The use of technology has been a growing force in education. Once, classrooms were relatively isolated, nestled into a school in a suburb, small town or city. Now, regardless of physical location, today’s students have access to the larger world through the Internet. However, the focus of education itself has not necessarily changed.

Educating has always been about preparing students to be successful citizens, in whatever way possible. Strong reading, writing and math skills continue to be important, as does character. Being able to get along with others, having self-control and patience, being honest and trustworthy: these have always been traits teachers have hoped to instill in their students, and that remains true today.

Strong character is essential in the use of technology used for classroom learning. The Internet itself is a wide source of knowledge, as well as being the gateway to further content. As students attending traditional and online schools alike begin to use the Internet more and more for research, they need to learn how to utilize this tool in an ethical manner. Thus, teachers should inform students how to find credible websites when working on research projects as well as how to properly cite their sources in order to avoid plagiarism. Teaching students how to use the Internet responsibly early on will not only help students academically but also teach them to respect the work of others.

Good character is also imperative when using the Internet in a more social way. As students interact on the web, they are becoming digital citizens. Just as they must learn to adapt to their role as members of their school community, they must learn that, when they participate online, they are creating an identity representing themselves, and possibly their school.

The use of social networking has the potential to create problems, as students use sites like Facebook to connect and communicate. As a result, issues such as gossip and bullying are no longer left behind when the school day ends, since student communication continues online. Bullying, in particular, has reached new levels with the advent of cyberbullying. Luckily, there are several things students, parents and teachers can do to prevent this. A website created to help promote positive interaction on the Internet gives some excellent tips.

While there are potential problems in the use of technology, it is an excellent instructional tool for developing good character. Social interactions within the school, in the classroom, in the cafeteria and on the playground have always provided excellent teaching opportunities. The Internet simply provides another venue. Teachers can teach proper behavior and take opportunities to get involved and correct when needed. Finally, teachers can model good behavior by considering what they say online, and being cognizant that nothing is private on the Internet.

With the increase in the use of technology, a focus on the basics of good character must be maintained. Being able to interact well with others has always been crucial, but perhaps even more so now, as students are conversing with people across the world, and of many different backgrounds and races. As the world gets smaller, being able to participate in that world in a positive way is more than important than ever.

This post was written by guest contributor Lindsey Wright, a freelance writer who is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

To learn more about educating students for digital citizenship, don’t miss the keynote panel at the upcoming National Forum on Character Education and the remarks of digital citizenship expert, Dr. Jason Ohler.

Most of us probably know that school gardens are a great teaching tool that can be used to enrich curriculum and improve physical health, but we believe in gardens as a way to grow character.  We see this everyday in our garden.

We see children sharing, working hard, and being kind. We watch kids grow responsibility as well as vegetables. We see kids engaged, excited, motivated, and proud of their school.  We watch as kids make connections between their school, their community, and the planet.

New research published by the Royal Horticulture Society (and who knows gardening better!) shows that as well as helping children lead happier, healthier lives, gardening “helps them acquire the essential skills they need to fulfill their potential in a rapidly-changing world and make a positive contribution to society as a whole.”

In fact, evidence suggests that gardening can play such a vital role that we believe every child should be given the chance to experience the benefits. So we will be sharing what we’ve learned along the way- how to start and maintain a school garden, how gardens create opportunities to embed character education principles, and what kids, teachers, and families have to say about gardening at the 18th National Forum on Character Education.

Our presentation “Where Gardens Grow Character”  on Friday, Oct. 21 at 2:15 will include opportunities to share your school garden stories and you’ll walk away with: a list of gardening resources we’ve found helpful; a bibliography of garden research; and a hand made memento from our beloved garden.

Please join us!  Because gardening in schools is a necessity.

Posted by Susi Jones, Tricia Elisara, Nancy Younce, Julian Elementary School, a 2010 National School of Character

Students set personal goals at the start of the year.

 A focus on the whole child and each child’s moral and social development pervades the program at Beauvoir the National Cathedral Elementary School, a 2011 National School of Character. The school invests a great deal of time and resources into the “social curriculum,” which is seen as being just as important as, and even part of, the academic curriculum.

All classes spend the first 6 weeks of the school year developing class norms according to the Responsive Classroom methodology. Part of this is the development of class constitutions, contracts, or promises.

Students also set specific personal goals called “hopes and dreams.” Both are posted and referred to regularly in each classroom. During daily morning meetings in each classroom, students greet each other, play a game together, share something of importance to one or more students, and read the morning message.

