Character Education News & Updates: December 2020

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December 2020      

Character Education

 

 

K-12 STANDARDS, CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION

Character Matters

Welcome To The New School Year 

 

Thank you for all you do to support students, staff, families, and the community.  As you spend your time pouring into others we encourage you to make time for self-care. 

 

This year you can share your examples of character, leadership, and service by sending photos, videos, articles, websites, etc. to Justyn.Knox@dpi.nc.gov with a brief explanation of an activity or project that exemplifies good character. Selected exemplars will be placed on the Character Matters website.  To receive the Character Education Update please sign up here. Character Matters is now on Facebook.  To like and follow our page click here

 

 

CE

UPDATE INCLUDES: 

OPPORTUNITIES and AWARDS  

  • How Character Education Can Change Your School 
  • Cultural Arts Live

  • Grant Opportunities 

INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS & RESOURCES

  • Carolina Asia Center's Book of the Month: Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly

  • Free Course: Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress 

  • Stay Connected with Character Matters
  • MLK Day of Service 
  • Resources For Virtual Service-Learning 

character.org

How Character Education Can Change Your School

Evelyn is the principal of Juan Pablo Duarte-Jose Julian Marti School #28, a PreK-8th grade public school in Elizabeth, NJ with nearly 1,000 students. Today, the school is a National School of Character but when the school opened in 2008, students were constantly getting into fights with each other, family engagement was low, and the New Jersey Department of Education soon placed School #28 on their list of “focus schools.”

But educators like Principal Salcedo decided to transform the school culture. They created a Character Education Team and designed a comprehensive program around the core values of respect, responsibility, and integrity. The Team began to use Character.org’s 11 Principles Framework to regularly assess their school’s character initiatives. Soon suspension rates declined, and school climate surveys showed that 95% of students felt safe and cared for at school.

 

You can learn more by watching this video. 

 

If you are interested in becoming a School of Character please contact Justyn.Knox@dpi.nc.gov


Cultural Arts LIVE Conference

December 15th and 16th

 

You and your students are invited to a free remote learning conference!  In addition to professional development sessions for educators, we have engaging experiences for students including:

 

Virtual Field Trips with live discussion:

 

Meet the Showboat: A Virtual Tour of Battleship North Carolina

Fibers of the Backcountry - Virtual Field Trip with the President James K. Polk State Historic Site

Kitchens and Cookbooks: More Than Just Food – Virtual Field Trip to Tryon Palace

The Story of Author Thomas Wolfe: Writing Home – Virtual Field Trip to the Thomas Wolfe Home

The "People's House?" Looking at Slavery, Race, & Power in the North Carolina State Capitol

The CSS Neuse and the Civil War in Eastern NC – Virtual Field Trip to the CSS Neuse State Historic Site

NC Labor History through Tobacco – Virtual Field Trip to the Duke Homestead

Virtual Tour of the NC State Capitol

Virtual Tour of the NC Executive Mansion

Virtual Field Trip to the NC Museum of Art

 

Humanities Sessions:

 

“This Land is Your Land”, The Song and the History through Woodie Guthrie

The Virtual Staging of "A Woman Called Truth" - The Journey, History and Impact of Sojourner Truth

Ring Shout traditions: History, Dance, and Music

Poetry workshops with NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green

First Draft of History: Covering your Community in Unusual Times - for school newspaper staff

Broadcast Journalism: What We do and Where we are Going

Planet Fashion: Sustainability, Fashion and the Environment

The History of African American Music from Spirituals to Hip Hop

 

And many more.  

 

Register for the Conference HERE


Grants 

 

H20 for Life Mini-Grants - Deadline: Ongoing

H2O for Life will provide mini-grants of up to $500 that will assist teachers and students on their journey to participate in their life-changing service-learning program. Grantees will be required to create a fundraising project budget and plan.

