Middle/High School Character Education Ideas

Integrated Teaching {Bringing Happiness to Venn Diagrams}

by Laura Parker on May 5, 2012

Today’s guest post comes from an English teacher in China, Amy Young. Amy shares about how an unlikely pairing of subjects and ideals became a memorable classroom experience. You can read more about Amy’s teaching and life experience living in Beijing at her blog, Messy Middle.  You can, and should!, follow Amy on twitter at: @Amyinbj.  {Interested in guest posting?  See our guidelines here.}

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Like the average reader of this blog, I believe in integrated teaching and learning. Can you find biology in an English class? Absolutely you can! Turns out even after all these years of teaching I’m not as integrated in my thinking or lessons as I thought.

A couple of weeks ago I walked into my 3rd period Senior One (10th grade) oral English class in Beijing, China, and was greeted with cries “teach us math!” Not going to happen (even though I’d taught math in the US); but then I had one of those inspiring moments we all long to have, where things just come together. We were working on a unit about money. On a whim I wrote “happiness” and “money” on the board and asked them to make a mathematical equation showing the relationship between them. I made a pathetic sample I’m not going to show you because, well, I look like a simpleton. As I walked around the room there was a buzz in the air. “Miss Amy, can we use functions?” Can you?! I randomly chose four students to write their equations on the board, but others wanted to as well. They blew me away. Here are some the finished products:

I wish I could remember the explanation! Or these two:

Or how about this one:

I love that it culminates in a venn diagram! Even I can grasp that one.

There were graphs, exponents, sets, functions, greater than, less than, infinity, and diagrams as they depicted deep and significant things in relating money and happiness. This is what integrated teaching looks and feels like. In that class, I learned more than they did.. .

1. My definition of “Chinese Creativity” is far too narrow. Over the years I’ve been asking them to be creative in ways I know how to be creative without linking it more often into some of their strengths.

2. I’ve been asking the wrong question. Instead of asking what my students don’t know and filling in gaps, I also need to ask what they already know and incorporate it more.

3. My teaching categories are too rigid. So much for priding myself on being integrated! I would not have put money, math, happiness, and oral English in same lesson because they didn’t seem to go together.

But, apparently, to a classroom full of Chinese students, they most certainly did.

- Amy Young, orignally posted in part at Messy Middle

 Where might your definition of student creativity be too narrow, thus hindering lesson integration? Could you try a similiar activity in one of your classrooms this week?

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Teaching Self Evaluation {Video and Lesson Ideas Included}

by Laura Parker on May 1, 2012

As we approach the end of the school year, it might be a perfect time to give students space for some self evaluation. The following is a simple lesson idea for middle or high school students which asks them to look back over their school year and evaluate changes in themselves. It’s not a bad exercise for us as teachers, either.

Lesson Idea for Self Evaluation

You’ll need 15 minutes to a full class period for this exercise, depending on how much discussion you want to give to the topic.

1. Show the following video. It’s a time lapse a father produced of his daughter. He filmed her every week, from birth to 12 years, and documented her growing up in 2 minutes and 45 seconds. It’s a fascinating look at change . . .

{If you can’t see the video, click HERE.}

Lotte Time Lapse: Birth to 12 years in 2 min. 45. from Frans Hofmeester on Vimeo.

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2. After watching the video, talk to your students about how change is a slow, but definite occurrence. You may want to point out that the parents of Lotte probably didn’t recognize how much she was changing as it was happening, but when the clips were spliced together, the change is undeniable {obviously}.

3. Ask each student to get out a sheet of paper. Divide the paper up into four categories: Educational, Personal, Friendships/Relationships, Other. Ask students to list ways that they have changed this year in each category. You might have them start by writing some of the major events of the year in their lives, to help them remember some of the past year.

4. Be sure to allow students to keep their lists personal, but if they’d like to share, give some time for that, as well.

