Share how students show character

Sharing character the character trait of the month has been an on-going project that I've steadily been working on increasing each year.  This year I decided to add a video component of students sharing how they show the character trait of the month.  Here's what I did:

-I made signs with each character trait listed (in both English & Spanish, JYJ is a Spanish themed Magnet school, so I try to reiterate our theme, although my Spanish has not improved at all).  The students hold up the sign of the trait of the month while they share how they show the trait.

-I recruited students from various grade levels to share how they show that months' particular trait.  I use my school issued flip camera or iPad to record the students.  I give them the "script" which is:  "I show ____(the character trait) by_____"  for an example "I show respect by listening & following directions from my teachers".

-There's usually not a problem getting student volunteers, they all love being on the school news.

-I edit my own video using iMovie trailers (my character trait movie isn't more than a minute long) and have the video shown on our school's morning news.  The video is shown during the month of the trait.  

I would share the finished product, but since I don't have permission, just take my word for it.

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Read & Tried... Kindness Lesson & Activity

In continuation of our Random Acts of Kindness Lessons, counselor intern Kelly and I decided to continue kindness/getting along with others lessons with our friends in 1st grade.  We used the idea that school counselor Emily shared on the School Counselor Blog Spotlight.  We read the (fabulous) Have You Filled A Bucket Today book by Carol McCloud, which I love reading.

Reading "Have You Filled A Bucket Today"

We also showed a cute and fun song video clip I found on Youtube to reiterate being a "bucket filler".

Click here to view the video

We sat in a circle (I had to make a mental note to wear pants since I LOVE skirts), where we used a ball of yarn to make a "web of kindness", where each student gives a compliment to a classmate, while tossing and holding on to the yarn being passed around (hence the web).  As Emily shared, the students felt so proud to give and receive compliments.  For our class visits, I assigned everyone a person to give a compliment to.  I typed the student's names on an Avery address labels template, then cut the names out which I put in a cup and let them pick out of.  If they happened to draw their own name, they just picked another name.  That way nobody had that "last picked" feeling.

Names

Names cut out and about to be put in a cup.

Giving directions on our web of kindness

Our web...next time I'll use a brighter color of yarn, it's hard to see in this picture.  

I was amazed how well the students sat quietly and held on to their string as others gave compliments. I was extra excited seeing the smiles, cheers and head nods as students received compliments from their classmates. This was a lesson that I read about, tried and loved.  Thanks Emily for sharing!

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Random Acts of Kindness Lesson & Activity

After seeing other school counselors share what they did during Random Acts of Kindness week in their schools, I decided that I too wanted to try it at my school.  What is Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) you may ask?  Well it's when people do kind things to others, unexpectedly.  The random act of kindness can be as simple as giving a smile, helping someone with a task or even anonymously leaving something to brighten someone's day. So here's what I did at JYJ:

-Counselor intern Kelly and I did a Random Acts of Kindness themed lesson for each grade level.

-We did a lesson on RAK where we showed examples of how RAK is shown in our school (well I actually had to "stage" the acts done by students so I could photograph them clearly but you get my drift).  It was great to get students to participate, we had many willing participants.

Counselor intern Kelly and a 1st grade teacher Anita were so kind to "participate" in showing students RAK.

Another example of showing RAK (of course the counselor shows RAK)

- For the younger grades we read the books Ribbon Rescue by Robert Munsch (thanks to Felicia Carter a school counselor from Louisville, KY for recommending this book to me) or Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson.  Each book discusses how one act of kindness can make such a positive impact on so many people.

-For our older grades we showed and discussed a video clip that I saw on the TV show Sunday Morning where an 82 year old man gives free haircuts to the homeless each week (by the way, Sunday Morning is one of my favorite shows, they have the most interesting and insightful stories). We had some great discussions from this clip.

-For each class we had students to tell us ways they've shown or received random acts of kindness. 

-Our school display came from an idea that I saw on Pinterest, where for each random act of kindness that students do, they tie a ribbon to a wreath frame and throughout the year we'll be able to see how much kindness was shown school wide!  I got the wreath at AC Moore (which always has coupons and offers a educator discount) for $4 and the ribbon was 3 spools for $1 (I was able to get more ribbon from donations from parents).   I used a 3M Command Hook to hang the "RAK Wreath".  We cut strips of the ribbon and pinned them in a plastic bag in the middle of the wreath.   

