This Month's Best Practice

Each Month the Maryland Center for Character Education (MCCE) picks one of the Best Practices from a Character Education award winning school to share with you.

APRIL

This month's Best Practices is from an award winning school from 2008-2009.

 

BEST CHARACTER EDUCATION PRACTICES

 

School: St. Pius X School

Address: 6432 York Rd. Baltimore, MD 21212
Principal: Geri Morrison
E-Mail: gerimorrison@verizon.net

Phone: 410-427-7400

 

Character Education Contact: Vivian Morgan

E-Mail: vivlmorgan@verizon.net 

 

Title of Best Practice: Student Skits, Posters, and Awards

 

Primary Principles Emphasized: Recognizing and rewarding positive behavior and behavior change that contributes to a positive social climate at the school.

 

Objective(s): Students are selected by teachers to be awarded “Student of the Month” for exemplifying the selected character trait consistently in their conduct towards others.

 

Description:

St. Pius X Character Education Program
2008-2009

This is our 4th year running our Character Education Program here at St. Pius X School. The School Community embraces the importance of developing the whole child. We want all of our students to demonstrate that they regard themselves and others highly and want to make valuable contributions to our community and our world. We believe that the Character Education Program exemplifies this pursuit.

We continue to highlight particular traits and recognize students who consistently demonstrate those traits. The following activities are essential elements of our comprehensive Character Education Program.

Character Education Committee: This committee consists of a middle school teacher, a nurse, the school counselor, the principal, and a kindergarten teacher. We feel it is important to have teachers involved in selecting the traits, the scheduling of skits/awards, and in directing the program. We have selected teachers who represent all ages of our student population.

 

Monthly Classroom Activities/Discussions: With each new Character Trait the counselor offered classroom activities to promote the meaning and intention of the trait for students. Films and discussion points are provided for the middle school and the Character Coaches (see below) offer presentations for the elementary level students.

 

Assembly: We hosted a Character Education Lazer Light Show emphasizing the importance of respect and kind actions and words. The entire student population participated in the assembly.

 

Newsletters to Families: For each character trait a newsletter is created by the school counselor and is sent home to parents to let them know of the trait and how to demonstrate the trait in their daily lives.

 

Classroom Posters: Each classroom is given color posters emphasizing the traits and how they are defined by our feelings and actions.

 

Character Coaches: Students from grades 7 and 8 are selected and volunteer to be coaches for a particular class (grades 1 through 5). As a coach they conduct classroom presentations and activities with an assigned elementary level class. The counselor provides them with age appropriate activities that they can design and implement with the students in the classrooms on scheduled sessions for each trait. They are required to attend meetings during the school day and to arrive timely to the class and deliver the message in an appropriate manner to the students. This year we had 21 Character Coaches and they were very enthusiastically received by the students.

 

Survey for Students, Parents, Teachers: It is important for the Character Education Committee to evaluate how well we are reinforcing the meaning of the character traits and if we are providing enough classroom supports for teachers and students. We also want to know how parents perceive the program. The input gives us an opportunity to grow into a more meaningful program.

 

Best Practice Recommendation

Character Trait Student Skits, Posters, and Awards:

In order to see an increase in pro-social and positive behaviors between students it is important to recognize improvements and reward good behavior. The intention of this practice is that students will come to value and appreciate the good in themselves and others, creating a more positive social climate in our school.

Skits: At the beginning of the year the Character Ed Committee selects 5 or 6 traits to be reinforced over the course of the year. Grades 4 through 8 are given a trait in which they are responsible for creating and performing a skit for the student body. In this manner the trait is introduced to the school community. Each year the skits become more creative and the students are more engaged.

 

Posters: Students in grades 4 through 8 are also expected to create posters for their assigned character trait. The posters reflect principles and examples of the meaning of the character trait. We have had some very colorful and interesting posters grace the hallways of St. Pius X. On these posters students create scenes that depict the trait or perhaps they emphasize the importance of the trait to remind our students daily of how we are all striving to be people of good moral character.

 

Awards: After the skit is performed at the assembly, the principal awards a student from each class with a “Student of the Month” certificate for demonstrating exemplary performance of the particular trait or social value. Letters are sent home with the honored students to invite their parents to award ceremony. The awards are given to the students by their teachers for exemplifying the particular trait consistently with their words and actions.

 

With each year of participation the posters are more colorful and creative and the skits come alive with suggested ways to interact and care about our fellow students and school community. It is yet another way for students to get involved and take action towards becoming students of character. Teachers, students and parents have reported that they do see a positive difference in the school since the Character Education Program has started several years ago.

 

 

St. Pius X School is very active in community services. The core or foundation of Christian services is caring for others or treating others the way we would like to be treated. The following is a list of activities and grade levels that have participated in serving those less fortunate for the greater good of our community.

 

The school community participated in several “Pack a Lunch” initiatives where students brought in bag lunches to be taken to Beans and Bread. The School also conducted a toiletry drive for the homeless. The 5th and 6th grade kids coordinated this drive and packed the “kits” for the needy.

 

The 4th grade painted ceramic bowls which were auctioned off to raise money for St. Vincent dePaul. The 5th grade hosted a “Cool Kids Café” to raise money for charitable organizations by hosting and serving dinner to our school families in the evening. The 7th graders participated and coordinated the Operation Christmas Child by gathering gifts for those less fortunate. And the 8th grade made a trip to the Beans and Bread Outreach Center to serve meals to the homeless of Baltimore.

 

We are proud of our service to the community and want the students to understand that because we are so fortunate, we need to share with others. We are also asked to take care of others who are more needy and to share with compassion. This builds the foundation of gratitude and caring for others.

 

 

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The Maryland Center for Character Education
29 West Susquehanna Ave., Suite 300, Baltimore, MD 21204

E-Mail: MCCEcharacter@aol.com