5. Talk to students about positive changes and negative changes, and ask them how we can tell which is which. You may also want to ask them to circle the most positive change the year brought about, as well as the most negative one.

Giving students time to reflect and evaluate a school year is an important exercise. It not only gives them the space and life skill of assessing their own lives, but it also helps foster a community of acceptance and honesty in your classroom. It can also provide valuable insights into your students’ personal lives, which is always a critical piece of effective teaching.

How do you intentionally mark the ending of each school year with your students?

Related. Begin with the End {Goal Setting}  |  Stop the Nag  |  Perseverance and a Rocky Video

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How to Teach Kids Respect

by Laura Parker on April 18, 2012

One of the most highly searched character-related education topics is how to teach kids respect, according to google searches. It’s the character trait teachers scour the internet to find ideas on how to teach most often. And it’s not difficult to see why– respect has its fingers in almost all classroom management issues. Respect can also include a student’s relationship with oh-so-many:  the elderly, the authority, the younger, the environment, animals, and for various races/religions/genders, etc.

And since teachers globally are googling it so often, I thought we’d take a day to highlight a few of the top resources for teaching respect in the classroom I’ve found, to date. Enjoy.

Character Counts Lesson Plan Ideas. This list of 18 lesson plans on respect spans several different grade levels. Lesson ideas range from a focus on showing respect for the non-native student, listening skills, respecting each other, and giving respect to everyday heroes.

35 Activities You Can Do to Learn Respect. Dr. Michele Borba assembled this excellent list of 35 practical activities you can encourage students to do, or do as a class, that encourage respect. Activities include: creating a “recipe” for respect, making a button or bumper sticker with respect’s motto, and engaging in classroom discussions on specific questions.

School Counselor Rob’s Video on Respect. In this 5 minute simple, drawing-style video, a teacher explains practical examples for respecting places, things, and people. Suitable for elementary grades.

The Cornerstone for Teachers’ Month of Respect. Our own Angela Watson has created a fantastic resource on character education over at her blog. If you scroll down to the month of January, you’ll find a definition, talking points, and several resources about the topic.

Create a Respect Rap. Show students the following short youtube from some elementary students. After you talk about respect and brainstorm what respecting others and ourselves might involve, group students and have them write and perform a rap for the class.

Fearless Lions Respect Video and Rap. {Don’t Miss This One Below! It’s really good!} This 5 minute video would be an excellent lesson starter or quick reminder to your students of what respect should look like. The first two minutes videos a common classroom scenario of disrespect, while the last three minutes shows a well-done rap/music video by a class of older elementary students and their teacher. {You can see just the rap itself, without the first scene, here.}

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Have any other ideas for teaching respect in the classroom?  Have you found a lack of respect to be an issue with your students, parents, or co-workers?

Related Posts. Top Ten Character Education Posts  |  Make Your Classroom Kinder  |  Teaching Individuality  |  Classroom Management Top Ten |  Classroom Management That Works

Want More Practical Teaching Tips? Visit our past teaching tips here. And the winner of last week’s teacher-door prize? Lindzee M., comment #17! Thanks to all who entered!

- Laura L. Parker, Editor and blogger at LauraParkerBlog

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Teaching kids (and ourselves) about being judgmental

by angela_watson on April 5, 2012

Have you seen this video? It’s been making the rounds on the interwebz for awhile and recently gained attention again when a high profile video-curating site shared it. Currently it has over 70 million views. Take a look–it’s only 45 seconds:

What thoughts floated through your mind as you listened to this child sing?  Maybe you had some of the same ideas as the people who commented about the video on YouTube: Yeah, he’s cute and all, but isn’t it sad that this child is so fat? How could his parents feed him so much junk food? Letting a kid get that big…wow…almost seems like child abuse.