RAK display

A student ties a ribbon on the RAK wreath for each RAK that they do.

Counselor intern Kelly & I tie a ribbon on our RAK wreath. 

-Both myself and Kelly wrote nice notes, gave out bottled water, pencils/pens and stickers for random students and even treats to some teachers on each grade level.  I found this free RAK printable on Pinterest from the Make Them Wonder Blog.

RAK notes from the Make Them Wonder Blog

RAK bottles of water and pencils that we gave to students. 

Here's what the wreath looked like after the 1st week of RAK:

I was so excited to see how full the wreath became only after 1 week!

I can't wait to see what it looks like after a month.  If our RAK continues I plan to put up another wreath to keep the RAK going.  We've had do many compliments from staff and parents.  Students are constantly coming up and telling us what kind things they are doing.
 
It's a great pick me up, doing RAK's for students,  especially for children that go "under the radar" as we say. Actually most people enjoy a pick me up (I certainly do)! 

Kindness goes a long way in my book and I hope that it's had a lasting impression for my school family.  We plan to continue our random acts of kindness all year long!

  

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Great Way to Get Books for Your Counselor Library

Books, books, books!!!  How many times have you gone to a book store and find yourself wondering in the children's/young adult section to find books to use for work?  I certainly have.   I use books for many things: classroom lessons, resources for parents & students, my book clubs and our character ed book bucks cart.  I love the joy that reading brings and encourage students to read regularly to take on the joy of reading.

Copy of character book bucks. 

I've talked about our character ed book bucks reward incentive program previously, but I'll mention it again.  When students are showing good character by showing one or more of the character education traits (respect, responsibility, good judgement, perseverance, kindness, integrity& self discipline ) they may be rewarded with a character ed book buck from a teacher, staff member or school safety patrol member.  On Friday's students may trade in book bucks for a book, 5 book bucks = 1 book, 10 book bucks = 2 books and so on.  Our book supply had gotten quite thin and were mainly younger children's books.  So our main "customers" were Kindergarten - 2nd grade.   

Book bucks cart before new books were added...I know kind of thin

Every week students would ask "do you have any chapter books?" and I'd have to say "well there are a few, but they get gone quickly".  So here's where the awesome opportunity comes up.....our county library has an annual book sale, however before the books go on sale to the public there's a special day where educators can come and get as many books as they want (they even provide the boxes).   I feel like I had the ultimate opportunity of a lifetime on getting books for an awesome price....free (my favorite price)!  The literacy teacher and myself went with a plan....to get as many chapter and children's books for the character ed book bucks cart at our school. 

We arrived at the library sale bright and early, dressed in our comfy clothes, tennis shoes with a hand truck in tow ready to book shop.  There were rows and rows of tables full of books.  Thank goodness they were separated into groups (Children's, Young Adults, Adult Fiction, etc.) so of course we headed right to the children's section, which by the way everyone else was in too.   Since we were there fairly early, we had plenty of time to look through the tables of books.  At times I will admit it was a bit overwhelming with all the books but I after a while I got in a rhythm of choosing chapter books from popular children's series (Harry Potter, Magic Tree House, etc).  I also realized that a lot of our students (both male & female) are really into science fiction so I began choosing books based on book cover appearance that looked like they might be science fiction.  Any book with a dragon, ghost, knight or warrior I picked up and put in the box!   As stated before before our goal was to get chapter books but if we saw books to go in our professional libraries we wouldn't pass on them either.  So after 2 and a half hours and 28 boxes of books later we felt quite successful in our task of book shopping.  Once we arrived at school, we sorted the books  and I "updated" the book bucks cart. We now have a side of the cart for young children's beginner books and a side for chapter books.

This is only half of the book sale area, see why I was a little overwhelmed!

These educators are on a book mission.

