News & Notes for Those Who Care and Share!

NEWS YOU CAN USE News & Notes for those who care and share! •References •Resources •Research •Ramblings Issue Two -2016

CHARACTER MATTERS Ed DeRoche, Director University of San Diego Character Development Center

For many years, our schools have majored in the three Rs: Reading, Riting, and Rithematic. It is time for three more Rs: Restraint, Respect, and Responsibility. These three virtues constitute the heart and core of essential character education virtues -Harry Dent, educator

MAKE IT REVELANT What happens when students write about what they are learning and its relevance to their lives? Researchers tested this hypothesis: Do classroom activities that encourage students to connect course materials to their lives increase student motivation and learning? They found that having students write one paragraph after a lesson encouraged them to make connections between their lives and what they were learning--- writing about eight of these reflections during a semester lead to positive learning gains especially for students who were “low performers.” (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/326/5958/1410) What’s the message here for students, teachers, and parents? SURF THE C’s Last month I was talking to an educator from Japan. In our discussion he asked what the term “21st Century Skills” meant. I told him that in my readings, I found there are four C’s imbedded in the term are also an integral part of Common Core standards. The “four C’s are: Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, and Critical Thinking. A useful resource is NEA’s 38-page “Preparing 21st Century Students for a Global Society: An Educator’s Guide to the “Four Cs.” http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/A-Guide-to-Four-Cs.pdf THE 4R’s PROGRAM Reading, wRiting, Respect & Resolution Here is a social-emotional learning program for teachers and students in pre-K through sixth grade. Using the English-language Arts framework the program helps students develop such skills as community building, problem solving, understanding and handling feelings, listening, cooperation, assertiveness, and dealing with diversity. http://www.morningsidecenter.org/4rs-program VAMP

Did you know that many schools and school districts use “VAMP” to frame their character education programs? VAMP is an acronym for the “Virtues- A- Month Program.” VAMP helps all school personnel, students, and parents/guardians focus on a specific virtue. VAMP encourages everyone to be on the same page in the teaching, learning, and practicing of that particular monthly virtue. It does not mean the other “habits of the heart” (respect, empathy, perseverance, etc.) are ignored. All virtues are interconnected. Many teachers/schools coupled with the VAMP character education framework an “events calendar.” That is, how can the monthly calendar events (special days) being observed and celebrated during the month that support the virtue of the month and other virtues.

The Common Core Formula

Common Core + Character Education = Academic Achievement & Good Kids - Fink & Geller, www.character.org, August 2013 “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” (A. Einstein)

Common Core & Character Education: Why is it Essential? How it can be done? -Whole Child Education, http://www.wholechildeducation.org/

Awesome Stories: A Cure for the Common Core, https://www.awesomestories.com

Common Core in Action—Edutopia News, July 8, 2015, https://www.edutopia.org/

THINK ABOUT THIS

“Children who scored high on social skills were four times as likely to graduate from college than those who scored low.” Teaching Social Skills to Improve Grade and Lives, David Bornstein, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/24 Character education teaches children how to make wise decisions and act on them. Character is the "X factor" that experts in parenting and education have deemed integral to success, both in school and in life. Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed, calls that character-based X factor "grit." http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/the- benefits-of- character-education/275585/

BOOK QUOTE

Welfare, happiness, well-being must embrace…economic and moral freedom, virtue, compassion and altruism, satisfying work through engagement with demanding tasks, a flourishing network of personal relationships, earning the esteem of others, pursing larger meanings to one’s existence, and having at the centre of one’s life one or a small number of significant relations define above all by love. ------Ian McEwan (2015), The Children Act, Penguin Random House, p.15 ______

CHARACTER SIGN ON A SOCCER FIELD REMINDERS FROM YOUR CHILD ++ I’m a KID ++ It’s Just a Game ++ My Coach is a Volunteer ++ The Officials are Human ++ NO College Scholarships will be Handed Out Today (The Daily Sentinel, Grand Junction, Colorado, 10/14/15)

For Essay Contest, Conference, Certificate, and News You Can Use Information visit our website: https://www.sandiego.edu/soles/centers-and-research/character-development-center/

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