It's no secret that I'm a fan of KIPP schools. I think that their approach to education is on the right track and I would love to practice a lot of the same things they do in my own classroom, but it can be boggling as to where I should start from. One of my favorite aspects of the KIPP classroom is character education. This year, I decided that I really wanted to try to begin integrating it into my daily teaching. Fast forward three weeks to the now and I have barely even acknowledged that it's on my radar. It's probably best to start small so I don't overwhelm myself and then give up, so below are the three (I originally said five, but then got frazzled!*) things that I would like to try doing in the next couple of weeks:
1. Having a class (45 minutes) focused on a character strength in between units.
2. Having a character-based open-ended question on our weekly quizzes.
3. Linking a character strength to our daily class objective.
* The thing about character education is, I think that it is super important. However, I feel that you have to have a sort of "cheese" factor to successfully integrate it into your classes. I'm kind of cheesy... but not enough yet. Basically, I can talk the talk, but I'm having trouble walking the walk. In my mind I believe that purposefully dialoging on the importance of character is a necessary addition to classrooms today, but I'm not sure if I am able to be the loud cheerleader that character education requires.
Children spend lot of time in schools, that's a school can be a great platform to give character education. There are many ways to educate them.
ReplyDelete1. Hang posters in classrooms, on notice board and inside classrooms about character education.
2. There should a lecture in a week about character education.
3. Schools can organize event about character education.
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I with you on being a fan of KIPP's character education. One successful routine I infused into the classroom last year was showing lots of video examples of the 7 character traits at KIPP. If you want to see the videos I have organized them onto my pinterest board. http://pinterest.com/scottyberg/boards/
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the upcoming year!