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General News: Schools Focus on Character Development
October 06, 2011
By Charlie B. Scirbona
The Cornwall school district is looking to change its approach to elementary school students’ character development to help stop bullying and decrease behavior problems.
The Board of Education heard from Cornwall Elementary School vice principal Lauren Donohue about efforts to formalize the Cornwall Cares program at its Monday work session. Donohue said that the three elementary schools have been practicing most of the ideas in this program for a few years informally, but administrators wanted more consistent guidelines.
The program will also cover a requirement of the Dignity for All Students Act, New York state’s anti-bullying law, which goes into effect in July of 2012.
The Cornwall Cares program is based around the development of student’s character through practicing responsive classroom techniques, Donohue explained. The responsive classroom is .a widely used, research-backed approach to elementary education that has been found to increase academic achievement, decrease problem behaviors, improve social skills, and lead to more high-quality instruction One of the techniques used to implement this approach is a morning meeting for each class room, where the teacher and students get together in the morning to greet one another and talk about what they’ll be doing in the day.
Donohue said that a committee of the districts’ elementary school teachers and principals helped to decided on what direction to take. She explained that by going with a responsive classroom method there could be a set of goals that each teacher could reach without following a rigid set of rules.
The students will also be learning about specific positive values, such as perseverance, reflection, friendship and several others. Donohue added that the school librarians have put together reading lists for students that incorporate these values
Comments:
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We should bring this to the middle school as well!
Denise Peters
posted by D P on 10/10/11 at 1:27 PM
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