Worthington schools strive to instill in their students tools to help them navigate the world successfully. These skills are highlighted in Worthington’s Portrait of a Learner(POAL), which according to our new assistant principal Mrs. Leiding includes being an “adaptable leader, critical thinker, confident communicator, responsible collaborator, and resilient learner.”

To help highlight these ideas even more, The Ravine is launching a brand new weekly series of posts called Caught Being a Leader(CBAL). Started by Leiding and other faculty members, CBAL will highlight WKHS students both in and out of the classroom exemplifying positive influence in our school.

The process of being recognized in CBAL is fairly simple. “Any staff member—whether a custodian, cafeteria worker, teacher, administrator, secretary, or coach—can recognize a student who demonstrates the Portrait of a Learner competencies,” Leiding explained, “The staff member fills out a Google Form with the student’s name and a brief description of how they exemplified these qualities. I then transfer that information to a Caught Being A Leader certificate, which is signed by Mr. Thomas and the staff member who submitted the form. The certificate is presented to the student, and at the end of the month, we take a group photo of all recognized students.”

“[One thing] I love is that any student can be recognized,” Leiding said, “This isn’t something that only a select group of students can receive.” Along with the group photo, a feature will be written about each student who receives the nomination. Students who wish to remain anonymous can inform either the faculty who gives them the recommendation or write to The Ravine and let us know.

To learn more, the Worthington schools website has more information on each part of POAL. We hope to see faces from all across Kilbourne showing what it means to be a Worthington student with CBAL.