I had the great fortune of being raised by a loving family. They instilled in me certain values that shaped me into the person I am today. None of the adults in my family had much of a formal education though. My grandfather, for example, came to our country at the age of 10 with about a fifth grade education. He was a water boy on the railroad and later became a shoemaker.

My father never graduated from high school either. He fixed wrecked cars for a living and eventually owned his own shop–“Mazzola’s Body Shop.” It never had running water or central heat. During the winter, he burned coal in a pot-belly stove to warm the place up. I loved hanging out at his shop, and I learned a lot, too. Most people don’t know it, but I’ve painted cars, changed engines, installed transmissions, and I still service my own vehicles. In fact, I’m doing a brake job on my son’s car this weekend.

Oh. I forgot to mention why my dad never graduated from high school. He quit at the start of his senior year to go fight in World War II with his older brothers. You see, service to the nation was just one of the values stressed in our family. Since that was the case, it was an easy decision for me to enlist in the Air Force when I got older, even though it was very unpopular at the time.

Although I planned on doing my hitch and then moving on, I ended up spending more than 25 years in uniform. I did so because I loved being part of something meaningful, I loved working with honorable men and women, and I loved the fact that my organization stressed many of the same values I learned at home: Integrity, Service and Excellence.

Every year in November we celebrate Veterans Day. This year, encourage your students to reach out to veterans in your community. Besides having them thank the vets for their service, have them ask about the core values the vets lived by and how those values impacted their personal character. And, after Veterans Day, have the students share what they learned. I think you’ll find this can be a powerful character-building experience…and that’s what all good character educators look for!

Thanks for all you do to develop young men and women of good character for our world.

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For this reason, it is always heart-warming to hear about schools or programs that have taken it on themselves to make prom night an option for all who want to attend by alleviating some of the financial considerations surrounding the event. Earlier this month, NBC’s Washington, D.C.-affiliate reported on one such program initiated by a marketing teacher at a local high school. The class gets hands-on experience with marketing by promoting a prom shop opened in a local mall that provides free dresses, shoes, jewelry, and handbags to any student that wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to go to the prom. The shop is staffed by adult volunteers and every item is donated to the group.

Even here at CEP, we recognized a Promising Practice in 2009 from Paul M. Dorman High School that runs a similar program called “Operation Fairytale.” By receiving donations from local employees and businesses, the program is able to provide dresses, shoes, accessories, and restaurant gift cards to help those students whose families would not be able to afford to expenses. Participants in the program complete several requirements, including an essay and community service project, which keep them invested in working towards their goals.

Does your school face similar difficulties? What ways have you found to make prom be more accessible to your students?

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Lesson Plans

Introducing Recycling: Introduce students to the concept of recycling and show them its importance through this reflective and easy-to-implement activity.

Developing Enrichment Toys for Zoo Animals: A more extensive activity that will take some planning and coordination, this plan outlines a science-based activity that has students research animals, their needs, and then design materials to be used in their habitats at the zoo, with the supervision of a zookeeper.

Waves of Life: A fun way to introduce frequency and wavelength properties in a science class while tying the concept to our experiences of emotions.

Promising Practices

Save the Bay: A great example of a school getting involved in an environmental issue of vital importance to their local community by aiming to help initiatives to revitalize the nearby Chesapeake Bay.

Schoolyard Habitats: By developing an outdoor habitat on school grounds, this school got the entire community involved and created a space that can be used for class studies throughout the years to come.

Litter Getters: Each afternoon, one class from this school takes just a few minutes to walk through the school and its yard to pick up trash, thereby keeping the grounds beautiful and getting the students invested in maintaining a clean environment.

Student Recycling Initiative: Started by students, this program aims to educate all students and get the school involved in recycling the correct materials. Now all students and staff participate in the daily collection.

Environmental Club: This student club meets weekly to discuss environmental issues. Each member researches a topic of interest and presents a Powerpoint on the subject, while guest speakers and fundraising activities get the whole school involved in efforts to impact the wider community.

Lil’ Scientists: A unique collaboration between 8th grade science students and local kindergarteners. The 8th graders research topics and come in to the kindergarten classrooms several times throughout the school year to lead a presentation on such age-appropriate lessons as hand-washing and recycling.

We hope these ideas might spark some thoughts for practices to implement within your own school. What Earth Day-related activities is your school already taking part in?

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The students at Julian Elementary School, a have been focusing on showcasing their Service Learning Projects each year on Global Youth Service Day.  This has made the projects more meaningful to them, with guidance and instruction for high quality service learning.