Even the youngest Beauvoir students start the year with learning the social curriculum in age-appropriate ways. When entering Pre-K, all students are given stuffed bears that they name, make clothes for, and then use for role playing throughout their first two years at Beauvoir. The bears are a tool to teach empathy teachers adapted from the book Bears, Bears, Everywhere by Luella Connelly.

Beauvoir is one of five cathedral schools located in the U.S. and one of three on the beautifully maintained grounds of the National Cathedral located in Washington, DC. Beauvoir is a private primary school, serving preschool aged children through third graders.

Beauvoir will be presenting at the 18th National Forum on Character Education in San Francisco, Oct. 19-22.

As most teachers do, I always look at what I am doing and analyze the success of my work.  I want to make sure I am doing the best I can and if I am not, I want to figure out what can I do to improve my product.  The work ethic, drive, passion, effort, and academic achievement of my students are the means to my analysis.  The revision policy, as well as our goal system, has allowed many of my students to achieve success more aligned with their actual ability (and beyond in some cases).  This has been a true joy to personally witness.

 An area I have struggled with since my first year teaching, is motivating the kids that seem to not care.  Every year I have a group of kids who refuse to work for me, accept failure, and seem rather apathetic towards turning this vicious cycle around.  And every year I bust my tail trying to motivate these kids.  I contact their parents, I offer help, I give second and third chances, but by the second semester I am ready to give up.  Have you been here before?  Can you relate?  We don’t want to give up, but we feel as if we have given so much and received little effort in return.  It is frustrating.  We begin to worry about the other 110 kids in the classroom who ARE willing to work.  Have we now neglected them?

 I have tried everything!  Have you ever said that?  Did you ever think that?  For a moment, reflect and consider this thought:  This is the same feeling the parents of these kids probably feel, though my guess is much more desperately.  Maybe these kids feel the same way.  My guess is the kids feel as if they can’t do the work, regardless of their effort.  Failure is much easier to deal with when it is self-inflicted.  When you choose to fail, you have some control.  I can’t imagine the level of frustration the kids feel from trying their best and not seeing much success.  Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Edison

 What can we do about this?  How can we stop the cycle?  I think I have stumbled upon a solution, though it does take some work and a lot of perseverance and patience.

 Up until this year, I have always made revisions an option.  I wanted the kids to make the personal choice to better their work.  I wanted this choice to have intrinsic value to the kids.  I have discovered that the kids who tend to be my higher level thinkers usually revise most of their work with little prompting from me.  The kids, who would most benefit from the revision policy, typically avoid revising their work.  I decided that I needed to intervene.

 What did I do?  I used an idea I heard from Matt Davidson this past October and applied it to my classes.  The idea I secured is called “F or D and You See Me”.  The premise of this idea is that I will no longer accept F’s and D’s from any of my students.  The kids no longer have the choice to revise assignments of this quality.

 F or D and You See Me:

  If you earn a D or an F on any assignment, you have five days to revise it at your pace.

 After the 5th day, you will be invited to join me for lunch to revise said assignment(s).

 You will be asked for the revision the following day; if you still don’t have it revised you will join me for lunch again.

 We continue this process until the assignment has been revised to a C or better quality.  The student still receives the grade change in the grade book (at this point).

 If the assignment was an incomplete, I will simply check it off in my grade book once it is revised to a C or better quality, though the grade will remain a zero.  The understanding of the material is the goal – not the actual grade.

 Once we come to the end of the chapter, revisions can no longer be submitted for grade changes.  Students that still have D or F papers must still revise their work though.  The only change is that I will enter a check in my grade book once the revision is to a C or better quality.

 This new process is a true testament of perseverance and endurance.  Many of my kids didn’t really think I would go through with this process.  I did.  I do.  I will.  I have made laminated passes for the kids to help reduce my time involvement in this process.  I hand out the passes before lunch each day.  If the said students have the revisions prior to lunch, they can turn them in to me and return the pass.  Is this a lot of work?  You bet it is!  Has it made a difference?  Absolutely!  The vast majority of my students figured out that I won’t quit.  My hope is that my students will learn how to “not quit”.  Most of my kids now revise the D and F papers prior to the 5th day.  I do still have a few that fight me on this, though my team and I are trying to come up with new strategies with them.  It is an ongoing effort!

