Stephen Covey's The Leader in Me is seen through the actions of thousands of students in schools across the United States and beyond. The children learn the strong, confident vocabulary that has helped to shape leaders in every child. The students, teachers, administration, parents, and community work together to bring out the best in every child. 

As I've been storytelling in several "Leader in Me" schools, I've unconsciously categorized all of my tales into the seven habits of highly effective people. It was nice to help students create stronger connections to these 7 habits through folktales, fairytales, and personal tales. The students and staff could internalize the stories, ask questions of the characters, see various points of view, feel the emotions of these characters, and decide if decisions made were clever, foolish, sensible, or just plain crazy! Below I've included some tales that I've told in the schools and have categorized them within the 7 habits. You'll begin noticing that several habits can be found in one story and that's always fun to discover when talking to your listeners after the story is told.

The explanations of the 7 habits was taken from p. 21 in The Leader in Me. I will continue to add storytelling titles to each trait.

1. Be proactive: I'm a responsible person. I take initiative. I choose my actions, attitudes and moods. I don't blame others for my wrong actions. I do the right thing even when people are not looking.

*King Bidgoodʻs in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood
 *"Mabela the Clever" - retold by Margaret Read McDonald from Teaching with Story
*"Not Our Problem" - folktale from Burma retold by Margaret Read 
McDonald from Teaching with Story, p.29
*"Old Man Wombat", p. 106 of Margaret Read McDonaldʻs Teaching with Story.

2. Begin with the End in Mind: I plan ahead and set goals. I am an important part of my classroom and contribute to my school's mission and vision.
*"The Three Little Pigs"
*The Gingerbread Babyand The Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett
*Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
*"The Enormous Turnip"
*"The Liarʻs Contest" (Twice Upon a Time, p.190) Judy Sierra and Robert Kaminski

3. Put First Things First: I spend my time on things that are most important. This means I say no to things I know I should not do. I set priorities, make a schedule, and follow my plan. I am disciplined and organized.

*"The Ants and The Grasshopper"- Aesop
*"The Little Red Hen"
*"Baby Rattlesnakeʻs First Rattle"-from Margaret Read McDonaldʻs Shake-It Up Tales!- an example of not putting things first)

4. Think Win-Win: I compromise. I balance courage for getting what I want with consideration for waht others want. I make deposits in others' Emotional Bank Accounts.

*Swimmy by Leo Leonni
*Jangles: a BIG Fish Story by David Shannon
*"Too Much Noise" - Jewish folktale (p.127 of Len Cabralʻs Storytelling Book)
*"The Debate in Sign Language"- retold by Sid Liberman in From Sea to Shining Sea

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Undersood: I try to walk in other people's shoes trying to see things from their viewpoints. I listen to others without interrupting. I am confident in voicing my ideas. I look people in the eyes when talking.

*Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon
*The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
*Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peopleʻs Ears by Verna Aardema
*"The Seal Skin" retold by Lynn Rubright in Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival
*"Grandmother Spider" - Len Cabralʻs Storytelling Book, p.15
*"How to Break a Bad Habit", p. 143, retold by Margaret Read McDonald in Teaching with Story
*"The Blind Men and the Elephant" - p. 25 in Heather Forestʻs Wisdom Tales from Around the World

6.  Synergize: I work well in groups. I seek out other people's ideas to solve problems because I know that by teaming with others we can create better solutions than any one of us alone. I am humble. I value other people's strengths and learn from them.

*Swimmy by Leo Lionni
*"Stone Soup"
*Seven Spools of Thread by Angela Shelf Madearis
*The Three Princes: A Tale from the Middle East retold by Eric A. Kimmel
*"Frog and Lucust Bring the Rain",p. 172 of Margaret Read McDonaldʻs Teaching with Story
*"Two Goats on a Bridge", p. 162 of Margaret Read McDonaldʻs Teaching with Story

7. Sharpen the Saw: I take care of my body by eating right, exercising, and getting sleep. I spend time with family and friends. I learn in lots of ways and lots of places, not just at school. I take time to find meaningful ways to help others.

*The Napping House by Audrey Wood
*"Lincolnʻs Famous Beard" -  told by Lucille and Bren Breneman in Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival
*"Hardy Hard Head" in Jack Tales by Richard Chase

Wendy Howk, a librarian friend of mine, has an outstanding bibliography of books that she has categorized in each of Covey's 7 traits. You can find her list here.

If you have stories to add to this list, please comment and I'll add them to the 7 Habits!  I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Megan Hicks is our Keynote speaker and feature Storyteller for the conference. I bOn her way to becoming the storyteller she is today, Megan Hicks served a 13-year apprenticeship as a children's librarian -- in a large suburban library with a small staff and a busy program schedule. It was during these years that she lost her fear of toddlers and received eleven epiphanies about storytelling for children, one of which is: "Storytelling for kids is NOT 'Storytelling Lite.'" Today, Megan travels nationwide and internationally sharing her love of story and her other passion -- origami -- with children, inner children, and the people who care for them. She has performed in libraries in Western Australia, toured schools in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Colombia with Dream on Productions, and is looking forward to a tour in July, 2014, of libraries in New Zealand. Megan lives in Nether Providence, right outside Philadelphia, with her husband Jack and four dysfunctional cats.  

