Led by Superintendent Jay Haugan, the faculty and staff of District 197’s eight schools integrated sparks into every facet of the school environment. In addition to using the prototype sparks curricula, the district supported the sparks model with many of their own innovative activities and events, some of which are listed below:
- Made their annual back-to-school kick-off a spark-filled event by including a speech from Search Institute President Peter Benson and demonstrations of students’ sparks.
- Got more than 2,000 students to respond to a sparks questionnaire and shared the results with students, parents, and teachers.
- Trained elementary-school counselors to deliver sparks lessons as part of an ongoing grant-funded program.
- Had more than 300 school faculty and staff take a sparks questionnaire to discover their own sparks, as well as those of their colleagues.
- Engaged parent groups with the concept of sparks and developing a prototype set of parent spark activities.