Books we collected...28 boxes worth

 I'll use these books all year to refill the cart as needed (parents also donate books throughout the year).  I highly encourage you to make use of your local library book sale (check with your library about it).  As you can see, this was so like hitting the jackpot!  On book buck day, we had an astounding number of students coming to get their "new" chapter books (I guess the news traveled fast).  I know that I heard "wow" at least 10 times as students searched for their books.  After finding "the perfect book" the students looked like they had hit the jackpot.  Their faces told it all, I even saw a few reading their books during carpool.  Seeing their excitement shows me that all of us hit the jackpot!

Children's Beginner Books Side

Chapter Books!

Searching for the perfect chapter book!  This is before the large crowd came.
 

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Your 3 Words Lesson

I got the inspiration for this activity from awesome school counselor Julie Ford who shared this in her Lessons That Sparkle session at last years ASCA conference.  So how many of you have seen or heard of the "Your 3 Words" campaign that was featured on Good Morning America a couple of years back?  Well I hadn't until Julie was so kind to share.  Your 3 Words is exactly what it says...you share 3 words (and that's it) about family, friends, motivation, positivity, humor, pretty much anything but you can only use guess how many words...3!!!!

So I decided to try this out with my 4th grade classes.  I talked about how people can make a lasting impression and it can be both positive and negative and that they would the opportunity to leave an impression here at JYJ but with only 3 words!  Boy did I get some strange stares then when I told them about only using 3 words.  I then showed them the video (see below) of GMA's your 3 words.  I'll warn you the song is very catchy and gets stuck in your head.

After the video, I showed the classes a few examples that myself and the counselor intern did for our 3 words.

School Counselors Rock (this is totally true)

This is also so true, sign created by counselor intern Dhruti.

I gave each student a half sheet of construction paper and told them to think about their 3 words and the power that they held.  I can say that they really got into it.

Nothings Too Hard

Always Aim Higher

Students work on their 3 words

As they finished, I took group pictures using my iPad of all the students holding up their signs which I printed and posted on a bulletin board (along with some the signs that they made).   I got lots of (positive) comments from students, teachers and parents about this activity.

Holding up our signs (I took pictures of every student holding up their sign, using my iPad).

Your 3 Words for the bulletin board made using Word (I printed these on colored cardstock).

Finished product!  I didn't have enough room to post all the signs the students made, but I had everyone's picture holding their signs.

Who knew that sharing 3 words would bring out such powerful and dynamic thoughts!

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JYJ Gives Back Night (Planning a School-Wide Service Night Part III)

I've given you tips on how to run a school-wide character ed event at your school (in part I and part II) and now it's time to share how our 2013 JYJ Gives Back School-Wide Event went (this is part III).  Also I want to mention that JYJ actually gives back ALL year through community service.  Each grade level is given money that has to be specifically used for a community service project for the school year. 

Here's who & how we helped out this year:

TV Screenshot of station locations (created by the fantastic technology teachers at my school)

-Wake county SPCA:  made dog chew toys out of old t-shirts

Making dog chew toys for SPCA

-Mayview Nursing Home:  made (early) Valentine's Day cards

Valentine's day cards

-Tammy Lynn Center: (for developmentally delayed children & adults): made musical instruments out of cardboard tubes

-UNC-Children's Hospital: notes and care packages for patients.  We also collected money school-wide to purchase 2 wagons to donate to the hospital (they use wagons to transport children through the hospital instead of gurneys or wheelchairs).  Some people were so moved by our efforts that 3 parents offered to donate another 3 wagons to the hospital on our behalf at our event (what a great way to show JYJ Gives Back)!  We had a station where students could sign the wagons.

Wagons "before"

Signed Wagon

-Ronald McDonald House:  notes and care packages for patients

Making care packages

-Raleigh Rescue Mission (local homeless shelter):  made & packed meals

Making sandwiches for the Raleigh Rescue Mission

-Backpack Buddies: packed meals for our PTA sponsored program

Food donations!

-USO: notes and care packages to the soldiers

USO station

-Refugee mission collection: separated winter coats, gloves, socks, scarfs and hats to donate to refugee families and children in the area.


-Several classes were really into the "giving back" and went above and beyond collecting items, helping set up and even running service stations at the event.  We had so many donations, which is why our event was such a success and so very meaningful!

