Character And Community Development

This book provides the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundation that teachers, principals, professors, and students preparing for teaching will need in order to be informed and effective planners and evaluators of character education programs and good character educators. Through its clear definition of terms, review of Constitutional and public support, comparative analysis of philosophical approaches, synthesis of many relevant theories of child development, K-12 core curriculum, description of many instructional strategies, and methodology for program evaluation, this handbook effectively prepares prospective program planners and character educators to create comprehensive programs that are developmentally appropriate, adapted to the unique needs and characteristics of school communities, and soundly evaluated. Dr. Vessels presents a wide range of options, developmental and practical guidelines for choosing from among these options, and a creative core curriculum and evaluation technology that he hopes school community members will find useful for their particular school or system.

Community Character provides a design-oriented system for planning and zoning communities but accounts for how people who participate in a community live, work, and shop there. The relationships that Lane Kendig defines here reflect the complexity of the interaction of the built environment with its social and economic uses, taking into account the diverse desires of municipalities and citizens. Among the many classifications for a community’s “character” are its relationship to other communities, its size and the resulting social and economic characteristics. According to Kendig, most comprehensive plans and zoning regulations are based entirely on density and land use, neither of which effectively or consistently measures character or quality of development. As Kendig shows, there is a wide range of measures that define character and these vary with the type of character a community desires to create. Taking a much more comprehensive view, this book offers “community character” as a real-world framework for planning for communities of all kinds and sizes. A companion book, A Practical Guide to Planning with Community Character, provides a detailed explanation of applying community character in a comprehensive plan, with chapters on designing urban, sub-urban, and rural character types, using character in comprehensive plans, and strategies for addressing characteristic challenges of planning and zoning in the 21st century.

Today's students need to learn more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. They need to learn life skills to successfully manage tasks, form relationships, solve everyday problems, and adapt to the demands of simply growing up. To satisfy those needs, many educators seek effective and lasting programs for their students' academic, emotional, and social growth. This book presents a nine-step, problem-solving approach to help educators not only create such a program, but also shape the school climate to sustain and nurture it. Combining three decades of work with individual schools and districts, authors Bernard Novick, Jeffrey S. Kress, and Maurice J. Elias provide experienced insight to overcoming obstacles to social-emotional learning and character education programs. Their organized approach deals with the implementation process stage by stage, including: * Assessing your school's readiness for change * Setting goals for your program * Anticipating details and roadblocks * Obtaining feedback to modify your implemented program * Creating high standards for accomplishment in academics and character Any educator who is confused by the avalanche of different terminologies and methodologies surrounding social-emotional learning will benefit from this book. This practical and concise guide will help educators create an effective and goal-oriented environment in every school, one where students, staff, and parents are continually sustained in a caring community of learners. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.

A Guide to Planning for Community Character adds a wealth of practical applications to the framework that Lane Kendig describes in his previous book, Community Character. The purpose of the earlier book is to give citizens and planners a systematic way of thinking about the attributes of their communities and a common language to use for planning and zoning in a consistent and reliable way. This follow-up volume addresses actual design in the three general classes of communities in Kendig's framework-urban, suburban, and rural. The author's practical approaches enable designers to create communities "with the character that citizens actually want." Kendig also provides a guide for incorporating community character into a comprehensive plan. In addition, this book shows how to use community character in planning and zoning as a way of making communities more sustainable. All examples in the volume are designed to meet real-world challenges. They show how to design a community so that the desired character is actually achieved in the built result. The book also provides useful tools for analyzing or measuring relevant design features. Together, the books provide a comprehensive treatment of community character, offering both a tested theory of planning based on visual and physical character and practical ways to plan and measure communities. The strength of this comprehensive approach is that it is ultimately less rigid and more adaptable than many recent "flexible" zoning codes.

To better serve the whole child, look at the whole report card. Although parents and teachers spend more time in conferences talking about behavior than they do about rubrics and test scores, too many teachers are still guessing when it comes to using outdated behavior ratings and comments to describe the whole child. With this book, you’ll take report cards to the next level, integrating social-emotional learning and character development into any grading system. Resources include Guided exercises for analyzing existing report cards Suggested report card designs Tips on improving teacher-parent communication Case studies Testimonials from teachers and students

The development of character is a valued objective for many kinds of educational programs that take place both in and outside of school. Educators and administrators who develop and run programs that seek to develop character recognize that the established approaches for doing so have much in common, and they are eager to learn about promising practices used in other settings, evidence of effectiveness, and ways to measure the effectiveness of their own approaches. In July 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop to review research and practice relevant to the development of character, with a particular focus on ideas that can support the adults who develop and run out-of-school programs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Building Character, Community, and a Growth Mindset in Physical Education is a highly practical and theoretically sound resource that will help you build a positive learning environment, teach valuable life skills, and inspire in students a desire to live active, healthy lives. It reinforces the many ways in which physical education and sport are the ideal setting to build college and career readiness skills. Teachers will learn how to help students develop a growth mindset and recognize that obstacles, challenges, and failures provide the greatest learning opportunities. The book is written with both American and Canadian national standards in mind: You can help your students achieve Standards 3, 4, and 5 of SHAPE America’s National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education and PHE Canada’s goals for physical education (“enable individuals to make healthy, active choices that are both beneficial to and respectful of their whole self, others, and their environment”). It will also aid you in achieving Standard Six of the objectives set by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). This text provides • 35 new large-group warm-up activities; • 20 character-building activities; • 11 team-building challenges; • assessment, reflection, and goal-setting strategies; and • a web resource with ready-to-use printable and editable activity materials (such as focus words and definitions, reflection scenarios, station and team challenge cards, and more). The activities, which are ready-made for use in your curriculum, include a motivational strategy and resource tool using the acronym GROWTH that will help your students learn and adopt the growth mindset traits necessary to set and reach goals. The book addresses many hot-button topics, such as emotional intelligence, community building, teamwork, physical fitness, and goal setting—all in a concise, practical, and highly effective way. As such, you will be helping your students meet Common Core and College and Career Readiness objectives. And students with goal-setting skills and a growth mindset will be well prepared to meet the challenging standards that are promoted by the Every Student Succeeds Act. In addition, Building Character, Community, and a Growth Mindset in Physical Education is the perfect antidote to bullying: Through the materials and activities, the students learn to be respectful competitors and supportive teammates. The text contains six chapters: • Chapter 1 explores the connection between emotional intelligence and a growth mindset. It reinforces the many ways in which physical education and sport are the ideal settings to build college and career readiness skills. • Chapter 2 describes the impact community building has on motivation and learning. It also contains fun community-building activities as well as guidance on how to develop a positive learning environment. • Chapter 3 outlines strategies for building character and offers reflection scenarios, focus words, inspirational sayings, and recommended video clips. • Chapter 4 supplies more than 20 fun, engaging, and motivational character-building activities and games. • Chapter 5 provides outdoor collaborative team-building challenges. • Chapter 6 delves into various aspects of developing a growth mindset through concepts such as assessment, reflection, and goal setting. Building Character, Community, and a Growth Mindset in Physical Education is a powerful and valuable resource because it develops the whole student. It helps students meet important national standards while also preparing them for success in life. This book will help you develop resilient citizens who choose to live active, healthy lifestyles; understand the importance of collaboration and teamwork; and are intrisically motivated to succeed in all areas of their lives.