Knowing how expensive educational conferences and workshops are to attend, you can not pass this three day event up. For a mere $105 (member) or $140 (nonmember), you'll hear and participate with national and international tellers and presenters such as Megan Hicks, Jay Stailey and Tom McDermott, Pat Nease, Susan Guerra (from Norway), Donna Ingham, Fran Stallings, and so many more. Please check out our website here.

I'm especially excited about Saturday morning of this conference because we'll feature a Youth Storytelling Showcase: Story Behind the Story: Nurturing the Next Generation. I'll have a few of my students along with a few of Mary Ann Blue's students tell their tales to share the power of story within youth. Our keynote speaker and storyteller, Megan Hicks will be our emcee allowing for a question/answer time for not only the audience but for Mary Ann and I to speak on allowing time for youth storytelling to occur in the school setting and what it takes to begin this wonderful venture.


Hope to see you there. If you have any questions, please leave a reply or email me at sue.kuentz@gmail.com

Every blog I visited was magical in some way. Please know that I was enriched with every visit. Thank you! With that said, there are those blogs I kept revisiting so I thought I would share them with you:

1. Stories Mary Grace Ketner shared observations and anecdotes about the traditional tales found in the 398.2 section of your library – Folktales, Fairy Tales, Legends, Myths and Fables – as well as their protagonists and villains, collectors, illustrators, and scholars. Mary Grace is a professional storyteller, author, friend. Each post was 100 perfectly placed words that flowed. You'll want to find the 398.2 section of your library and discover these treasures listed in each post!


2. Pam Faro and her StorytellerStory Crossings blog was amazing. Her blog is all about making connections through storytelling. She is an amazing storyteller, storyteller presenter, and educator. I'm so happy to have another storytelling friend.

3. Life, the Universe and Everything - Each day's life experiences with Megan was such a delight to read. She is a storyteller and a fantastic writer.

4. The Multicolored Diary - Each day of folktales, legends, and myths held me spellbound. Zalka Csenge Virág's writing is beautiful and so are her tales. Here are her words: "I love colors. I love colorful things (in case the blog's title did not cue you in). This year, I am going to be posting about folktales, myths andlegends that have something to do with a certain color of the day. The A to Z will be given by the colors, which is fun in itself: there are more colors (and especially names of colors) in the world than you could possibly imagine."

5. Stephanie's Studio - Stephanie's blog is inspiring and her writing is flowing! I've loved each of her posts and will continue to read and learn from her!

6. Finding Eliza - Awww, the letters, postcards, and anecdotes written down by Kristen Cleage's grandfather to his wife Pearl - priceless! Extensive photographs and research are throughout with fantastic recounts of her grandparent's days together (1907-1912).

Twenty - six days of blogging was like a hiking adventure up a mountain never visited before. I learned to survive from those around me, took in the sights, paid attention to the trail signs, had a few falls along the way, took pictures, and one step at a time, I made it to the top, along with all the new friends I made along the way! What a sight it was! Looking down at the path taken was simply amazing! I left my handprint on the flat boulder up there hoping others would notice. Thank you for this unforgetful adventure. I definitely look forward to participating again next year.

Reflecting on this month: I wanted to attract storytellers, teachers of youth writers and readers, educators, and anyone mildly interested in engaging students and adults in the crafts of reading, writing, and storytelling. It was amazing that my visitors were from all walks of life and I'm so appreciative that they came to visit and see what my blog had to offer them. I recipricated and found that I connected to so many blogs myself. I enjoyed communicating with the authors and making friends with many of them as a result. My curiosity kept me coming back for more. I'm now following several blogs and look forward to each of their posts. I'm a new blogger (since August 2013) so my learning curve is great. Folks along the way offered great advice and tips on how to create a successful blog. 

The world really is a network of friends. Viewers from all over the world visited. Thank you from Texas!

This being my first year to try this out, I would like to shout out "THANK YOU!" to all involved. Your support, your modeling what a great blog looks and feels like, your kind and thoughtful comments, your time in reading the posts - make each day invigorating! I looked forward to each post I wrote because of you!

Tip for next year: 
1, Blog Categories.  The directions state: "There are categories for those looking for like-minded blogs. Select ONE category code and enter it after your blog’s title/name. The code applies to your blog, not your theme for the Challenge and is purely optional. However, if your blog has adult content or strong language with liberal use of swearwords etc. you MUST mark it (AC) or it will be removed from the list."

My suggestion would be for those that wish to use a category code- have a pull down window to select that code. If bloggers would like to visit those like categories then there would be a way to click on that particular code and see those blogs. I bet we would visit more blogs if we had them in order by categories.


2. Possibly place blogs in alphabetical order under their categories

My blogging will continue tomorrow. It's my hope to blog 2-3 times a week. I'll focus on storytelling, writing, reading activities, and everything in-between! Visit often and I hope to revisit your blogs and take the roadtrip to blogs never visited yet.  Cheers to all!