Established in 1988, Global Youth Service Day is the largest service event in the world, and the only day of service dedicated to children and youth.  GYSD is celebrated each year in over 100 countries.

Focusing on Service Learning, my 2nd and 3rd grade combination class has formed a partnership with a 4th and 5th grade combination class to learn about age-appropriate leadership skills.  Working with a student teacher, we came up with an idea to form a partnership with our local Historical Society and Museum.

Essential in this partnership is the collaboration between the students and the community, and sharing common goals relative to community needs.  Furthermore, observing the students sharing ideas and showing mutual respect to their peers, amidst diversity of the group, has been rewarding.

The students have begun with the “investigation” aspect of their plan.  This has led to the discovery of a community problem that needs to be addressed and involves research and mapping activities.  The goal is to embark on a Global Youth Service Day Project that will be completed by Earth Day on April 22, 2011. 

Through this project, the students will learn about the history of our town, empower other children in our school to understand the historical significance of our community, and to create a pamphlet for the children and families of the school, the community members, and visitors of Julian.  Included in the plan is to refurbish and decorate the Historical Society bulletin board on the side of the town hall.

The “planning and preparation” of the project involves the teachers, students, and community members to outline the learning and service activities to make the project successful.  Youth voice is a very important component in this process to insure ownership for the students.

The “action” is the heart of the project and helps to engage students in a meaningful way.  As they began implementation of the project, they will, hopefully, gain experiences to help them develop skills, attitudes and knowledge that will ultimately benefit the entire community. 

Part of this action involves weekly class meetings, researching books and internet on the history of Julian, creating an informational pamphlet for distribution to town visitors, inviting guest speakers to the school, and providing guided walking field trips into town to the Julian Museum, the Julian Cemetery, the Town Hall and the Julian Historical Society. 

In addition, the students will be working together to create a time line, photographs and informational display on the Julian Historical Society’s bulletin board for the enjoyment of any local resident or visitor to Julian.  As their progress is monitored, we will discover if our specific goals were met.

When the project is completed, it will be critical for the students to “reflect” on their accomplishments.  It is essential for them to think about what they learned through the process of their project and to relate what it means to them through discussions, illustrations or writings.  Evaluating their experiences should give more meaning to their efforts, a greater connection to their community, and an excellent way for them to demonstrate understanding. 

Finally, the students can “celebrate” their accomplishments by sharing their knowledge through photographs and newspaper articles, and thinking about how this will affect the community in the future.   Assessment of the project through additional discussions and reflections of what worked and what could have been done differently will provide feedback and improve instruction, to further measure their learning and development.

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Sullivan Primary School (pre-K through first grade) weaves character into every facet of their day. At such an early age, students are given many opportunities to apply values in everyday discussions and play.

One project that started as a small building service project grew to a district-wide project that now includes every campus in the school district, community businesses, citizens, parents, children, and school staff. The “Bowls for Hunger “soup supper night brings all stakeholders together for an exciting night with donations of goods and services as well as building relationships.

Students serve soup donated by local restaurants and businesses in ceramic bowls the students make in art class. Bread is distributed to those in attendance by student leadership groups from all campuses. Students perform songs of thanks during dinner and then present “gifts of giving” to the organization of choice. Donations raised at the “Bowls for Hunger” event are targeted for whichever cause the whole district student body voted on.

What started as a simple evening has truly been a success. It was “true” service learning that was embedded into the curriculum. Subjects such as math, reading/literature, social studies, and art were incorporated. Students were read the books Stone Soup and The Rag Coat. During class meetings students discussed what it means to be hungry and have wants and needs.

Students brainstormed ways they could help others. They associated the rag coat to a rag quilt, and each student decided to bring a piece of their own clothing to create classroom quilts to give to a homeless shelter. Parent volunteers assembled and sewed the quilts together working hand in hand with the students. Once finished, students gathered at a class meeting, covering with the quilt to experience the warmth, and reflected on their donated piece that now represented a collaborated quilt for a cause.

Students wrote reflections and added illustrations to be bound in a booklet to accompany the quilts for pleasure reading. To symbolically tie our community as one, each visitor received a strand of fabric as they entered the soup supper night and were asked to tie their fabric to the “Community Character Caring Quilt.” The quilt is on display in our Performing Arts Center as a constant reminder to all that together we can make a difference.

Now each year Sullivan has a service learning focus theme. In the past we have had “I Can Help,” “We Give Back,” “We Can Help Make a Difference,” and “Proud to Serve.”

We believe at the Sullivan Primary School that Parents + School + Community can only = Success.

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