need to given great importance and prestige within our school in order for them to be developed and respected fully within our school community.

Personal and Communal Responsibility is a topic currently under discussion in the Learning Revolution. If you have thoughts on this subject please feel free to let us know!