M-P-S Filter

From the beginning of Lead ‘Em Up we have been committed to building a curriculum that engages young people in a way that leaves them wanting to engage more. Could we build a leadership curriculum that young people viewed as something they “get to do” rather than something they “had to do.”

We knew if we didn’t get this right, we had no chance to produce the impact we wanted to produce. The reality is, it doesn’t matter how well-intentioned a curriculum is, how rooted in research it is, or how it’s packaged, if it doesn’t engage and captivate young people, you will be working uphill the entire time.

In addition, our curriculum isn’t something we pass off for others to teach, we teach it ourselves. And the last thing we want to do is stand in front of groups of young people, day after day, having to fight through the resistance, go through the painful experience of boring classroom sessions and not see the growth of young people as leaders.

That is why we created two strategies to help assure that our Classroom Curriculum is being provided to educators and coaches, to accomplish what we hoped to accomplish.

The first strategy is the creation of our M-P-S filter.

Every Classroom Curriculum concept or activity created by our team of educators, coaches, and creatives has to pass through the M-P-S filter before it enters the next stage of implementation.

Our M-P-S Filter stands for Memorable, Portable & Sticky.

Memorable – will they remember the experience of going through Lead ‘Em Up and being taught this concept or activity. Can it be taught in a way they will remember?

Portable – is the lesson being taught portable? Can they take the lesson learned with them through all areas of their life; school, home, work, relationships, sport, extracurricular activities, etc.,

Sticky – can we use phrases and language that stick to the hearts and minds of young people. Teaching serves little value if what’s taught is quickly forgotten. It needs to stick and stay with them.

Once we evaluate, dissect and enhance each concept or activity through the filter, it goes to our testing phase. The second strategy is to officially stamp it with our, “Class-Tested, Student-Approved” stamp.

Since we teach the curriculum it gives us an opportunity to test the curriculum.  And thankfully we work with enough schools where we have built up enough grace to “experiment” new concepts or activities.  Over spans of months, we will engage our students with proposed teaching concepts and activities. During this testing, we are assessing the M-P-S filter. Is the energy and vibe in the room memorable? Is the lesson resonating and showing its ability to be portable in their lives? Is the language sticky?

We’re looking at engagement, participation, and enthusiasm to determine its memorability. Is it strong or does it need enhancing?

We’re looking at references from the students to various areas of their life, “this reminds of a time I was…” or “I could see this helping me at…”

We’re looking over the next few days, weeks, months… is the language that is introduced being used and referenced?

Many times a concept or activity will go through multiple enhancements prior to being rolled out and launched. Once we feel it’s worthy of the stamp, then it’s set to release.

Teachers deserve the opportunity to teach material that’s going to produce joy in their students and in their classrooms. We’ve built this curriculum to help you experience that.

And students deserve to be taught in ways that create an enthusiasm to learn. We believe most young people want to learn, you just have to teach in a way that gets it out of them.

The Lead ‘Em Up Classroom Curriculum can help you accomplish it.

Have fun and Lead ‘Em Up