**  Mark will be speaking at the 18th National Forum on Character Education to be held October 19-22 in San Francisco.  Register now at www.character.org and make sure you get to hear him!

by Lara Maupin, Director SSOC/NSOC

Kristen Pelster, Principal at Ridgewood Middle School in Missouri

Joe Mazzola and I attended the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools annual conference this week. We were quite pleased to see the Department’s emphasis on how school climate can enhance the conditions for learning reflected in the selection of keynote speakers and workshops. Researchers and practitioners shared how improving school climate can improve academic achievement and reduce bullying.

We were especially thrilled that the Department asked dynamic principal Kristen Pelster of Ridgewood Middle School in Missouri to be the kickoff keynote speaker. Kristen told her school’s powerful story of transformation from the worst school in the district to National School of Character. How did they do it? Character education! By holding kids to high expectations and giving them the support they needed to meet those expectations, Ridgewood culture began to change. Over time, Kristen was able to empower her teachers and students. Without changing anything about how they taught academics, Ridgewood students improved academically. Of course, this is a story we know well at CEP. We see it repeated time and time again in our National Schools of Character. But it was gratifying to see over 1500 conference participants from around the country “get it” too.

Throughout the conference, we heard the message repeated:  Our kids deserve to be safe in school. Once they are safe, they can learn. We can do better. We know that our nation’s teachers are working hard for kids. They simply need our support – and they need tools which will enable them to build positive classroom cultures. Character education provides these tools, without adding “one more thing” or taking time away from academics. As researchers at the conference confirmed, we now know that when we focus on the social, emotional, and character development of students, we gain “time on task,” which results in academic improvement.

As Kristen said when she was asked how could she spend time on character, “How could I not?”

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?

Students come to us in all shapes and sizes. They come in all abilities as well. It is an ongoing task charged to educators to find ways to challenge students at all levels of ability. Teachers at Orrs Elementary School work together to provide meaningful learning experiences at all level of mastery.

Lessons based on choice menus by interest or learning style is one way to challenge students. Another way to challenge students is to provide differentiated lessons to meet the needs of all learners. Teacher-led small groups in reading or math can provide challenging opportunities with teacher direction.

Character education focusing on self-discipline and self-motivation can lead to students working alone or collaboratively on ways in which to challenge themselves and thus taking ownership of their own learning.

Finding ways to challenge all students remains a top priority at Orrs Elementary. A series of character lessons have been applied this year across grade levels. Teachers collaborated on differentiated lessons with a character theme that includes skills across content areas.

Students have been empowered by choice during these lessons to incorporate expressions of understanding of both the content/skill base and the concepts of good character targeted by the lessons. Displays of student work emphasizing these positive character traits have lined the hall at Orrs throughout the school year.

Students are able to recognize many of the values learned in the work of their grade level peers and in students younger or older than they are. This series of lessons has given students a voice both individually and collaboratively about character issues.

High-stakes testing is a reality in schools these days. Testing success, however, is not the only goal at Orrs Elementary School. Teachers have consistently executed lessons that seek mastery over mere performance. Real world applications are stressed across grade levels.

Teachers work as teams to create lessons that will challenge students at all ages and levels and provide an understanding of the practical application of skills at the earliest age. Questions that are constantly asked of students include “how can I use this in real life?” And “what are the practical applications of this skill?”

Having such questions present at all phases of planning and implementation insures that students focus on the heart of the matter of education. For students and faculty at Orrs, that heart of the matter is the mastery of standards so that students are prepared for grades to come and eventually life.

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.

Just take a look at the takeaways:

Participants will learn how to help secondary students…

• Develop skills in perspective taking and empathy that lead to respectful and compassionate behavior.
• Appreciate diversity and work collaboratively with their peers.
• Build safe and respectful environments in their classrooms and school.
• Develop positive relationships with their teachers.
• Address underlying thoughts and emotions that interfere with learning.
• Become self-motivated and engaged learners.
• Identify their strengths, set goals, and prepare for their future.

Special emphasis will be given to student transition into ninth grade. I know from my 32 years as a high school and middle school teacher that those transition years are the most challenging and most important. My school set up a mentoring program for seniors to mentor the freshmen and offered welcoming opportunities and workshops. But still, many of the discipline problems and academic challenges came from the ninth grade class. How I wish I could have taken a workshop like this one.

