Cultivating a Community of Heroes
Students at Long Elementary are taught that not only are heroes all around them, but they also have daily opportunities to be like their heroes by practicing good character. Every week students in Mrs. Cervantes’s first grade class add their own heroes to the "Everyday Heroes” bulletin board. The bulletin board gives the students the opportunity to practice identifying those traits, and it also allows the students to put a familiar face with the character traits. To start the bulletin board, the teacher brings in her own example of a hero in her life. She talks about that person and explains which character traits the person has and how that person shows the traits. After the teacher’s example, she then finds pictures of community helpers such as police officers, firefighters, and doctors to add to the board. With these pictures, the students will have a class meeting to discuss the character traits they recognize in the community heroes. And the students reflect on the character traits that everyday people show that make them the heroes.