March NJSOC Spotlight

Colonia High School
"Be Your Best, Do Your Best"

When we heard of this theme for March, we couldn’t think of a more perfect theme for education. For us at Colonia High School, the first week of March is very busy and being your best ties into all. In athletics, our winter sports season is coming to an end and our teams are looking to do their best at the district, county and state tournaments. Our coed competition cheerleaders are looking to do their best when they wrap up their season at the International Competition in Orlando, Florida. And while our winter sports are coming to a close, our spring sports athletes are doing their best to prepare for their upcoming season. All of this while our 9th and 10th grade student population will be doing their best when taking the NJPASS, and the 11th grade students will be doing the same with the important HSPA. Character education has woven its way into the way our students prepare for day-to-day responsibilities, as well as all of the above mentioned. When students have a vested interest in their learning and their school, they come to school, to practice, to each test (whether it is in the classroom, on the field or on the court) to do their best because they will want to do so because they have been prepared to do so.

What works in Character Education?

At CHS there are many concepts that work in character education. One aspect is the idea of student-oriented activities. The more the students are involved in planning the activities or implementing the activities, the more the students will have vested in the project- therefore the more the students will internalize the values- therefore making them part of their everyday lives.

Service learning is one way to obtain such a goal. At CHS, we have a plethora of service projects. We feel that by directly infusing our values into our curriculum, the values will have a direct effect on student learning while showing the students that they correlate with real life.

Another aspect that works for us at CHS is to have a common language. We are part of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver for the Community of Caring and we have adopted the five values of Family, Respect, Responsibility, Trust, and Caring. Our staff, students, and parents are knowledgeable of the values. Not only are our values displayed visibly throughout the building, but are becoming who we are as a school.

The third aspect at the high school level is to “Spread the Wealth.” There are a lot more teachers to get involved so utilize your resources. A common planning team is necessary for teachers to bounce ideas off of and to organize however they should not be the end all be your entire program. The values are becoming imbedded in the culture and it just becomes part of it.

What can administrators do to lead the initiative?

• Be supportive
• Be involved
• Be positive
• Don’t micromanage – have faith in faculty – share the leadership for the projects.
• Believe in idea character education – especially at high school level – we are still dealing with kids; they are not grown ups yet. We are still molding young adults and still have influence over them. Be the model and they will follow.

Practical ideas that can be used everyday

• Use of common language
• Incorporate character education into daily lesson plans
• Lead by example – Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk - Students can tell a fraud especially in high school. Be Real.
• When kids know you truly care, that makes a difference.
• Coaching – reinforcing
• Utilize teachable moments in the classroom. If something arises in the classroom, take five minutes away from lesson to discuss. For example, if a value has been broken take those five minutes to discuss the ramifications of the actions and what could have taken place.

Strategies for integrating character education into the curriculum

►Utilize department meetings to share ideas for lessons.

a. Each department can have a binder for lessons for a particular story or unit and how character education was integrated.

b. Different teachers can also share a lesson each month.

►For the high school level, service learning works very well.

We have experienced success by implementing various projects that infuse the values directly into the curriculum. Projects can be big or small. We would suggest starting small and letting the projects evolve at their own pace.

Examples of Service learning projects:

Empty Bowls:
1. Involves: Basics Foods, Biology, Computer Applications 1S, Journalism, English, Ceramics, Visual Arts 1

2. Students learn about hunger awareness while raising funds for a local food pantry.

TAPS – Teacher Apprentice Program
1. Class offered to senior students where they work with a teacher and shadow
them for a semester.

2. This class runs for a semester. It is mostly done at the elementary school level but can be done at the middle school or high school level in some cases. 

►START SMALL

►Talk to those who will be involved in integrating the program

That means the teachers and the students – to see how they want to see the program progress.

 

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Ms. Patricia Fitzgerald is vice-principal of Colonia High School

Colonia High School
180 East Street
Colonia, New Jersey 07067
Contact telephone number: (732) 499-6500
URL: http://www.woodbridge.k12.nj.us/SchoolsHS/Colonia-HS/html/charactered/character_ed_home_page.htm

 

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Colonia High School is a 2008 New Jersey School of Character

l. to r. Joe Mazzola, Exec. Dir., CEP; Mr. Robert McLaughlin , principal, Colonia High School; Deborah Conway, NJSOC Blue Ribbon Panelist; Dr. Lovell Pugh-Bassett, NJ Dept. of Education; Dr. Philip M. Brown, Dir. Center for Social and Character Development at Rutgers University