Considering How to Proceed and Whom Else to Involve
Many schools find themselves at Guidepost #3 although they may not have fully articulated the previous two steps. Perhaps your situation is that you have had some home-grown approaches such as a virtue of the month and community service for a few years, but now you need something new and more effective.
Another school, faced with discipline problems, may have adopted the tenets of a commercial program and found it worked for them; yet another school may have embraced service-learning as an instructional tool and discovered it actually changed student attitudes; still another district may have met some success in using professional development in social and emotional learning as a way of developing a caring community. A test for this Guidepost is simple: In order to make the right choices, you need to carefully choose a strategy that will bring the right people to the table to consider carefully how to identify potential roadblocks and strategies that will give you the best chance for success. Now is the time to pull your school or district together, incorporating the strategies of Guideposts #1 and #2. Perhaps you'll discover a need for some specific information in order to proceed. It's fine to return to Guidepost #2 at that point, particularly if not doing so could risk sending you off course.
Make certain that all stakeholders are involved, including students and LISTEN to them. If your school or district has a union or teachers' association, also include its representatives. Instead of a piecemeal approach to social and character development, assemble your core committee that represents all stakeholders, apprise them of the school's assessments, designate individual sub-groups to report on pertinent research, and decide, as a school or district, on a plan of action.
A Closer Look at Guidepost #3 Within Schools
Radix Elementary School
Zane North Elementary School
Carl W. Goetz Middle School
Memorial Middle School
Pequannock Valley School
School: Radix Elementary School, Williamstown NJ
Grade Levels: PreK – 4
CONTACT
Raymond C. Dinovi, Jr.
Principal
(856) 728-8650
E-mail: rdinovi@monroetwp.k12.nj.us
Website: http://www.monroetwp.k12.nj.us/es/radix/radix.htm
Guidepost #3 Considering How to Proceed and Whom Else to Involve
The Radix Elementary school site based management team was utilized as an effective means of communication. This committee has representation from each grade level, including special area and special needs. It has all stakeholder groups represented including parents and a board member. The representative is the liaison between the committee and their respective professionals. Teachers meet regularly, as a grade level, to share ideas and discuss character related topics. The sight based management meetings have provided an avenue for all faculty members actively participate in planning and implementing school-wide activities and projects. One example was when the faculty worked cooperatively to develop an assessment rubric and writing prompts for children to complete that mirrored the tasks on the NJASK test. See Guidepost 7 for an example of how the staff used this rubric to assess student progress. The site based management committee was the springboard and model for creating the District Character Education Advisory Committee. This committee was created to serve as an avenue for communication among all the schools within the district, as well as create a bridge to the local community. The members were comprised of representatives from all schools and stakeholders within the community, including but not limited to clergy, municipal alliance and law enforcement. The chairperson was selected and meetings continue to be held on a regular basis. This committee continues to be an effective means for mutually beneficial character related ventures between the schools and community. Parents are involved through “Cookies and Character” chats with administration and the character education advisor. The PTA, being important stakeholders, continues to take an active role. One year, the PTA and Radix Faculty created a float for the New Year’s Day Parade in Philadelphia. The float reflected the PTA’s theme that year, “A School of Character”. The PTA and teachers plan numerous service projects, activities and programs where children and their families can participate in educational and fun events. The Parent Volunteer Committee has over 75 members, working with teachers daily.
School: Zane North Elementary School, Collingswood NJ
Grade Levels: PreK – 6
CONTACT
Thomas Santo
Principal
(856) 962-5710
E-mail: santo@collingswood.k12.nj.us
Website: http://zane.collingswood.k12.nj.us/index.jsp
Guidepost #3 Considering How to Proceed and Whom Else to Involve
Zane North has a well-known and recognized comprehensive, intentional, proactive, and effective approach to character development. STAR teams and the parent-student advisory committee develop and review character initiatives monthly. These all-inclusive strategies have far-reaching effects in developing character. I&RS meetings and S&RS meetings intentionally address character education issues when developing intervention strategies for special needs students. In the classroom, cafeteria, playground and after school program character counts!
As one parent stated, “I appreciate the emphasis on positive character development the children have learned over the time of this program. We talk about the characteristics at home too.” With conversation of core essential values transcending the doors of Zane North, it is evident that the character education revolution is making a difference.
Comments from community members reinforce the transition from school to society. Community leaders from the following organizations have joined forces with our school staff and authenticate our character education initiative as evidenced by the following participants: Sunrise Program Coordinator, Horticultural Society, Board of Education, Jewish Community Center, Borough Commissioner, Zone Parent Teacher Organization, Chief of the Collingswood Fire Department, Police Department, Police Auxiliary Jr. Woman’s Club.
