The Character Education Initiative Continues In Cherry Hill

We would like to give you an update on our CEI and its progress since last we wrote in December 2000. Since that time, we have held two more teacher in-service workshops, plus workshops for media specialists, guidance counselors, and child study team members. These workshops followed the general outline of our earlier sessions, with the purpose of orienting our teachers to the importance of character education while outlining our guidelines for our Cherry Hill Life Skills standards – respect, responsibility, and American citizenship. We also afforded them the opportunity to develop joint plans for implementation in their individual schools.

The two specialty workshops for media specialists and guidance counselors and child study team members focused on the same general orientation; however, because of their positions of specialization, we engaged their help in choosing specific resources that should be present in each of our schools. That is, while each school is definitely developing individual plans for implementing character education, it is important for every school to have the same core of materials for reference and as teaching aids. These recommendations are being finalized and we expect to receive them within the next month. The media specialists were amazingly aware of a wide variety of books, films, tapes, and other materials, many of which we already have in our schools. Nonetheless, there are specific new materials that we will be supplying to each school on their recommendation, in consultation with our teachers.

The guidance and child study team members were particularly aware of the ways in which character traits are important and visible, as their professional interaction with students often involves dealing with issues outside the immediate classroom; that is, interacting with other teachers, parents, colleges, employers, and a variety of community contacts. Again, one of the most productive parts of the workshop was co-operative planning to address specific issues and needs across grade levels. This supports our important goal of consistency of focus on the Life Skills standards.

Our other workshop was an initial one for parents. Once again, we presented the basic principles of character education and our plan for implementation in Cherry Hill schools. Our focus was on how parents can assist staff in presenting a cohesive, consistent emphasis on our three Character Life Skills. We will be meeting again as a group to further develop a follow up plan to provide more specific programming in all of our schools. This initial workshop involved PTA leadership in the schools, but we are most anxious to reach out to all our parents as soon as we can; in the meantime, we try to keep everyone informed as to our progress through our Homepage in the PTA newsletters.

Next steps: More workshops for more of our staff and parents. We are planning a special session for our educational assistants very soon; our workshop evaluations tell us that what we have been doing is helpful and productive. Drop into one of our schools to see the way the effects of character education are increasingly evident, both in the hallway displays and in the general “feeling” of the building. We have much to be proud of in Cherry Hill, beginning with our students and staff.

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Author: Mona Noyes The Cherry hill Connection