How can we help our students develop into good people and good citizens? Kids who try to do the right thing are challenged by the media and their peers, with whom they are linked 24/7. Constant peer scrutiny and status anxiety often push students to do and say whatever it takes to fit in.

Participants in this dynamic, provocative workshop will explore how to help students internalize positive character traits. Fox has identified 8 traits that describe a person of good character based on her national survey of several hundred teachers, parents, counselors, therapists and writers, asking the question “What defines a ‘good’ person?”:

1. Emotionally Intelligent
2. Ethical
3. Helpful
4. Forgiving
5. Compassionate
6. Open-minded
7. Generous
8. Courageous

These traits describe real world behaviors that can become the way your students live their lives. Fox views each trait as a teachable skill. Workshop participants will gain strategies to teach each of these character skills without adding to already-overwhelming classroom responsibilities. Through PowerPoint, brainstorming, sharing, self-assessment, and small group work, participants will devise the best framework for incorporating character-building into their own school’s life and for getting colleagues and parents actively involved in the character-building process.

Annie Fox is a respected educator with more than 30 years of experience focusing on social-emotional learning. She has a degree from Cornell University in Human Development and Family Studies and a Master’s in Education from SUNY at Cortland. Fox is dedicated to helping teens become more self-aware, self-confident and better able to make choices that reflect who they really are. She is also an award-winning author of numerous books, including The Teen Survival Guide to Dating & Relationships; Too Stressed to Think? A Teen Guide to Staying Sane When Life Makes You CRAZY; Be Confident in Who You Are; and her upcoming book for adults, Teaching Kids to Be Good People. 

Yes, service learning is an engaging teaching strategy; however what teaching
strategies make service learning even more highly engaging? During this
interactive session, discover ways to integrate service learning dynamics into
your everyday classroom. Motivate students towards original thinking. Strengthen
students’ ability to investigate key issues of concern in their communities and
design authentic sustainable solutions. Enliven reflection. Useful at all grade
levels and with all students, these strategies improve the service learning
process (and any classroom) and reinvigorate us as educators. Come prepared for
action! A lively time, with practical useful outcomes. Handouts included.

Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A., is an international service learning consultant and a former classroom teacher. She works with state departments of education, university faculty and students, school districts, and classroom teachers on a variety of education issues such as service learning, civic responsibility, student leadership, and respectful school communities.

Almost every student is affected by one of the Deadly Ds. Divorce, the most common and potentially the most harmful Deadly D for kids and families; dependency, the deep end of abuse, abandonment and neglect; domestic violence, both harmful to kids and hard to control; and delinquency can shape a student’s past, present, and future. How can we overcome these Deadly Ds to create a safe, positive, and effective learning environment for students at home and at school? Participants will consider how the Deadly Ds connect to court and parenting roles, gaining both an understanding of students’ needs and tools to build character in the face of these Ds.

Retired Judge Irene Sullivan will address issues related to students and the courts. Participants will explore topics such as truancy, fights and bullying in school, unnecessary charges arising out of school incidents, and court support of teachers and other school staff. Parenting expert Scott Sells will focus on parent-child relationships, enhancing the workshop with video clips from his counseling sessions. Participants will explore the role of parents in dealing with the Deadly Ds, considering topics such as “wound healing” and reunification after a removal of kids in dependency situations or a commitment of kids to a residential delinquency program.

Judge Irene Sullivan is a retired juvenile judge. She practiced trial law for 22 years in St. Petersburg, FL, before she was elected Circuit Court Judge in 1998. She served on the juvenile and family law bench until 2011. She now teaches juvenile law at Stetson University College of Law and is the author of Raised by the Courts: One Judge’s Insight into Juvenile Justice. She travels widely promoting juvenile justice reforms and speaking at conferences and other events. Judge Sullivan graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and Stetson University College of Law. She serves on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Youth at Risk and is a trustee of the Pace Center for Girls in Florida. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Salvation Army’s first Children’s Justice Award and the Ben Franklin award for statewide leadership from the St. Petersburg Tiger Bay Club.

Dr. Sells has been the keynote presenter at several NCJFCJ conferences and has presented at other national conferences in juvenile justice the past 8 years. He holds a doctorate in both Marriage and Family Therapy and Social Work from Florida State University. He has over 20 publications and has authored two books entitled: Treating the Tough Adolescent: A Family-Based, Step-by-Step Guide and Parenting Your Out-of-Control Teenager: 7 Steps to Reestablish Authority and Reclaim Love. Dr. Sells is a retired Professor of Social Work at Savannah State University in Savannah, GA and Associate Professor at UNLV in Las Vegas, NV. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Parenting with Love Limits.