School: Carl W. Goetz Middle School, Jackson, NJ
Grade Levels: 6 - 8
CONTACT
Carol Lawrence
7th grade Literacy Teacher
(732) 833-4610
E-mail: calawrence@jacksonsd.org
Website: http://goetz.jacksonsd.org/home.aspx
Guidepost #3 Considering How to Proceed and Whom Else to Involve
The leaders of the Character Education Committee and Service-Learning Committee invited all staff to participate and organized a team of key players to proceed with the infusion of Character Education into the curriculum at Goetz. The committee consisted of people from each grade level, as well as the areas of technology, music, art, home economics, and physical education. Administration, guidance, PAC, CST, cafeteria, and custodial staff avidly supported the efforts of the committee. Monthly meetings were held to establish common goals and share ideas or concerns. The committee then turned their focus to informing and involving other stakeholders. PowerPoint presentations were given at the Parent Teacher Network meetings, Coffee with the Principal gatherings, the Jackson Board of Education meeting, and a Jackson Township Alliance meeting. People attending the Alliance meeting included members of the town’s community service organizations: The Optimist Club, The Elks, The Lions, The Kiwanis, The Chamber of Commerce, The Jackson Women of Today, and the Police Department. With the information, knowledge, resources, and feedback from the students, staff, parents, and community the committee was ready to proceed with the common goal of infusing Character Education into the curriculum and, more importantly, into the lives of the students at the Goetz Middle School.
School: Memorial Middle School, Fair Lawn, NJ
Grade Levels: 6 - 8
CONTACT
Laurianne Brunetti
Character Education Coordinator/7th-8th LAL
(201) 401-2351
E-mail: lbrunetti@fairlawnschools.org
Website: https://www.edline.net/GroupHome.page
Guidepost #3 Considering How to Proceed and Whom Else to Involve
Developing any plan requires several key ingredients to create a recipe for success. The carefully selected “spices” can catapult a school from being an ordinary building where the status quo is synonymous with growth, into an energized, creative arena where a student centered environment fosters the love of learning and the desire to take care of children.
The number one factor that determines success in any plan is getting the “right people on the bus” (Collins) and providing them with time and materials to work together to generate ideas that they own and share with school based stakeholders. Every challenge and new initiative has the potential of becoming a huge success or a dismal failure. Support from building and district administrators must be unconditional. Your “farmers” need to know that they are never in the fields on their own. Time is an essential ingredient to allow a program to thrive. Building leaders must be the cheerleaders of these school based programs and establish a personal connect with the programs and the merits of reaching children where it matters the most.
Planners need to think through ideas and test their hypothesis using “S.M.A.R.T. Goal” concepts which will help keep people and programs on an even keel. “S.M.A.R.T. Goals” work just as effectively for learning incentives as they do for character based events. (S = Specific, M = measurable, A = attainable, R = results oriented and T = time bound.) (Dufour and Dufour).
Market managers need to keep an open mind and allow all sorts of ideas to be brought to the table. Dialogue which must extend to teachers and students is a critical part of putting the “character stew” together. Once the ingredients have been harvested and the menu planned the school community must continue to plan, monitor and evaluate the programs and continuously fine tune the levels of “spice” in the recipe. The recipe then extends to the community and reaches out to support and to serve.
School: Pequannock Valley School, Pompton Plains, NJ
Grade Levels: 6 - 8
CONTACT
Dr. William H. Trusheim
Principal
(973) 616-6050
E-mail: william.trusheim@pequannock.org
Website: http://pvms.pequannock.org/index.cfm?sid=39
Guidepost #3 Considering How to Proceed and Whom Else to Involve
We have had a very full and extensive character education program at Pequannock Valley Middle School for many years. However, one of the areas that we need to expand is the extension of our program out into the community. We need to involve stakeholders in the community in our character education program. In some ways we have done this through our 8th Grade “Take Action” program by having our students connect with the community -- local, national, and international. Through this program they have gone beyond the “classroom walls’ and into the community to perform community service. Based on the huge success of this program, we should also be extending our school wide character education program with the same goals.
As a team, we have discussed how to proceed from where we are to the next level of success. Working with our aspiring school in character education helped us to reevaluate our existing program. We realized that we have not been as active in character education as we had planned. We realized that the goal of improving student scores on standardized tests has taken priority status, and as a result, has taken much of the energy out of our character education endeavors. We also realized that we had new faculty members that had to be introduced to the program, so we started our rejuvenation process by devoting a teachers’ meeting to reacquainting and re-energizing everyone to the existing program and refocusing on our goals as an educational community. During this process we were able to hear the “voice” of the faculty and ascertain their needs and thoughts, which provided direction for the future.
We do have a character education “steering” committee, however, we are in contract negotiations presently, and since these positions are not paid, the staff has not been able to participate in our meetings. We do have members who represent most of the stakeholder groups involved in the steering committee, however, it would be nice to have a member of the Child Study Team and members of the community on our committee. We have had the opportunity to discuss some character ed issues during PLC time and we would like to make this a regular practice in our school.
Student involvement in the planning process is another area that we need to develop. We do not have students on our character education committee. We have relied on limited class meeting time and student council representation for student input. These opportunities for students need to be expanded. Adding a student voice to the process would be a positive step. To date we have used student survey responses as a voice but this is not the same as having actual student representation. In 2006, Dr. Trusheim was involved in a district-wide strategic planning project. Character Development was one of the district objectives that came from this process. We are submitting a grant application to expand our program across the district using resources from this grant. Should this grant be accepted, we will be able to create a district committee with representation from each school and from the community to help to articulate our program across all five schools in our district.
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