aaron-backen,+janet,+character+education

=__**Character Education - aka Moral Education**__=

Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece – by thought, choice, courage and determination. - H. Jackson Brown, author

There are universal morals and character traits that are desirable, such as "do no harm to others," and "treat others the way you would like them to treat you." One's character can be defined in terms of the answer to one simple question:


 * [[image:angel.jpg width="91" height="146"]] What kind of person are you? [[image:devil.png width="121" height="123"]] **

Character can be measured based on three foundational principles:
 * The level of respect that one shows for others and for oneself
 * The level of responsibility that one assumes
 * The level of integrity that one has

In teaching character and morals, I found the following resources to be useful:

Resources:
1. **__EducationWorld.com__** Rated 5 out of 5 Education World is a wonderful resource for teachers, full of information including lesson plans in all subjects, lists of other resources, articles, information for new teachers,using technology in education, and templates for lessons, to name a few.

This is a page listing 5 lesson plans for teaching respect (plus 4 more, plus links to related lessons, plus links to book lists for teaching respect to different age groups, plus more): []

Link: [|Lessons and Activities for Teaching Respect]

This is lesson plan called Everybody is Unique: A Lesson in Respect: []

Link: [|Everybody is Unique]

2. **__Ted Talk: Zoe Weil__** talks about how "The World Becomes What You Teach." Rated 4 out of 5 While she talks about teaching humane behavior in high school, many of the issues relate to elementary school, and many of the lessons could easily be adapted to be age appropriate for elementary school. Great lessons in responsibility.

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3. __**Bibliotherapy**__ Rated 4 out of 5 This web site has a list of books for teaching character and ethics. They are books that are on the Accelerated Reader lists, so students can can double dip by learning about ethics while earning A. R. points. The books were selected for teaching about one of the 6 pillars of character, which are listed as trustworthinesss, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. The specific pillar represented is identified on the list for each book.

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This site has many quotes about the 6 pillars of character, many of which would be good for posting around a classroom and changing periodically.

[|Character quotes]

4. __Martin Luther King, Jr. on Character and Education__. Rated 5 out of 5 This is a slideshow on teaching character in schools based on the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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5. You. Over and over throughout the websites I have researched, this has been a recuring theme. I cannot overstate the amount of influence that a teacher's modeling of ethical behavior and good character has on students.

6. **__Santa Clara University Ethics Center__** Rated 4 out of 5

Santa Clara University has an Ethics Center, and the Director of Character Education is Steve Johnson. The Santa Clara University website has a great deal of information regarding ethics education, including an interview of Steve Johnson. In it, he distills character education down to building positive, productive citizens. He lists the 8 key values in Character Education as being respect, responsibility, integrity, self control, self direction, change requires effort, moderation and justice. This link goes directly to the interview page. Additional links are available on this webpage to related pages.

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7. Great quotes about the meaning of character. Many of these would be suitable for framing and posting in a classroom. Rated 3 out of 5 media type="custom" key="18964810"

8. **__Kids for Character__**. Rated 4 out of 5. This is a series of videos for young children about character. It is targeted for early elementary (I would say K-1). This would be a great series to show in a classroom. media type="youtube" key="L1Uwu8bZ9RI?version=3" height="360" width="640"

9. Homer's work ethic:

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