Nominator's Comments

Anne Ashby was the AAFCS Teacher of the Year for Virginia in 2003. Anne is a member of AAFCS and is active in the Virginia affiliate, Virginia Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (VAFCS). She participated at the national level in the development of the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education as a member of the Development Panel, Focus Group in Georgia, and Process Writers Group in Virginia. Anne also served as treasurer of the National Association of Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences.
--Daisy Stewart, Associate Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute

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It is difficult to highlight one program of the total curriculum in this middle school Family and Consumer Sciences program. There are some units that sell the program and make these classes the most popular electives in the school. Family and Consumer Sciences teachers learn to be creative. Our programs have to change to meet the needs of the current programs. When you have been in this business for years and believe in the value of the profession, you change to avoid becoming a dinosaur. This program, at the middle school level, has been an 8th grade and 7th grade program, a combined 7th and 8th grade program and a combined 6th, 7th, and 8th grade program. It has been a 6 week program, 12 week program, 9 week program, and an 18 week program. To avoid being phased out, creating programs to fit the current educational philosophy has offered unique opportunities to develop special programs to enhance Family and Consumer Sciences. This is the reason for the development of the class in leadership.

Dynamic Leadership was designed to integrate core curricula of language arts and social studies into the instruction and to allow students to develop leadership skills. This is an eighteen week program for seventh and eighth graders. The students begin by defining models of ethical leadership. Oral and written communication, problem solving, and management skills form the core of the program. Students practice leadership in the program: they conduct meetings, give presentations, manage small and large group activities, initiate interviews, solve problems, set goals, and achieve their goals. The students also produce a wide variety of written work, ranging from scripts to business letters written to explain what grade they deserve. The students reach beyond the traditional classroom – outward to their community. Academic skills in English and social studies are reinforced through the tasks in this program.

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The extension of Dynamic Leadership beyond the box of the classroom has been extremely important to the implementation of this technology-based program. I expect each student to do some self-assessment of their leadership style and analyze their style with a leader they admire. They read a book of their hero and prepare a PowerPoint presentation. In teams, they must plan and carry through a school improvement project and a community improvement project. The administrative staff also presents projects for the class to complete. The speakers and guests to the classroom add to the high level of interest. Each project they complete requires a computer developed business letter containing three paragraphs. The first is to explain the planning and implementation of the project. The second is their involvement in the project and the third is the grade they feel they earned for their effort in the project. My goal is to prepare my students for the “real world” and when their ideas and goals are seen in reality in some change they have made to help others allows them to experience self worth.

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Requirements:
• Journal
• Book about a Leader
• Participate in projects

This course outline has been perfected over the past three years. Some classes are full of leaders and others are in the class because nothing else fits their schedule. The class begins by having students assess themselves to learn if they are a left brain/right brain learner, auditory/visual/kinetics, learner, and thinker/helper/creator/persuader personality. They assess their type of leadership. They journal after each team building activity, the type of leadership style they used.
They put these styles into practice when they select a community service project to carry through. The students assume the leadership of the class and plan and complete a community service project. The teacher becomes the facilitator. Some community projects are done annually and some are selected as needed. (Example: Tsunami).

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Every December, we do a toy drive for the local police department for the children of Winchester. They usually collect about 100 toys. This year the students worked real hard and set a goal for 250. They collected 380 toys. The newspaper picked up the story. They were so proud.

The principal came to the class after Christmas and asked them to organize a project to collect money for the Tsunami. They brainstormed ideas and collected $1035 for Project Hope.

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