Lara Maupin, M.Ed., NSOC Director
February is a great time of year to reflect, rejuvenate, and refocus when it comes to your character efforts – just before busy springtime arrives and the rest of the school year whizzes by. Take the time as an individual to reflect on how you are modeling your school’s core values each day – and take the time as a staff to consider how you are working to reach the school’s character goals and how you are building an ethical learning community.
As noted by Mathew Davidson in CEP’s Sourcebook, one way to help you shape your reflective practice is to think about the following characteristics of highly influential teachers.
- Having a warm and friendly affect
- Showing empathy and concern
- Treating students equally, not showing preference
- Speaking respectfully to students and staff
- Following up on commitments
- Refraining from speaking ill of others
- Accentuating the positive in others
- Not using sarcasm or put downs
- Being truthful and sincere
- Upholding the school’s norms, values, and guiding principles
- Admitting mistakes and making amends
Ask yourself: How do you display these traits each day? What do you do well? What could you improve upon? What would your students and their parents say? How do you know?
Teachers who display these characteristics consistently not only have a positive impact on the lives of their students – they manifest and model good character. It takes courage, humor, and humility to admit mistakes, help students make sense of inconsistencies in staff behavior, and reflect upon what students say about how adults behave. However, this is what is required of character educators. Indeed, this is what is required of all educators who wish to teach the lessons that matter most.
Think about ways you and your colleagues can gather input from students so that you can reflect on any inconsistences in your behavior and problem-solve together. Don’t wait until the end of the year to gather this important data. Examples of ways schools of character gather input from students include student focus groups, anonymous surveys, advisory or half-day student-led dialogues, sentence completion activities in class, and committees that include students. Showing students that while you are not perfect, you are committed to the core values is the best thing you can do to encourage them to commit to character. Taking the time to reflect and recommit – as an individual or as a staff – can be just what you need to sail through that last month or two of winter and into spring.