We had an outstanding turnout from students and parents, by having Spanish performances (in full costume) throughout the evening (JYJ is a magnet Spanish immersion school) so each grade level had a group to perform throughout the event in various locations in the school (this also doubled our attendance and donations from last year).

3rd grade performance

Kindergarten performance

The wonderful technology teachers at my school put together this fantastic video of our very successful event!  Take a look (and yes, both myself & the counselor intern made a cameo appearance, we're the very last ones on the video):

Does your school have a school-wide service night event?  If you do, I'd love to hear how you run yours, please share!





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(Pt. II) Planning a School-Wide Character Ed Event at Your School

In my previous post on planning a school-wide service (character ed) night at your school.  I discussed pre-planning (this is the importance of having a committee).  In this post I'll focus on how to plan and execute the event at your school.

-Remind students, staff and parents about the event.  This year we had a banner put up in front of the school and a yard signs at carpool and the front entrance to remind them of the event.  I had these made from Vistaprint (I added the date by creating a Word document, printed and added to the sign, which can be updated yearly).

Banner made using VistaPrint

Yard sign at the front of the school

-Once you've determined what organizations you plan to help and which items to collect for the service projects; determine what and how you will collect your items.  This year we started off with collecting items school wide (before the holidays).  These items included (old t-shirts, cardboard tubes, canned fruits, vegetables, healthy snacks and gently used winter items such as coats, gloves, scarfs & hats).  After the holidays we assigned items for each grade level to bring in (that way items donated are pretty equally distributed).

Sample of the signs on the collection bins (I used PowerPoint to create this)

Donation bins at the front entrance of the school

-If you are collecting school wide, there's NO such thing as over publicity.  We send home a note with a list of the requested donated items to all students, have the principal include it in her weekly phone message and include it on the televised school news.  For the news show, I made visuals (using PowerPoint) of the needed items.  We have collection bins throughout the school (which we mention in our note, phone message and news message, remember there's NO such thing as over publicity).  Another option that the parents seemed to like was being able to make monetary donations instead of sending their child on the bus with canned items, snacks, heavy items, etc.  By giving a monetary donation, our committee can go to the store and purchase items that we're running low on.  As I've said before, we are very fortunate to have so many parents willing to go above and beyond with donations and volunteering for our event.

Collection bins

Winter items collected

Bin to collect cardboard tubes...we had more than enough!  This is a range applicance box donated by a parent.  I covered the box with butcher paper and posted donation signs on it.  We had 4 (large) collection boxes.

Bin to collect winter items.

Visual used for the JYJ News Program.

- Decide/plan  where each service project station will be held in your school.  For an example, we kept all the projects that dealt with food packing in the cafeteria, crafty type projects in the art room, etc.

All food stations were in the cafeteria (this was the finished backpack buddies program station).

-Recruit, recruit & recruit volunteers!  I created a Google Doc that was sent to the parent yahoo email group and we were able to fill all volunteer spots to manage service project stations.  We also contacted the neighboring high school for students who were looking for community service hours (all students are required to complete service hours).  Last year we had 10-15 high school volunteers who were able to move, set up/take down tables and station materials.

Volunteer sign up, using Google docs

-At each station, we made specific directions on what needed to be done and we made a sample of the finished station product (I recruited students to make the samples before the event) so that the station managers could show the students the finished product.  We had 2-3 parents (and in some cases a parents and a student) manage stations.

A few of the station directions

-Invite a representative from the organization you're helping to come to the event.  Most of the people will come and say a few words during our (quick) opening session and tell how our community involvement makes a difference and what their organization does to help the community.  The great thing about having a representative there is that they can also take back the items that were made/packed at the station and you won't have find someone to take them to the organization.

-We actually serve dinner during our event also (this is up to you).  We have pizza, snack carrots, cookies, water and lemonade.  Again, this is funded through our PTA and we accept donations for the cost of the food.  Parent volunteers handle this part of the event.

-To assign stations, when students come in to the event, they choose  2 tickets from a basket which tell them which stations to go to.  I made these "tickets" using Avery business cards and typed the station names and locations on the cards.  Having students pick, eliminates overcrowding at some stations.

-Our JYJ Gives back event is just a couple of weeks away and I'll be sure to share how our event went this year.  Stay tuned!

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