Character Education Plan for the Year
I believe that one of the main goals of education is to, along with the parents help, guide the development of good character. My plan for the school year is to focus on an important characteristic each month.
The characteristics are:
September- Respect February- Empathy
October- Responsibility March- Trustworthiness
November- Bullying April- Citizenship
December- Caring May- Honesty
January- Fairness June- Perseverance
Each month, we will focus on what the characteristic means, read books demonstrating that characteristic, and notice when our classmates are acting with character.
Each student will also be asked to find a book, article, picture, video or something of their choice that demonstrates to them the characteristic we are focusing on that month. They will share this with the class what their choice is, and how it relates to that characteristic. This a very casual sharing and I would ask that there is something that can be left behind to show what the item was so we can display it on our bulletin board. If it is a book, photocopy would be great or if it is a Youtube video a print out of the title or screenshot would work.
Here is a letter that I would send home to the parents.
This is a mockup of what the bulletin board in my classroom would look like.
This is a Character Slip that would be by the bulletin board in the classroom. When a student demonstrated the character trait that we are focusing on, another student that noticed that the act will fill out a slip and place it somewhere under “Examples of how our class shows this characteristic.”
Sesame Street: Bruno Mars “Don’t Give Up”
Coles Notes on Finding Common Ground: Character Development in Ontario School, K-12
I read “Finding Common Ground: Character Development in Ontario School, K-12” by the Ministry of Education and I want to share my Coles notes of the document.
“Character Development is the deliberate effort to nurture the universal attributes upon which schools and communities find consensus (Page 3).”
Character Development is a shared responsibility between parents, teachers, and the community but primarily falls upon the parents and families. In order for us to develop the character of our students, they MUST be involved.
The whole school needs to make this a priority otherwise it will not work. You have probably been in schools where the whole school works together and puts character development as THE most important thing being taught. On the other hand, you get a feeling at other schools, when the administration and the teachers do not value character development and the students know that they can get away with certain behaviours with certain staff. You can see the difference in the students and feel the difference in the school.
Character development needs to be integrated into the curriculum and everything we do at school in order for it to be effective.
With Ontario’s diverse population we need to teach our students to find the common ground between different groups. Finding something in common can help the students understand and feel closer to the other group and hopefully they will form friendships.
The kinds of character development that is focused on in this document are:Citizenship, being Fair, Respect, Trust, Responsibility, Optimism, Perseverance, Honesty, Integrity, and Empathy.
Some resources I have found to help you teach Character Development are:
