Running Head: MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL

Mackenzie Fosters Project Proposal: Presenting Leadership to Add to a Well Balanced Educational Experience Mackenzie L. Foster Chapin High School

MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL Abstract My topic of research will be within the field of education and leadership. I would like to research if combining leadership activities with normal studies leads to higher test scores and higher confidence. I would like to find out if extra emphasis on leadership and cooperation adds to an educational experience and if it allows a child to prosper in their learning environment. I hope to complete this research by attending classes or forming an after school program at an elementary school in the area. I will construct lesson plans and interact with the students. I hope to receive signature pages stating that I may access test scores and analyze students test scores to come to a conclusion on whether or not my attempts successful in rising test scores. I hope to come to the conclusion that adding leadership techniques to instruction periods raises confidence levels, also raising test scores. If my research does prove to enhance educational experiences, I hope to document my findings so that leadership can be implemented into classrooms. I would thoroughly enjoy seeing young students prosper due to my research.

MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL Introduction The project that I am proposing will benefit the youth of our society. I hope to determine that with leadership incorporated into instruction allows a student to further succeed and raise confidence levels. Throughout my aging process I have determined that taking roles of leadership has allowed me to become myself and has given my confidence levels a much needed boost. These raised confidence levels then in turn caused my test scores to become higher. The more confidence you have in yourself the more confidence you will feel all around; also the more confidence others will have in you. This project is relevant to the setting we are in because as a very able community, I feel that we need to further our possibilities and abilities. By allowing our students to grow at younger ages we are allowing our community and greater areas to grow as well. The more confidence we instill in our youth the greater the impact they will have in the future. Our future depends on their future; a greater future presented by them is a greater future given to us. The higher scores, provoked by high confidence and leadership skills, will benefit our youth and also our outcome. Not only our students become academically advanced, they will have higher confidence levels, and also become leaders within their communities of the future. We are in desperate need of educated leaders. I believe that this project could become a small start to this development of educated leaders. Background I understand that there are many leadership activities already developed. Throughout my research however, I have not found evidence of programs near the program I would like to create. I have found programs that are based around producing leaders for the front of the classroom, programs to promote communication and understanding among students, and

MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL programs to produce leaders in high education environments, such as colleges. This unique program for leaders sitting within the desks of the classroom however, I believe is original and not specifically attempted. Many of the activities that will be incorporated into this program will have originated from other sources; many with have be brought into my knowledge because of leadership seminars that I have participated in myself. The use of materials from other environments I believe will help to broaden horizons and enhance experience. Current Situation As of this time I have the details of my plan have not been finalized. I must first contact successful leaders and successful educators to allow myself to understand fully what is needed to be implemented to become success in my own terms. Once I have fulfilled the needed background research I can begin formulating a lesson plan to experiment with. If I do not succeed in completing background information, I feel that I will not be educated enough in the matter I will be presenting on and I feel that I will be failing the students by not putting in the effort of researching before presenting. Proposed Work I propose that this project will take nearly a year to a year and a half to complete the first trial of this project. I will need to begin formulating background knowledge and viable leadership activities to complete with the students early in the process. The process will include not only actual time with the students but also side work with research, planning, actual classroom time, grade analyze, and reformulating. Much of this project will be based around trial and error. I plan to give myself a form of forgiveness within the first few trials/ grade periods to

MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL truly grasp the process needed to complete this project. I consider the first trial of this project to be a semester of a school year seeing improvement in leadership and test scores. Project Timeline Title Time Allotted Start Description Extra Allotment

Research

Three Months

March

Interviews

One Month

June

Lesson Planning

Two Months

July

Permission Processes

One Month

September

Grade and Process

One Month

October

The research process is where I plan to gather information from other institutions based around leadership and where I plan to begin to decide which activities will best fit the program I am hoping to formulate. The interview portion of this project is where I hope to interview successful leaders. From these interviews I hope to acquire information about what allowed them to become leaders and to get ideas from them about what I possibly could incorporate into my program. The Lesson Planning portion of this project is where I plan of scheduling what I will incorporate on what days and what activities will be put together and in what order. The Permission Portion of this process if so that I am given permission to interact with children and acquire test scores. I hope to achieve permission from educators, administrators, and parents. This portion of the project is when I begin to initially analyze information such as test scores and classroom behaviors. I hope that through this process I am

Two Months

One Month

Two Weeks

Two Weeks

One Month

MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL Analyze able to understand each student and their needs. Through this analysis I hope to be able to analyze the group as a whole and further formulate my plans to their specific needs. This is the portion when I truly begin to experiment with the students and use my formulated program. This is the portion of the initial testing where I look at results and begin to pick apart the places that I succeeded, the places I need to improve, and the places that I didnt achieve my goal. I will then reconstruct my curriculum according to my findings.

First Implication Post Grade Analyze

Five Months

November

N/A

Three Months

April

Two Months

Budget This project should not cost too much for expenses. I will just need to be able to provide myself with simple supplies such as school supplies, gas money, and data analysis equipment. School supplies are examples of thing such as pens, pencils, expo markers, leadership supplies, and paper. The portions of the supplies that may cost the most are the leadership supplies. These supplies are what will be used for the specific lessons and activities. One easy example is a tennis ball activity that benefits the participants with a new respect for team work. The expenses for this activity would just be tennis balls. Also need would be gas money, gasoline has become quite expensive which a reason for the cost of this project to be high. My commuting to the campus and from the campus everyday would become expensive, especially if the campus is not located near me.

MACKENZIE FOSTERS PROJECT PROPOSAL Lastly, I would need equipment to allow me to analyze my data. I would first need a calculator to perform calculations, percentages, and increases or decreases. I would also need a device to store statistics and plans such as a laptop computer. Both of these devices have the possibility of costing a large sum of money. I hope that I could possibly receive grants for this equipment. Conclusion This project has the ability to become significant for families and children and also higher educators. A childs life could be changed by given the ability to become a leader and make a positive difference. A family could be changed because of the light that their child provides for them. And lastly, a higher educators life could be changed because if a child forms leadership traits at a young age they are more likely to continue to show these traits. Higher educators need to be given students with potential to make a difference. These children help to refresh the minds of these educators and could very positively influence an educational environment; as theirs was at a young age.