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.

AUGUST

This month's Best Practices is from an award winning school from 2004-2005.

 

BEST CHARACTER EDUCATION PRACTICES

 

School: Preston Elementary School

Address: 225 Main Street, Preston, MD 21655
Contact: Joyce Schriver, Principal   or
         Melissa Prettyman, Guidance Counselor
Phone: 410-673-2552
E-Mail: joyce_schriver@mail.cl.k12.md.us
              melissa_prettyman@mail.cl.k12.md.us

 

 

Title of Best Practice: At PES, Character Education Count’s!

Primary Character Trait(s) Emphasized: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, & Citizenship

Objective(s): To increase student awareness of character traits, To incorporate Character Education into our curriculum, To recognize students for positive behavior and to provide models for other students to emulate, To improve school climate, To make Character Education visible throughout the school.

Brief Description (including such items as materials needed, persons responsible, sequence of activities, observable results, references, etc.)

Preston Elementary School’s Character Education program is a school wide approach that teaches and reinforces that a person’s character truly does count! Some of the ways our school does this includes:

•   A character word or trait is selected every month that our school recognizes and focuses on. At the beginning of the month, a specific character trait is announced and read over the intercom by the principal, along with a small write up that explains to the students what the character trait means. For example, if the character trait is Caring for the month of April, at the beginning or the month, the principal would explain to the students that this month’s character trait is Caring. She would then read a small excerpt that explains what it means to be a person of Caring character.

•   The guidance counselor follows up with the character trait by going into all the classrooms on a weekly basis for that month, and provides classroom lessons that focus on the selected character trait. During her lessons, students participate in classroom activities and are given worksheets to take home and share with their families based upon the selected character trait. Teachers remain in the classrooms while the guidance counselor is there so that he or she can reinforce and incorporate the character trait into their lessons.
  

•   Preston Elementary School has also incorporated the Character Education program into our positive behavior referrals. For example, if the selected character trait is Caring, all teachers and staff look for caring Acts throughout the month that the students demonstrate. If a student is caught showing Caring character, he or she is rewarded with an “I Caught You!!!” fish. The teacher or staff member circles the character trait the student displayed, and sends it to the guidance counselor who puts the fish on a Character Education bulletin board outside her office. At the end of the month, the names of those students who were caught displaying positive character are read over the intercom, and put into a raffle to receive Character Education goodies – pencils, stickers, bookmarks, etc. that all reinforce that Character does Count! The students love being acknowledged for their positive character, and look forward to seeing their “I Caught You!!!” fish on the bulletin board.

•   Another way that Preston Elementary School utilizes Character Education is that every hallway, wing, and classroom in the school has Character Education posters displayed. This allows all students, no matter where they are in the building, the ability to keep in mind and see how people of positive character behave and treat others. This allows teachers and staff members the opportunity to refer a student to a poster and say, “Is that what a person of character would do?” if they have misbehaved. Having the posters up in the building and classrooms also allows teachers the opportunity to incorporate the character trait of the month into their classroom lessons and management. This helps to monitor student behavior and contributes to a positive school climate.

As you can see, the Character Education program at Preston Elementary School truly is a school-wide approach that integrates the importance of character traits into our curriculum on a regular basis.

 

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

Phone: 410-823-4902
Fax: 410-828-9661
E-Mail: MCCEcharacter@aol.com