Now watch this video the young man, Sam, made a few years later:

Well. It turns out that Sam is not obese at all. He happens to have a chronic, aggressive kidney disease which results in extreme swelling in his body, and the medication he takes to control the disease often makes the swelling worse. His weight problem has nothing to do with what he’s eating (or what his mom has been feeding him.) In fact, take a look at these two photos of Sam, one before he was inflicted with the disease, and one just a few weeks later:

Cuppycake boy before and after his disease

Isn’t it amazing how that one extra piece of information about Sam’s health completely transforms the way you view this young boy and his family? One missing link can alter your whole perspective of a situation.

I commend Sam for taking the criticism he received and turning it into a lesson on compassion and refraining from judgment. You can show the first video to your students and ask them to share their preconceived notions about Sam, then show the second one and talk about how their feelings changed after watching the second video. Here are a few teaching points you may want to guide them to understand:

  • People you see on the internet are real people, with real feelings.
  • The things you write on the Internet could be seen by the person you’re writing about and could be hurtful.
  • Watching a 45 second YouTube video does not give anyone enough information to make a judgment about a person.
  • Sometimes truths which appear to be self-evident are completely false.
  • We should always show compassion to others, because we have no idea what the extent of their problems might be.
  • It’s better to believe the best about others and give them the benefit of the doubt before criticizing.

What other lessons could you draw from Sam’s story? I’d love to hear about your (and your students’) reactions.

Angela Watson is the creator of The Cornerstone, a collection of print and online resources designed to make teaching more effective, efficient, and enjoyable. Angela was a classroom teacher for 11 years and currently works as an instructional coach and educational consultant based in New York City.  She conducts webinars and writes books centered on her passion for helping teachers build strong classroom management and a positive mindset so they can truly enjoy their work. Angela’s website, TheCornerstoneForTeachers.com, features hundreds of free teaching articles, lesson ideas and activities, classroom photos, printable forms/posters, and more. You can follow her on Twitter at: Angela_Watson .

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If You Give a Teenager a Cookie

March 12, 2012

If you give a teenager a cookie, he will gobble it up in one swallow, and then forget about the cookie before it hits his stomach. See, that’s how teenagers are. Quickly, they consume. Quickly, they forget. However, if you gather teenagers, point them to a cause, and encourage them to make some cookies, those [...]

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Teaching Students About Global Poverty

February 29, 2012
Teaching Students About Global Poverty

Sometimes it’s challenging to make the issues of global poverty relevant to students in today’s classrooms. Okay, a lot of times it’s challenging. And maybe the difficulty of teaching kids who read VOGUE and watch The Bachelor to care about their global brothers and sisters who can’t read and watch their children starve feels so [...]

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Room 712

February 27, 2012
Immaculée Ilibagiza

A first. One of my students sat in her desk on the front row literally dancing in her seat and said, “I couldn’t wait to get back from Christmas break so I could find out what happens in our story.” Wait. What? I’ve heard kids say they wanted to get back to see their friends, [...]

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Encourage Your Students to Show Love

February 13, 2012
Flickr, Creative Commons

Folded up letters of love, heart-shaped candy with stamped on messages, and foil balloons floating in the air all flood my mind when I think of Valentine’s Day. This Valentine’s Day, consider using class time to teach your students easy ways to look beyond the commercialism and show love. Check out these quick, others-centered activities [...]

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Teaching Tips Tuesday {Stop the Nag. Ask the Question.}

January 31, 2012

Do you feel like you have slowly become a teacher that nags?  A teacher that lectures more than a Harvard University professor? An educator that ends up harping more than cheerleading? I get it. In parenting and in teaching, it’s so easy to become the Character Cheetah without even realizing it — pouncing on the [...]

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Using 'Lord of the Rings' to Teach Friendship

January 27, 2012
Using ‘Lord of the Rings’ to Teach Friendship

This inspirational lesson on friendship could take as little as 15 minutes of class time.  It would be appropriate for middle and high school students, though you would need to preview the clips beforehand, since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is all PG-13.  {The second clip does have a dark creature in it that [...]

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