Read more
www.h2oforlifeschools.org

 

Resist Grants Rapid Response Grants - Deadline: Weekly

Resist grants offer support to grassroots groups engaged in activist organizing for structural social and economic change in the United States, including $1,000 Rapid Response Grants (awarded weekly) and $4,000 General Support Grants (awarded quarterly).
Read more
resist.org

 

 

Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation Youth Grants - Deadline: 1/22

1 in 4 children in the United States are experiencing food insecurity in 2020. Grants of up to $500 will support youth leaders ages 5-25 across the U.S. to turn their ideas into action and make an impact on the issue of childhood hunger in 2021.

Read more

 


Carolina Asia Center's Book of the Month: Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly

This month, the Carolina Asia Center featured a book on its newsletter. Below is the summary.

 

Eighth-grader Apple and her mother moved from the Philippines to Louisiana several years ago after the death of her father. All Apple has left of her dad is a Beatles cassette with his name written on it. At school, her two best friends are trying to become part of the in-group and have become very critical of her, especially after it’s discovered that she is on the unwritten Dog-Log and considered one of the ugliest girls in school. Apple is embarrassed by her mother, who doesn’t speak English well. The protagonist is desperate to get a guitar so she can learn to play the Beatles songs that her dad loved, but her mother is adamant that she not waste her time on music. Soon, Apple makes friends with a new boy, Evan, who’s not impressed with her former friends or their boyfriends. When the music teacher loans her a guitar, she discovers that she is something of a prodigy. The story will resonate with any student in middle school who has felt different and ostracized. The author has skillfully captured the various characters that populate Apple’s middle school. Only Apple’s mother remains two-dimensional until almost the end. The story is rather predictable until it ends with a twist. Apple mentions her favorite song “Blackbird” many times; readers unfamiliar with the song would benefit from listening to a recording or finding a YouTube clip.—Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC –Nancy P. Reeder 

 

LEARN MORE

 

Check out Carolina Asia Center's Newsletter


yale

Free Course: Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress 

 

The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has created an online course designed to aid educators battling the anxiety and stress of teaching during the pandemic. The course, “Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress” is a 10 hour online course that is free unless educators want a certificate -then it is $49.


Social Emotional Learning Resources 

The 3 Signature Practices when carefully chosen, effectively facilitated, and thoughtfully debriefed create a solid foundation of safety, consistency, and joy in adult and student learning environments. These signature practices create conditions for growth and learning across all five SEL competencies while using culturally responsive teaching strategies.

Resources:

 

 

NC SEL Standards Mapping Documents

NC SEL Standards Mapping Documents Table- these documents show connections between existing standards in twelve content areas and CASEL's Core SEL Competencies. Each document provides acknowledgments, an introduction, and activities & practices across each CASEL Core SEL Competency and standards alignment with each CASEL Core SEL Competency.


Start Planning for MLK Day of Service 2021

MLK Day of Service is observed as a “day on, not a day off.” MLK Day of Service is an opportunity to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, create solutions to social problems, and move us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community.”


Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in a nation of freedom and justice for all, and encouraged all citizens to live up to the purpose and potential of America by applying the principles of nonviolence. MLK Day of Service is a way to honor his life and teachings by engaging in community action that continues to solve social problems. Service breaks down barriers by bringing people from different experiences together – volunteering can unite Americans of all ages and backgrounds while building stronger communities.
Use the ideas and resources at YSA.org/MLKDay to start planning your virtual, hybrid, and/or safe in-person youth-led service or service-learning activities that put students' health and safety first by following COVID-related guidelines of federal, state, and local governments.

 


Resources for Virtual Service-Learning

Use the link below for various trainings, and resources to help you plan virtual volunteer, community service, or service-learning projects. 

Read more


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Disclaimer Statement

 

The links in this newsletter will bring you to third party websites, owned and operated by independent parties over which NCDPI has no control.  Any use of these 3rd Party Websites and any information you provide will be subject to and governed by the terms of the 3rd Party Website, including those relating to confidentiality, data privacy and security. Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing, NCDPI is not in any way associated with the owner or operator of any of the 3rd Party Websites or responsible or liable for the goods and services offered by them or for anything in connection with such 3rd Party Websites. NCDPI does not endorse and makes no warranties, representations or undertakings relating to the content of any 3rd Party Website.


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