The presenters’ credentials are impressive. Kathy Beland was the lead writer for CEP’s Eleven Principles Sourcebook (2003), a compendium of resources for character education. She is also the lead author of “School-Connect, Optimizing the High School Experience,” a curriculum designed to boost social, emotional and academic skills, and the original author of “Second Step, A Violence-Prevention Curriculum” (grades K-9). In 2009 she received the Sanford N. McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education.

Co-presenter Julea Douglass also has outstanding credentials. She is associate director of School-Connect and co-author of “School-Connect: Optimizing the High School Experience.”  She served as research associate and program coordinator at CEP and is lead author of the CEP Character Education Evaluation Toolkit. Julea received her M.Ed. specializing in human development and psychology from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia’s Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology.

What’s that old adage, “Necessity is the mother of invention”? In 2009, we earned National Schools of Character (NSOC) winner status; in 2008, we earned standing as “finalist.” As a finalist in the NSOC process, our site visitors rightly recommended that we work on the integration of character education so as to make it more systematic. We took this feedback to heart as we grappled with what this actually meant.

In the summer of 2008, our district central office declared that it was the season for curriculum renewal for reading and language arts. The district selected, “Rigby, Literacy by Design” (LBD) by Harcourt. Thus, the task at hand was to codify this new program through the lens of Principle #6 that defines character education to include a “meaningful and challenging curriculum that respects all learners, developing their character and helping them to succeed.”

The new reading program, Literacy by Design, was selected by the district for its strong explicit, direct comprehension strategy instruction, and sensitivity to multi-modal learning. With the adoption of the new curriculum, the Leary faculty devised a plan to analyze the new program vis-à-vis character virtues, ethical decision-making, coping skills and authentic learning. What we constructed was a method and a means to infuse character education into the curriculum and instruction that mobilized strong teacher collaboration and the construction of a “Design” center, a small group character-literacy center during the language arts block. Here is how we did it…

One teacher initiated the study of the new reading series throughout the grade levels, examining the Literacy by Design “Sourcebook” (student textbook) and guided reading series for its alignment with character virtues, ethical decision-making, coping skills and authentic learning. From study and examination, one teacher devised a graphic format to take stock of essential questions that framed the content, human issues and themes and complementary learning activities. The learning activities that were suggested for gifted/enrichment students are problem-based, necessitating small group collaboration, research, discussion, empathy, design, scientific inquiry, debate, question of our civic community constructs and personal and community reflection, the affective domain. This graphic format became a terrific means to “account” for the character emphasis in our teaching and learning, and a point of departure in our faculty’s development of a systematic means to codify the curriculum. This graphic format was shared with the school leadership team and endorsed.

The notion of the graphic format for visualizing and conceptualizing the curriculum vis-à-vis character education became shared with key leadership staff and enthusiastically adopted in terms of getting the work done. The task at hand was two-fold: (1) constructing the Character by Design materials so that there was not only a teacher set but also a student-friendly activity center, and (2) a teacher-friendly mechanism to store character education curriculum and activities and invite dialog/reflections/ideas. Throughout a progression of school leadership team meetings, grade level faculty meetings and summer workshop sessions, the conception of “Character by Design” centers became accepted and adopted. The title, “Character by Design” was voted unanimously. A robust group of staff worked painstakingly on formatting the curriculum following the “model” and creating for each class an index box filled with laminated cards of character-activities for each of the units in the LbD sourcebooks.

The turning point in the change implementation arrived at a faculty in-service session where two faculty members presented to the faculty the winning features of what has become the bedrock in our literacy and character program. It became clear to the faculty that the work had been simplified and “made sense.” Character education was infused naturally through the essential questions and the lens provided through graphic format. The presenters modeled explicitly, (1) the graphic format that formed the basis of the Character by Design student centers and (2) the access of a WIKI, created by our librarian on our district’s T:drive (intranet). This computer-based construct allows faculty members to codify and share every attempt they make to merge curriculum with character-education standards and service learning. The WIKI allows us a school-wide venue to post samples that celebrate our students’ pursuit in living a noble life. Teachers can post examples of student’s moral growth whenever they witness it. The WIKI was embraced by the faculty and is regularly updated by all teachers and staff.

Ironically, the activities identified in each chapter of the Sourcebook intended for “Gifted/Enrichment” students, were precisely what we recognized as perfect Character Education constructs and pedagogy necessary for all students. Interestingly, what was earmarked by the publisher for gifted students, we believe, should be challenging and enjoyed by all students.